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Springtime greetings! We're busier than ever in the Zamir family--warming up for a series of concerts in the Boston area as well as out-of-town gigs in Syracuse, New York, and Hamden, Connecticut, all leading up to the season finale, "From Boston to Berlin," June 3 and 4 at Slosberg Recital Hall at Brandeis University. This year we decided to move our spring concert from Harvard's Sanders Theatre to the more intimate environs of Slosberg; the audience will be even more closely involved with the music, and there is plenty of free parking.
Get all the details below, and be sure to check out our first-ever online auction!  

In each issue of E-Notes, Artistic Director

Josh Jacobson photo by Larry Sandberg

Ernest Bloch

Inspired by Tomassini, several of us from the faculty of the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College decided to create a list of the ten composers who created the greatest Jewish music. But what would be our parameters? How would we define Jewish music? Would this be music by any composer who was certified as being a MOT ("member of the tribe")? Or were we looking for composers who had created music that could be certified as being in some way "Jewish"? And what about popular music? Would we include Matisyahu in our survey? Shlomo Carlebach? Debbie Friedman? Josh Dolgin? Ha-Dag Nahash? And what about the fertile revival of klezmer music, or the renaissance of the piyyut (medieval religious hymnody), or the many beautiful folk traditions of Jewish song, both sacred and secular?  

We decided that our initial investigation

Salamone Rossi's HaShirim, 1622

So what would be the markers, the signifiers that could classify a musical composition as "Jewish"? Perhaps it has lyrics that could be classified as "Jewish" -- words that are associated with Jews, either because they are in a language spoken by Jews or because they describe situations that are uniquely Jewish. Perhaps the composer has incorporated musical motifs that originate in the synagogue. And what about the impact? Should we consider the impact on Jewish culture or on the culture of classical music at large? Good questions. 

Leonard Bernstein

But what about composers like

Paul Ben-Haim

Louis Lewandowski or Salomon Sulzer, who devoted their careers to advancing the music of the synagogue, whose influence can be felt even today in the Jewish liturgy, but who never had much of an impact on the musical world at large? What about Lazar Weiner, who devoted himself to creating gem-like musical miniatures, artistic settings of Yiddish poetry for voice and piano that  are of the highest caliber musically, but are hardly known outside of a small circle? What do we do with Paul Ben-Haim, who was forced out of Germany in 1933? He settled in Tel Aviv, where he created the "Eastern Mediterranean" school of music, which gave us compositions that emerged from the nexus of European symphonic forms and Middle Eastern aesthetics. Ben-Haim contributed a significant oeuvre and trained a generation of young composers, yet his works are hardly known outside of his adopted country.  

And what about those non-Jewish

Eric Whitacre

composers who, for various reasons, produced memorable settings of Jewish texts or Jewish melodies? Franz Schubert composed a setting in Hebrew of Psalm 92 ("Tov LeHodos") for Vienna's Seitenstettengasse synagogue. Modest Mussorgsky wrote a "Hebrew Song" as well as a biblical cantata, Joshua Bin-Nun, whose main theme is based on a Hassidic niggun. Max Bruch wrote a Kol Nidre for cello and orchestra, and Sergei Prokofiev an Overture on Hebrew Themes. And among contemporary composers, we could cite Eric Whitacre's "Five Hebrew Love Songs" and John Williams's score for the film Schindler's List.

Greg Wall

And what about jazz? Should we relegate Jewish jazz to the bin of popular music, to be considered at some future date, or is jazz, as some scholars have claimed, "America's classical music"? Indeed, John Zorn, Greg Wall, Paul Shapiro, and others have created sophisticated compositions, rooted with one foot in Jewish culture and the other in the aesthetic of jazz.

For the answers to these questions, we invite you to tune in to our video podcasts, "The Top Ten Composers of Jewish Music," which will be posted on Hebrew College's website over the next few months. And we invite you to hear this music live in concert on Thursday evening, May 17, at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline (see details below). We may not have definitive answers, but we do promise lively discussions and some over-the-top beautiful music.  

Zamir Sings for American Choral Directors Association in Providence  

On Thursday, February 16, Zamir performed excerpts from the "Middle East Harmonies" repertoire at this year's ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) Convention at the Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Professor Andre de Quadros joined Josh Jacobson in discussing the Middle East Harmonies project and its underlying themes; and the dangers, delights, and difficulties of putting together musics from Jewish and Arab (Muslim and Christian) traditions. An ensemble from Zamir, with soloist Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, presented five pieces as a demonstration. The many conductors who attended were suitably impressed by the cultural diversity, the concept of harmony as metaphor, and the shimmering performances.

Trinity Church Choirs and Zamir Share  

Sacred Traditions    

Boston's historic Trinity Church

Photo by Mickey Goldin

in Copley Square served as the setting for an uplifting concert of music from Jewish and Christian traditions on Sunday, March 11, featuring Zamir and the Trinity Church Choirs, under the direction of Richard Webster and Colin Lynch. Two themes--psalm settings and texts from Kedushah/Sanctus/Holy--anchored the diverse program, which featured solo sets by each group and two combined sets. Cantors Scott Sokol and Elias Rosemberg joined the groups as soloists.

Photo by Mickey Goldin

Zamir performed sacred works by Lewandowski, Rossi, and Avni, as well as a beautiful setting of "Adon Olam" by local composer Kenneth Lampl, who commented, "I can't begin to convey how deeply moved I was by both the exquisite performance of my piece and the warmth and connectedness I felt with the ensemble and to my roots as a Jewish composer."

The 100+ voices of the two choirs then stood in the circular apse for an ethereal rendition Mendelssohn's "Heilig," followed by Bernstein's "Sanctus" from his MASS, and Milhaud's "Kedushah" from Service Sacr�.

The Trinity Choirs then offered a stunning performance of Bruckner's "Os Justi," as well as motets by Purcell,

Ed Swanborn photo by Mickey Goldin

conductor Webster, and others. The organ resounded throughout the resonant space, whose gold mosaic interior shimmered in the afternoon sun. Zamir's Edwin Swanborn and organist Lynch provided sensitive accompaniment throughout the afternoon.

The choirs joined together again for Sulzer's inspiring "Halleluyoh," with Franziska Huhn, harpist; and Janowski's well-known prayer for peace, "Sim Shalom." For the finale, the singers lined the aisles of the sanctuary, surrounding the audience in a musical embrace for John Rutter's simple but powerful "The Lord Bless You and Keep You."

Thank you to Richard Webster and the Trinity Boston Preservation Trust for an exceptionally gratifying collaboration. In an email to Josh following the concert, Webster wrote, "It was a blessing indeed to share the beauty, stimulation, and holiness of this occasion. We were stretched in new and gratifying ways, and I do believe that God truly shined upon our collective efforts. With you and your fine chorus we have new and cherished friends."    

Deborah Sosin

Editor, E-Notes