Israeli. Pianist. As one of Israel’s leading pianists, she has served since 2004, as the vice-director of the Givatayim Conservatory. Michal teaches, coaches and lectures at the Thelma Yelin High School for the Arts, the Jerusalem Music Center and the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. For many years she has promoted musical education in Israel. Michal Tal enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician and as a devoted performer of new music.
Coming from a musical family, Michal started her piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of 16 she performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She studied at The Tel Aviv Academy of Music, and from 1983-1988 at Indiana University, and also in New York at The Juilliard School, and SUNY at Stony Brook with Richard Goode, Leon Fleischer, Richard Goode and Gilbert Kalish.…
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Née Beyle Schaechter. Poet, artist and songwriter. Born 7 August 1920 in Vienna. Her mother, Lifshe Gottesman, and father, Benjamin Schaechter, moved to Cernauti, Romania (also called Czernowitz, now part of the Ukraine) when Beyle was eighteen months old. Beyle attended general school in Romanian, also learning French and Latin, spoke Yiddish at home, and German or Ukrainian around town. She studied violin briefly, but her fascination lay in art, singing and Yiddish poetry. Home was full of song as her mother knew a large folk song repertoire and had a wonderful voice. Years later, Lifshe Schaechter-Widman recorded songs in the United States, and wrote a memoir,Durkhgelebt a Velt: Zikhroynes (1973).

In 1938, Beyle’s two-year study at the Vienna art school was cut short when Hitler invaded Austria.…
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“Cantor Natasha (Jitomirskaia) Hirschhorn first became interested in Jewish music during her studies at the Gnesin Music College in Moscow. After graduating from college with Honors Diploma in musicology, piano and composition, she continued her education at the Kiev State Conservatory. Deepening her involvement in Judaism, Natasha also collaborated with the Kiev Jewish Youth Musical Theater as pianist, singer, and, later, its music director. The success of their four-women-show performances throughout Ukraine was embittered by the hostility both from the anti-Semitic Ukrainian authorities and the ultra-Orthodox rabbis. In 1992 Natasha’s quest for a more comprehensive Jewish education has brought her to Washington, D.C., where for three years she studied privately with cantors and rabbis from the area, including Cantors Sue Roemerand Sharon Steinberg. In May 1999 Natasha has completed her studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion, the only non-denominational Rabbinic and Cantorial Seminary, and was ordained as Hazzan and Teacher in Israel.…
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One of the earliest Jewish popular music stars to entertain general as well as Jewish audiences, Sophie Tucker was born January 13, 1884 somewhere between Russia and Poland as her parents were coming to America. She arrived as an infant in the U.S. in 1884. Her parents, Charlie and Jennie Abuza, (name was changed from Kalish by the father to avoid Russian army)went to Boston and then to Hartford, Connecticut where the family opened a restaurant and rooming house. Sophie loved entertaining and used every opportunity as a young girl to show off, sometimes singing for customers. She dreamed of becoming a star and performed in some amateur groups at the local theater.

After high school she married a young trucker named Louis Tuck, and they had one son, Bert.…
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Born June 27, 1924, Hamburg, Germany. Composer and pianist. Studied in Berlin where she was the “youngest student ever accepted at the Stern Conservatory.” In 1935 her family began fleeing the Nazis, going first to Stockholm, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and then Mexico City where she studied composition with Manuel M. Ponce. In 1946, Hindemith met her and invited her to study at Yale, where she earned a BA in 1950. She worked in several part-time jobs to support herself both by playing and teaching. In 1950s, moved to New York, composing a large number of works over 30 years including operas, orchestra pieces, lieder and chamber music and quite a few piano works. Her works include several with Jewish themes such as A Bird Flew Over Jerusalem.…
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