Join Our List
|
|
In This Issue
|
Josh Jacobson's Musings
Welcome to New Members
Upcoming Concerts
|
Upcoming Concerts
|
Wednesday, December 4, 8:00 pm, Lindsey Chapel at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston:
Join us for our Berlin Tour Prelude Concert, "Back to Berlin," at Emmanuel Church's beautiful Lindsey Chapel in the Back Bay. Co-sponsored by the Central Reform Temple, the concert will feature music that Zamir will perform at the Louis Lewandowski Festival in Berlin later in the month. The focus of the Festival is the music of 19th-century Munich synagogue composers Israel Meyer Japhet, Max Löwenstamm, Meier Kohn, and Emanuel Kirschner. Although lesser known than their peers in Berlin and Vienna, these cantors and conductors created many beautiful works, several of which we will be featuring. Also on the program will be modern American compositions, representing our home country. For tickets, click here.
Sunday, December 15, 4:00 pm, Central Reform Temple, 15 Newbury St, Boston:
Join us at this lovely annual Hanukkah celebration and candle-lighting ceremony. The Chorale will perform in the cantata "A Light Through the Ages," text by Rabbi Howard A. Berman, which weaves a chronicle of the celebration of the holiday in different times and places over the centuries. Free and open to the public. For details, click here.
Wednesday, December 18, to Sunday, December 22:
The Zamir Chorale is thrilled to return to the
Louis Lewandowski Festival
in Berlin, Germany. Deep thanks to the Festival's director, Nils Busch-Petersen, a prominent businessman and Lewandowski aficionado, for the honor. This year, the theme is "Südsterne: 200 Years of Synagogue Music in Southern Germany." (See Joshua Jacobson's "Musing," above, for background.) Zamir will perform along with groups from around the world, including the Moran Choir (Israel), the Baruch Brothers Choir (Belgrade), the Synagogal Ensemble of Berlin, and the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir. Tuesday, December 24, 7:30 pm, Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward St, Newton: Our annual "Hanukkah Happens" concert, with guest soloist Cantor Elias Rosemberg, is titled "Zamir on the Lighter Side," featuring songs for the holiday (both serious and funny), works by Frank Loesser and Kurt Weill, parody songs by Allan Sherman and the
American-Israeli Jewish rock band
Schlock Rock, as well as Israeli, Yiddish, and Ladino songs. For ticket information, visit Temple Emanuel's
website
.
Save These 2020 Dates
Sunday, March 15, 2020: "Concert in the Round," at Temple Reyim, Newton.
Sunday, March 29: "Voices of Freedom" at the Vilna Shul, Boston.
Wednesday and Thursday, June 10 and 11: "Kolot:
Jewish Music by Women Composers," at Slosberg Concert Hall, Brandeis
University.
|
|
We are delighted to welcome the following singers to our 2019-20 roster: Nicole Callum (soprano), Lois Shapiro (alto, mother of former conducting intern Luca Antonucci), Corey Shore (soprano, daughter of longtime soprano Sharon Shore), and Sally Weiner (soprano).
|
New Board Member |
Dawn Ringel Elected to Board of Directors
Gilbert Schiffer, Chair of Zamir's Board of Directors announced that Zamir alumna Dawn Ringel was recently elected to serve on Zamir's board. "With Dawn's experience as President and CEO of Ringel PR, a public relations and content services firm based in Needham, I know she'll make a significant contribution to Zamir's success. We are delighted to welcome her."
|
Summer Roundup
|
North American
Jewish Choral Festival
On July 7,
members of the Zamir Chorale of Boston performed at the opening-night ceremonies as part of the 30th-annual North American Jewish Choral Festival, this year held at the Stamford Hilton in Stamford, Connecticut. Mazel tov and gratitude to our friend Matthew Lazar, founder and director of Zamir Choral Foundation, which sponsors the Festival.
|
|
|
L'Shanah Tovah and Happy 5780! We hope you had a relaxing, peaceful summer. We are already in full swing, gearing up for our 51st season. This fall, in addition to several exciting local concerts, we are busy preparing to return to Berlin to participate in the Louis Lewandowski Festival at the end of December. This issue of E-Notes offers a preview of concerts as well as Josh Jacobson's "Musing" on how he came to discover little-known treasures of Jewish choral music from southern Germany. We hope to see you soon!
|
JOSH JACOBSON'S MUSINGS
|
|
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.
|
|
|
(Photo by Andy Weigl) |
One of our major projects for the past year has been to introduce more and more conductors to the music that we know and love. Most choral conductors and singers have no idea that there is a rich and varied and beautiful repertoire of music based on Jewish traditions. So, to raise consciousness, we've launched a new website JewishChoralMusic.com,
which showcases our favorite repertoire.
I am now aware of a rich trove of music from
southern
Germany [which we will perform in Berlin].
|
In June, Chorus America featured our initiative in a wonderful article; you can read it
here
. And my article on the majestic sacred music of the great 19th-century synagogues of Europe will appear in The Choral Journal in December.
But after laying claim to being such an expert, I find myself slightly embarrassed. Over the summer, I discovered two treasures of repertoire about which I had been ignorant. Judah Cohen's wonderful new book, Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America, illuminates the contributions of the German-Jewish community to the choral tradition in this country. And while I have enjoyed performing the music of Louis Lewandowski and the other well-known synagogue composers of the 19th century, I am now aware of a rich trove of music from southern Germany.
After the Louis Lewandowski Festival announced that this year's concerts would focus on composers from southern Germany, I went online to learn about these cantors and choir directors. Now I have a new appreciation for the great musicians of Munich: Max Löwenstamm, Israel Meyer Japhet, Maier Kohn, and Emanuel Kirschner. We'll be performing their music (and more) at the Lewandowski Festival in Berlin this December, and we will be introducing it to our local fans on December 4 at Emmanuel Church's beautiful Lindsey Chapel on Newbury Street.
|
|
Achinoam Nini, whose music will be performed at Zamir's concert in June 2020. |
|
But wait, there's more! In March 2020, at Temple Reyim, we will be experimenting with a new kind of intimate concert in the round, where Zamir will surround the audience in a large circle. In June, we will be presenting "Kolot," featuring music by Jewish women composers, songwriters, and lyricists. But before we turn the calendar on 2019, on December 24, we will return to Temple Emanuel for a program of the lighter side of Jewish music--songs of joy, humor, parody, and just plain fun. Plus, concerts at the Central Reform Temple, the Vilna Shul, Hebrew Senior Life, and more. Come join us in discovering some new musical treats!
|
KEEP IN TOUCH!
|
|
As always, let us know what you're up to--we love hearing from our friends near and far. Have a peaceful, healthy, and happy new year!
Barbara Gaffin Deborah Sosin
Managing Director Editor, E-Notes
____________________________________________________
Watch Our Halleluyoh Virtual Choir!
|
|
|
|