51st Annual Concert of the Zemel Choir
Cantors and Choristers
Sunday 12th November 2006, 7.30pm
Belsize Square Synagogue
51 Belsize Square , London NW3 4HX, UK
Now in its 51st year, Britain’s leading mixed voice Jewish choir,
presents a mixed bag of choral goodies at a concert at Belsize
Square Synagogue on November 12th.
The concert follows Benjamin Wolf‘s appointment as choirmaster
at the synagogue, and includes a performance by a new male-
voice quartet comprising young soloists Marc Finer, Eliot
Alderman and Benjamin Seifert, joined by Benjamin Wolf. Finer,
Alderman and Seifert are already well known to Jewish audiences
as cantors and cantorial soloists.
With music ranging from Yiddish opera to close-harmony, and
including jazzy arrangements of Chanukah tunes, this promises
to be a fun concert not to be missed.
The choir will perform extracts from Samuel Alman s 1911
opera, King Ahaz, a choral work that has not been performed in
public since 1912! There will also be excerpts from Sullivan s
Pirates of Penzance, recently created for a full-scale, off-
Broadway performance.
Tickets £14 (concessions £12.50) are available from +44 (0)20
8906 1318 or zemelchoir@hotmail.com
The Zemel Choir, established in the UK by Dudley Cohen in
1955, is proud of its international reputation as one of the
world s finest mixed voice Jewish choirs. Our wide ranging
repertoire embraces all the traditional Jewish cultures,
Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yiddish and Israeli. ZC regularly performs in
major venues throughout the U.K. and overseas, and besides
singing well known favourites, are particularly proud to present
new music, often specially commissioned, from contemporary
composers.
TV and Radio appearances in the UK include:
2005- BBC1 TV Songs of Praise Holocaust Day broadcast.
2001- Radio 4 s Holocaust Day edition of Sunday Worship
1990-The Expressions of Reconciliation and Hope service in
York Minster.
1986- Live television and radio broadcast of Kaddish for
Terezin from Canterbury Cathedral.
Over the years the Zemel Choir have made many recordings, the most recent
of which The English Tradition of Jewish Choral Music
conducted by Robert Max with Cantor Moshe Haschel was
described as a fascinating and beautifully performed selection
of synagogue music from the 19th and 20th centuries .
We have travelled extensively to the U.S.A., Canada, Israel, and
Eastern and Western Europe, and in 1993 participated in the
Polish Holocaust Memorial ceremonies in Warsaw and Treblinka
to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising. At the 1996 Zimriyah Choral Festival in Jerusalem we
were invited to sing at the opening ceremony concert which was
broadcast live on Israel Radio. Our latest overseas trip was in
October 2001 when we made a most successful tour of The
Czech Republic and Hungary.
Plans for the near future include 3 concerts in London before the
end of 2006 and beyond that a possible tour of Western Europe
in the spring of 2007.
The Choir has maintained its reputation as a result of
professional musical direction, and a strong commitment to
rehearsals by its members. We come together not only to sing,
but to be part of a warm and friendly social group. We are
always happy to welcome new members, and to find out more
about us, visit our website at www.the-zemel-choir.org or
phone our membership secretary on +44 (0)20-8868 8423.