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In This Issue
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Josh Jacobson's Musings
Upcoming Concerts
Fall Roundup
Berlin Review
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Upcoming Concerts
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Sunday, February 2, 2020, 2:30 pm, Hebrew SeniorLife, Roslindale:
An annual winter highlight on our schedule, this concert for the residents at Hebrew SeniorLife will feature selections from our current repertoire as well as old favorites, including Yiddish and Israeli tunes.
Sunday, March 15, 3:00 pm, Temple Reyim,
1860 Washington St, Auburndale
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In this unusual concert, we will be
removing the "fourth wall" that separates performers from audience. Similar to a "theater in the round," Zamir will perform works from its current repertoire in a single-row circle around the audience, at times in a "mixed" lineup, at times in sections, and at times in a double-chorus formation. The audience members might want to look around at the individual performers. Or they might just sit back and close their eyes and enjoy the "surround-sound." Tickets:
Sunday, March 29, 3:00 pm, Vilna Shul, 18 Phillips St, Boston:
Zamir returns to perform at the Vilna Shul as part of its fourth annual "Voices of Freedom"
concert. This multicultural event features the Zamir Chorale of Boston; VOICES 21C, a diverse choir dedicated to positive interactions, social justice, and global understanding; and the Boston Community Gospel Choir, which performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tickets: Contact
Vilna Shul.
Save the Dates! Wednesday, May 20 and Wednesday & Thursday, June 10 & 11: "Symposium on Jewish Music by Women Conductors," a prelude to our spring concert, "Kolot Nashim: Jewish Music by Women Composers." See details in the right-hand column of this newsletter!
Ticket information will be available in February on
zamir.org.
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Fall Roundup
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The Lighter Side of Hanukkah Happens
On December 24, Zamir performed its annual "Hanukkah Happens XIX" at Temple Emanuel
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Cantor Elias Rosemberg
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in Newton to a packed house. Along with Cantor Elias Rosemberg, soloist, the Chorale offered selections from the "lighter side" of holiday music, with instrumentalists David Sparr, piano; Bebo Shiu, bass; Taki Masuko, drums; and Glenn Dickson, clarinet.
Cantor Rosemberg performed "Luck Be a Lady," from Guys and Dolls; and Sharon Brown Goldstein was a smash in her interpretation of
Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin
's hilarious "Tchaikovsky and Other Russians." Other highlights included two
clever parodies by Allan Sherman: "
Hello Muddah
" and "Harvey and Sheila." Thanks as always to TE's Music Committee. We look forward to our "HH XXX" extravaganza (think "best of" with full orchestra) next December!
A Light Through the Ages
On December 15, we returned to the Central Reform Temple in Boston for our annual Hanukkah celebration and candle-lighting ceremony featuring the cantata "A Light Through the Ages," text by Rabbi Howard A. Berman. Cantor Elias Rosemberg, violinist Megumi Stohs-Lewis, and trumpet player Jesse Levine were also featured.
Sadly, the tradition will likely end as Rabbi Berman is now retiring. We wish him the best and express our deepest gratitude for this special, longtime collaboration.
Back to Berlin: A Tour Prelude Concert
On December 4, members of the Chorale offered a Berlin tour preview at Emmanuel Church's Lindsey Chapel. Co-sponsored by the Central Reform Temple, the concert featured music that Zamir went on to perform at the Louis Lewandowski Festival.
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| Nick Page |
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In response to the concert, we got a note from our dear friend, composer Nick Page, whose recently commissioned piece, "Anu Sharim," was performed that night. With his permission, here is an excerpt:
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Zamir offers...an invitation...to connect with that which is ancient and holy within us all.
--Nick Page, Composer
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"Extraordinary! My eyes were closed for much of the concert. I imagined I was in an ancient temple, but the prayer was not in my imagination. Your prayer is real. In the midst of the madness of the world, your compassionate gift of connecting us with all things spiritual is a true act of healing. And for that, I thank you.... Elie Wiesel said, 'The opposite of love is not hate. It's indifference.' What Zamir offers is the opposite of indifference. It is passion. It is generosity and it is an invitation, for those willing to take the journey, to connect with that which is ancient and holy within us all."
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Thanks to Our Phone-a-thon Callers and Donors!
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Zamir depends on the generosity of donors and our volunteers who take the time to call our donors! Thank you to those who participated in our annual phone-a-thon and to those who donated in 2019.
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Gilbert Schiffer,
board chair and tenor
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Mike Victor,
board treasurer and bass
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Peter Bronk,
board member and bass
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Dawn Ringel,
board member and Zamir alumna
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Rachel Seliber,
alto
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Happy 2020! As winter settles in to the Northeast, we're catching our breath from a busy, exciting (and for some of us, international) fall. In this issue, Artistic Director Josh Jacobson reflects on Zamir's December performance tour to the Louis Lewandowski Festival in Berlin, along with a photo album for your viewing pleasure. And we offer our fall roundup and look ahead to a new year and new decade, including our June season finale featuring works by women composers. Stay warm and healthy. See you in the spring!
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JOSH JACOBSON'S MUSINGS
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In each issue of E-Notes, Artistic Director Joshua Jacobson offers his unique insights and experiences as a world-renowned scholar, composer, conductor, and influential teacher of Jewish music.
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(Photo by Andy Weigl) |
Last month 37 singers from the Zamir
Chorale of Boston
traveled to Berlin, Germany, to participate in the ninth annual
Louis Lewandowski Festival.
Named for Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894), the great composer of choral music for Berlin's Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue, the festival is led by its indefatigable founder, Nils Busch-Petersen, and its talented musical director, Regina Yantian.
Zamir is the only choir to have been invited to the festival three times and the only choir to represent the United States.
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Zamir is the only choir to have been invited to the festival three times and the only choir to represent the United States. The theme this year was music from the great synagogues of southern Germany--
music of Israel Mayer Japhet (1818-1892) in Frankfurt am Main; Max George L
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wenstamm (1814-1881), Emanuel Kirschner (1857-1938), and Heinrich Schalit (1886-1976) in Munich; and Hugo Adler (1894-1955) in Mannheim.
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Josh with Sam Adler, son of composer Hugo Adler
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Five excellent choirs participated in this year's festival: The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir, Stanley Sperber, conductor; the Berlin Synagogue Ensemble, Regina Yantian, conductor; the Baruch Brothers Choir from Belgrade, Stefan Zekic, conductor; the Moran Youth Choir from Israel, Naomi Faran, conductor; and Zamir.
Thursday night was the grand opening.
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For the Jews of Germany...the cantata's
message of the transformation of a curse into a blessing was especially meaningful.
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Three choirs, together with three soloists, narrator, and orchestra, all under the expert conducting of Dr. Emily Freeman Brown, performed the cantata
Balak und Bilam
by Hugo Adler. Adler composed this work in 1934 for the Jü
dische
Kulturbund in Mannheim, and it continued to be performed in 30 other venues until 1938, when the situation for the Jews in Germany had become totally unbearable. For the Jews of Germany in those years, the cantata's message of the transformation of a curse into a blessing was especially meaningful. And that message reverberated strongly for those of us who revived it more than 80 years later.
On Friday we went to the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue, where we participated in a concert of Lewandowski's music, followed by an all-Lewandowski Kabbalat Shabbat service, with many of the participating choirs joining the synagogue's excellent choir and cantor.
The festive final concert,
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Conductors Regina Yantian, Josh Jacobson, and
Emily Brown |
in which each choir performed several pieces by the South German composers, was held Sunday evening at the magnificent Rykestrasse Synagogue. Ably accompanied on the organ by our longtime keyboard collaborator, Edwin Swanborn, Zamir performed Japhet's "Hallelujah" and "Uvnucho Yomar" and Kohn's "Se'u Zimroh." For the brilliant finale, the five choirs, well over 100 voices, came together to perform Kirschner's "Hallelujah."
The festival was an extraordinary experience on many levels. We brought Jewish music back to Berlin. We revived a neglected body of beautiful repertoire that deserves to be heard again. We had a cultural exchange, socializing and singing (formally and spontaneously) with choral singers from around the world. We performed for sold-out houses (over 3,500 attendees!), and we participated in programs that were on the highest musical level. What a privilege!
Photos from Berlin Tour (visit zamir.org for more):
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| Zamir performs at the Rykestrasse Synagogue with the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir, Berlin Synagogue Ensemble, the Baruch Brothers Choir from Belgrade, and the Moran Youth Choir from Israel |
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Zamir at the
Rykestrasse Synagogue
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Performing at Reinbeckhallen
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KEEP IN TOUCH!
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As always, let us know what you're up to--we love hearing from our friends near and far. May 2020 bring you and yours peace, blessings, and harmony!
Barbara Gaffin Deborah Sosin
Managing Director Editor, E-Notes
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Watch Our Halleluyoh Virtual Choir!
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SAVE THE DATES!
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Two performances:
Wednesday, June 10, and
Thursday, June 11
7:30 pm
Slosberg Recital Hall,
Brandeis University, Waltham
In our season-ending concert, "Kolot Nashim: Jewish Music by Women Composers," we are delighted to offer music exclusively by women
composers, songwriters, and lyricists. Our performance will celebrate the many women who have created and are now creating songs and compositions based on Jewish texts and themes. The program includes works by Achinoam Nini, Benjie Ellen Schiller, Elena Kats-Chernin, Judith Shatin, Kirsten Lampl, Meira Warshauer, and Naomi Shemer, among others.
ALSO: We
dnesday, May 20, 7:30 pm, Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington St, Auburndale, for a prelude to the concert: a symposium on Jewish Music by Women Conductors. C
o-sponsored by Temple Reyim and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the symposium
will feature a discussion on topics such as "Why have women been excluded from the canon for centuries?" and "What role did Jewish women play in promoting musical culture in early 19th-century Europe?"
Ticket information for the concert and symposium will be available in February on
zamir.org.
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