Monthly Archives: July 2013

Blogs, Yiddish or Folk

Yiddish Song of the Week Blog

If you haven’t been keeping up with the “Yiddish Song of the Week” blog for the last three years, presented by the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, you need to check it out and catch up. http://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/. Written by Itzik Gottesman, “This initiative is part of a larger effort by the AJFRP (An-sky Jewish Folklore Research Project) to revitalize traditional Yiddish folksinging performance and research on the subject. To that end, this website will emphasize field recordings of traditional Yiddish folksingers from around the world contributed by folklorists, ethnomusicologists, musicians, singers and collectors.”

Archive & Library News

Joanna Spector Archival Collection


Naomi Steinberger, Director of Library Services of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, announces its new blog jts-spectorarchives.tumblr.com with findings from the Johanna Spector Archival Collection.
The collection consists of papers, recordings, photos and other items related to Spector’s career as an ethnomusicologist focusing on Jewish communities of the East.

Love the “this-is-how-this-stuff-came-in pix. And…For all those out there in libraryland,… JTS is to be commended on this innovative use of online technologies to promote archival holdings! Congrats on starting your tumblr blog! We’ll all be curious to see what’s inside. And kudos to Dr. Eliott Kahn for taking on the beginning of another amazing collection. (He’s the guy that brings order to the chaos), and has created the great archival finding aids to many other Jewish music collections of note held at JTS.…
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Festivals, WHERE: USA_California

Klez California Events Coming Soon!

NEW: Saturday, July 20, 4:00pm, Anthony Russell presents The Sidor Belarsky Songbook. Part of JCC San Francisco’s Oneg Shabbat, 2:00-5:00pm. Similar events are taking place every Saturday, through August 24. Many activities for all ages. No charge. More info: 415.292.1286 jccsf.org/onegshabbat.

Saturday, July 20, 7:30-10:00pm, Mama Loshn in “A Mit-Zumer Nakht Cholem,” A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream Dance Party. Yiddish, Ladino, and English-language music. Mama Loshn will welcome other musical guests, including Reb Irwin Keller, Laurie Le’ah Lippin, and dance leader Bruce Bierman. At Congregation Ner Shalom, Cotati. Wine and beer available for purchase. Tickets: $20 advance /$25 door. More info: 707.528.5538, jccsoco.org .

Sunday, July 21, 6:00pm (music begins 6:30pm) Klezmer Night with Saul Goodman‘s Klezmer Band, featuring Mike Perlmutter (clarinet), Dave Rosenfeld (mandolin, violin, percussion), and Jack Hanly (poyk, mandolin).…
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CD Releases

Ode to David Eisenstadt CD Release

Cantor Mimi Sheffer and the Warsaw Singers directed by Sebastian Gunerka with organist Mirlan Kasymaliev have a created a tour de force in the new CD released as No. 1 of the Cilia: The Jewish Music Series. The collection contains eleven selections, most of them from Jewish liturgy, by various composers, with three of those composed by David Eisenstadt. The liner notes are written by the eminent Jewish musicologist and cantor Dr. Eliyahu Schleifer. Most of the settings will be familiar to American Reform Jews, but not all.

David Eisnstadt (1890-1942) was a conductor and composer of synagogue music who was well known in interwar Poland. Eisenstadt developed an outstanding choir in one of the most prestigious synagogues, the Great Tlomack Street Synagogue. He also composed original pieces for services such as a setting for L’cha Dodi and Sch’chula Achula which are included on the album.…
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CD Releases

Oud in the Middle West Music and PDF Book

Marina Toshich announces an album of contemporary music for oud is ready for download in MP3 or FLAC or other formats available online. In addition, a PDF book of the 16 compositions is also available. Recorded in Tel Aviv, at Matityahu Studios, 2013 and released 01 May 2013, the album features:
Marina Toshich – compositions & oud
Jacob Miron – Woodwinds & arrangements
To examine or buy, see: http://marinaoud.bandcamp.com/
This album really has to be heard!–The Jewish Music WebCenter

Concerts, WHERE: USA_NY

Isle of Klezbos Performs at Jewish Museum SummerNights Series

The all women’s klezmer sextet, ISLE OF KLEZBOS, will perform at the Jewish Museum’s “SummerNights” Series on Thursday, July 25 2013 as the final concert. Isle of Klezbos plays imaginative versions of eclectic Eastern European-rooted Jewish folk music, Yiddish swing and tango.
This event also includes an open bar with wine and light refreshments.
Doors open at 7pm, and the concert begins at 7:30pm.
The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan.
July 25 concert tickets are $15 for the general public; $12 for students and seniors;
and $10 for Jewish Museum members. Visit TheJewishMuseum.org/summernights
to purchase tickets online. For additional information, the public may call
212.423.3337.
An infrared assistive listening system for people who are hard of hearing is available
for programs in the Museum’s S.…
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CD Releases

Ancient Wisdom & Modern Sounds for Health and Healing CD Release

Sunday, July 28, 2013, 1:00 PM
Ancient Wisdom & Modern Sounds for Health and Healing
An experiential workshop and CD Box-Set release party
with composer Yuval Ron
and Metta Mindfulness Music President and Executive Producer Dr. Richard Gold.

Join us for this unique opportunity to have your CD box set autographed by Yuval Ron and Dr. Richard Gold. Dr. Gold will lead in breathing meditations of the six Healing Sounds of Chinese medicine along with the new music composed by Yuval Ron to invoke the qualities of the six elements of nature: fire, water, earth, metal, and wood.
Enjoy live and recorded music by Yuval Ron at MettaMindfulnessMusic.com.
Location: Rising Lotus Yoga, 13557 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA
Admission: Free.

Classes & Courses

Music of the Jewish People CG501–an ONLINE course

Join me online, your host at The Jewish Music WebCenter, as I teach an entirely online course through Hebrew College in the “Music of the Jewish People”.

This online course investigates the role that music has played in Jewish life from ancient to modern times. Topics include music in the time of the Bible, rabbinic attitudes toward music, music and mysticism, the development of the modes for prayer and scriptural cantillation, church and synagogue music are compared, music of the holidays and the life cycle, folk and popular music in the Diaspora, the development of art music in the modern era and music in modern Israel. It also includes music of American Jews. Prior knowledge of music is not required. Cannot count for graduate credit for the students in the Cantorial Ordination programs.…
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Classical or Jewish art music

Maria Szymanowska Piano Music CD Release

Maria Szymanowska, a
Polish-Jewish pianist and composer has released her complete piano works.
The CD is available through Amazon at::
http://www.amazon.com/Maria-Szymanowska-Complete-Piano-
Works/dp/B00CYH8482/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&qid=1373820287&sr=8-1&keywords=szymanowska
One reviewer wrote that: ..”mazurkas and the lyrical nocturnes, Some of the preludes/etudes show stylistic similarities to Mendelssohn and Schumann, while the lyrical pieces show resemblance to John Field.”

Cantorial

The Music of Un’taneh Tokef

RJ.org has a blog column by Lisa Levine,
The Music of Un’taneh Tokef, from June
http://blogs.rj.org/blog/2013/06/06/the-music-of-untaneh-tokef/.
Lisa Levine is the Cantor of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD. Her original
compositions are published by Transcontinental Music.
Her website is:http://www.cantorlisalevine.com/ with links to her audio and sheet music downloads through oysongs.com. Among other publications is her Soulful Shabbat Ruach Band Book which is “an entire original Shabbat evening service by Cantor Lisa Levine, written for the choirs, bands, and congregation…”

CD Releases

Shira Shaw

Shira Shaw who describes herself as “an orthodox jewish lady singer” has some CDs and individual tracks for sale on her website. She sounds like….(Can you name the “sound alike”??)… only it’s got English & Hebrew lyrics focused on religious themes. http://music.shirashaw.com/

CD Releases

MAKANNA CD Release

New album MAKANNA (I. Kosíková: “MAKANNA”, J. Talich –
conductor, F. Brikcius – cello, J. Židlický – narrator, Talich
Chamber Orchestra) is online! Concert was held under the auspices of
Sir Tom Stoppard and Václav Havel as part of the 110th anniversary of
the birth of the Jewish writer Jiří Weil.
SupraphonLine, online store with the Czech Music – František
Brikcius, buy album (MP3, FLAC): MAKANNA –http://www.supraphonline.cz/album/5152-makanna

Concerts

Shye Ben-Tzur & The Rajasthan Gypsies in Boston

Shye Ben-Tzur & The Rajasthan Gypsies
LIVE ON BOSTON CITY HALL PLAZA
SUNDAY, JULY 21st, 4 P.M.
FREE and Open to the Public

This weekend begins the Outside the Box Festival (OTB), a new, free nine-day festival
of over 200 music, dance, and theater events. The BJMF is presenting the grand finale,
Shye Ben-Tzur & The Rajasthan Gypsies is a unique multi-ethnic, Israeli and Indian ensemble that
creating “world devotional music”–a unique mix of Indian Qawwali music with Hebrew
lyrics. They’ve been hailed around the globe, and this is their U.S. debut.

Uncategorized

Lisa Gutkin at City Winery

Lisa Gutkin, longtime violinist with the Klezmatics, will appear at the klezmer brunch at the City Winery on August 11 2013. General admission is $10. Combined with delicious lox, bagels and other tasty fare at the Winery brunch menu on Sunday mornings from 10am to 2pm…. sure to please. Music at 11am.
City Winery
155 Varick Street
New York , NY 10013
(212) 608-0555