Monthly Archives: December 2005

Awards

Rosenberg names “Song of the Lodz Ghetto” CD a “must have” in Newsday

Marion Lignana Rosenberg, a writer for Newsday, has named the CD by Brave Old World, “Song of the Lodz Ghetto” as “the must-have CD of 2005” She states: “This haunting work interweaves songs of hope and defiance from Lodz, where some 250,000 Jews awaited slaughter during World War II, with musical glosses by klezmer and new Jewish music band Brave Old World. Plaintive yet also a kick in the teeth of death, it is the must-have CD of 2005.” Rosenberg also has a blog where she links to some really great articles about the CD, not the least of which is a phenomenal review by Ruth Gruber in the International Herald Tribune last Nov 8, at http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/opinion/trmusic.php#
It’s gratifying to see the mainstream press starting to catch on to this great musical collection.…
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Classical or Jewish art music, Competitions/Special Events, WHERE: USA_South

Varshavsky-Shapiro Piano Duo win Second Place in Miami

Israelis Stanislava Varshavsky and Diana Shapiro won Second place in Dec, 2005, at the 10th Dranoff International Two Piano Competition, held in Miami, Florida. Competing against the top piano duos in the world, the Israelis finished second with the pianists from Japan, Kuni Seo and Shin-ichiro Kato finishing first place Gold Medal. The Murray Dranoff Foundation was created in 1987 by Loretta Dranoff as a tribute to her late husband with whom she performed as an internationally recognized two piano team. The second prize, the Silver Medal comes with a $15,000 award. Another Israeli, Michael Tsalka from Tel Aviv finished 9th place with partner Katarzyna Marzec-Salwinski from Krakow, Poland.

Varshavski and Shapiro started playing together as a duo in 1998. In 2004 they won The Grand Prize at the 15th Piano Competition in Rome for duo piano and 1st prize for piano four hands.…
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Concerts

Holocaust Memorial Day at Central Synagogue London

Thursday, January 26, 2006 at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue in London.
Address: 36 Hallam Street, London, W1N 6NN,
Phone:020 7580 1355.
Time: The concert starts at 7.30pm
Ticket prices are £15
concessions £12.50

A concert celebrating human creativity in adversity for Holocaust Memorial Day. Maya Kasir soprano, Sagi Hartov cello, Marc Verter piano and special guest Sarah Aaronson accordion.
After a short film ‘They never touched my bread’ – celebrating the meeting in Canterbury after 40 years of two musicians who performed together in the extraordinarily creative Terezin Concentration Camp outside Prague will be presented classical and cabaret music for voice, cello, accordion and piano, written and performed in the camp. Steven Leas with Central Synagogue choir conducted by Michael Etherton will sing the memorial prayer El Male Rahamim, that they performed in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen at Westminster Hall at Holocaust Memorial Day 2005 and which was broadcast on BBC TV.…
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Choral, Classical or Jewish art music, Concerts, WHERE: Great Britain

Central in Song at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue in London

Wednesday 21 December
Central in Song at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue
Address: 36 Hallam Street, London, W1N 6NN,
7.30pm
Phone:020 7580 1355.

Music at Central presents music written for the synagogue performed by its cantor
Steven Leas and the choirs of Central Synagogue and the Choir of London at Central
Synagogue on Wednesday 21 December, at 7.30pm.

This exciting collaboration sees Steven Leas and the Choir of Central Synagogue, who
performed before the Queen last year at Westminster Palace, joined by the men of the
highly acclaimed Choir of London, an ensemble of some of the UK’s finest choral
singers who are particularly noted for their innovative cross-cultural projects, and
who performed in Jerusalem and Ramallah last year.

The programme, accompanied and introduced by Stephen Glass, includes settings of
prayers and psalms, from Renaissance polyphony to modern arrangements.…
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Dance, WHERE: USA_California, Yiddish or Folk

Art of Yiddish song and dance in LA

The Strauss/Warschauer Duo will be teaching Yiddish song and Yiddish dance classes and performing in LA all next week (starting this Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005), as part of “The Art of Yiddish.”

Heroes of the Yiddish World:
Knights, Mystics, Partisans & Scribes
December 18 – 24, 2005

A joyful and enriching opportunity to connect with a global legacy.
No previous knowledge of Yiddish needed.

Presented by the California Institute for Yiddish Culture & Language (CIYCL)
in association with Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

For details visit www.yiddishinstitute.org, call 310-745-1190,
or email miriam@yiddishinstitute.org

Visit the Strauss/Warschauer Duo’s website: www.klezmerduo.com

Concerts, WHERE: Israel

Women helping Women in Jerusalem

Women helping Women Fundraiser Dec 18 @ HINENI
BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS FOR A FUN FILLED FEMALES-ONLY FEST!!
Please join me for a wonderful musical evening on Sunday December 18th.
With: Female Vocalist Niriya from Holland, Female Klezmer Group “Alei Assor” incl. Rachel Ferency – Piano, Sarah Leah Phares – clarinet, and Tirtza Chamberlain – violin
TIME: 19.30 – 22.00 (hall open at 19.00)
LOCATION: HINENI Jerusalem (for info www.hinenijerusalem.org)
ADDRESS: 2 Frumkin St. (accross Zion Square) Tel.: 02-624-3407
FEE: 15 NIS Donation suggestion
[Proceeds go to our Friend Rivka battling cancer and medical bills.]

Concerts, Holiday, WHERE: USA_NY

A Hanukkah Concert at the Center for Jewish History

The American Society for Jewish Music and the American Jewish Historical Society
Present

A Hanukkah Concert
Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 3pm
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY

This concert, featuring world renowned pianist, composer and arranger Dick Hyman,
will include works by George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, Leonard Bernstein, and Harold
Arlen, among others. Mr. Hyman will be joined by vocalist Annette Sanders, who
began her career as a featured soloist with Benny Goodman. Singer/actress Ellen
Gould, known so well for her Bubba Meises, will perform Yiddish songs and Isaiah Sheffer, host of Selected Shorts, returns for a reading of a special story.

*The concert will be followed by a candle lighting, singing, and reception in the
Paul S.…
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Concerts, WHERE: Europe

TOHU veBOHU in Geneva

TOHU veBOHU
le groupe composé de HOTEGEZUGT (musique klezmer)
& NOMADES (musique arabo-andalouse) se produira en concert
jeudi 8 décembre à 21h 30
au
Theatre St-Gervais
5 rue du Temple, 1201 Genève

dans le cadre de la quinzaine “Double exode ? Israël – Palestine”
***

Dans le même festival:

“Longing or Exile at Home” par le Arab Hebrew Theater de Jaffa
et
“Al-Jidariyya ” de Mahmoud Darwich par le théatre National palestinien de Jerusalem-est
ainsi que des films, conférences, dialogues et rencontres…
***

Détails du programme sur le site:
http://www.sgg.ch/theatre/saisons/05/doubleexode.html

Book and Score Reviews

Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture.

By Robert Fleisher

In 1986, Robert Fleisher spent two months at the center for visiting artists and scholars known as Mishkenot Sha’ananim opposite the wall of Jerusalem’s old city. There he interviewed twenty-four Israeli composers, and in the present volume he brings us oral histories of twenty of these, based on the interviews. The topics covered include the composers’ reflections on their own individual creative output, the place of their music within Israeli music culture, and life in Israel and how it affects their work. The reader gets a good picture of how the special character of modern Israeli history helps to create the culture of the land, a culture born in a relatively young country set in an ancient land, with a population drawn from every conceivable place on earth but at the same time sharing the commonality of Jewish identity.…
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