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2003 National Notifications

November 07, 2003

Only in America: Jewish Music in a Land of Freedom is a five-day conference and festival of unparalleled scope presented by The Jewish Theological Seminary and the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music from November 7-11, 2003, celebrating the 350th anniversary of the birth of American Jewry.

This landmark conference-festival, the first ever of its kind, offers a comprehensive schedule of events that encompasses the enormous variety of music from the American Jewish experience. Activities include world premiere performances, historic re-enactments, academic presentations, interactive workshops led by distinguished performers, composers, and scholars, and performances of both liturgical and concert music by leading composers.

Over 60 speakers and 45 performing artists, all experts in the field of American Jewish music, will perform and discuss works by more then 50 composers.

This conference coincides with the launch of an extensive CD series entitled The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, which will include 50 CDs and a collection of over 600 original works representing a broad spectrum of repertoire reflecting the history and variety of Jewish life in America, released in association with the Naxos American Classics series.

The first event of this kind to focus exclusively on Jewish music rooted in American culture, the conference-festival kicks off a year of programming at The Jewish Theological Seminary commemorating the 350th anniversary year of American Jewry.

The conference and festival offerings include events for every level of interest. Eleven public performances will be presented, including eight premieres. Ofer Ben-Amots’s new work for klezmer clarinet, cantor and choir, MIZMOR: Seven Degrees of Praise, enjoys its world premiere on Sunday, November 9, as part of a program remembering Cantor Richard Tucker with a memorial tribute delivered by actor Tony Randall. Monday, November 10, sees the world premiere performance of Samuel Adler’s The Challenge of the Muse at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, as well as the New York premiere performance of Darius Milhaud’s Études: String Quartet on Ancient Provençal Synagogue Melodies at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

This event also marks the premiere public screening of oral history footage recorded for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. In addition to the 50-disc collection, the Milken Archive includes hundreds of videotaped oral histories. These interviews with legendary cantors, veterans of the Yiddish theater, composers, conductors and others preserve the knowledge and stories of these important personalities, offering an unprecedented wealth of memories and first-person accounts of various fields of American Jewish music. This conference-festival offers several unique opportunities to experience rarely performed music in the American Jewish tradition. An historical re-enactment of a Colonial-era Sabbath service takes place at The Jewish Theological Seminary on Saturday, November 8, authentically recreating through the music the manner in which the first American Jews would have celebrated the Sabbath during the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition, lectures and workshops running throughout the conference explore nearly every conceivable aspect of Jewish musical life in America, culminating in the final concert presented in cooperation with the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre on Tuesday, November 11. Conference Hosts: Milken Archive of American Jewish Music & The Jewish Theological Seminary The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music and The Jewish Theological Seminary are proud to partner in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the birth of American Jewry and to herald the numerous and diverse traditions of American Jewish music. The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music is an international undertaking to record, preserve and disseminate a vast cross-section of American Jewish music, comprising hundreds of works from the past 350 years. A project thirteen years in the making, the Milken Archive has recorded more than 600 works, representing more than 200 composers and over 250 performing artists. The complete Archive is being released monthly beginning in September 2003 through 2005 in association with the Naxos American Classics series and will initially contain 50 individual discs. For further information visit www.milkenarchive.com. While America has long celebrated the accomplishments of American composers of Jewish ancestry such as Aaron Copland, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein, there also exists a rich and varied repertoire of music specifically related to American Jewish experiences, both sacred and secular that remains relatively unknown. It was with the objectives of recording and preserving this vast repertoire, making it accessible to the public, enlarging repertoires for both synagogue and concert hall, and compiling and publishing information about the origins and traditions of American Jewish music that Lowell Milken, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Milken Family Foundation, established this project in 1990. Dr. Neil Levin, professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary, has served as Artistic Director of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music since 1994. A prestigious center of Jewish religion and learning, The Jewish Theological Seminary is an established presence in New York City and internationally, granting undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees through its five schools and enriching Jewish communities throughout the world. Founded in 1886 as a rabbinical school, JTS today serves as the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism worldwide, training religious, educational, academic and lay leaders for the Jewish population and beyond. This conference is the start of a year-long commemoration at JTS of the 350th anniversary of American Jewry. Public Concerts and Choral Events Numerous public performances and several unusual choral events thread the theme of Jewish American music throughout the conference. The conference-festival officially begins with a Kabbalat Shabbat and Sabbath eve service on Friday, November 7, 2003 at 6:00 pm at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. Samuel Adler conducts the Choir of a Thousand Voices, with cantors and soloists in an open sing-in type choral participation by the congregation. On Saturday, November 8, 2003 at 8:00 pm, Gerard Schwarz conducts the Chamber Sinfonia of the Manhattan School of Music in an evening entitled Voices Unveiled: Impact of Jewish Culture on American Music at the Manhattan School’s Borden Auditorium. This performance represents the U.S. Premiere of the newly reconstructed highlights from Kurt Weill’s The Eternal Road, the unique biblical music-drama created in response to the state-sponsored persecution of the Jews in Germany following the election of Hitler. The program also includes Paul Schoenfield’s Klezmer Rondos, written for flutist Carol Wincenc, who will perform along with tenor Alberto Mizrahi. The piece explores the typical Eastern European klezmer sound in the context of a Western orchestral setting. Avner Itai conducts the Choral Sing-In at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, November 9, 2003 at 5:00 pm – a chance for listeners to become performers. On the program are sections from three major American works for the Sabbath as well as for concert performance: Service Sacré by Darius Milhaud, Avodath Hakodesh by Ernest Bloch and Avodat Shabbat by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. A major highlight of the conference, Voice of Jewish America: A Musical Salute to Cantor Richard Tucker takes place on Sunday, November 9, 2003 8:00 pm at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Actor Tony Randall pays tribute to Richard Tucker, the great American tenor, in remarks entitled From Synagogue to Opera House: The Unique American-Jewish Phenomenon of Cantor Richard Tucker. The concert features classic and modern cantorial and Yiddish masterpieces and the World Premiere of Ofer Ben-Amots’s work, MIZMOR: Seven Degrees of Praise, scored for klezmer clarinet, cantor and choir. The New London Children’s Choir is featured in its American debut, conducted by Ronald Corp. The concert features clarinet soloist David Krakauer and distinguished cantors and choral groups from across the tri-state area, conducted by Neil Levin. The program concludes with the premiere of Uk’ratem D’ror Ba’aretz – Jewish Salute to America, a choral fantasy by Simon Spiro. Gerard Schwarz conducts an evening of Ancient Inspirations, American Voices on Monday, November 10, 2003 at 8:00 pm at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. The Juilliard Orchestra, the Juilliard Choral Union and Brooklyn Youth Chorus will perform the World Premiere of The Challenge of the Muse by Samuel Adler. Tony-Award and Emmy-Award nominated actress Tovah Feldshuh narrates Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish.” Featured soloist in Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo is an audition winner from The Juilliard School, yet to be announced. The final concert on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 7:00 pm is entitled Jewish Musical Drama in the New Country, and focuses on the rich tradition of the American Yiddish Musical Theatre. Presented in cooperation with the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater, the evening features music rarely heard on the public stage performed by The New Yiddish Chorale and actors and vocal soloists from the Yiddish stage, conducted by Zalmen Mlotek. Cameo Concerts: Open to Conference Registrants A series of four cameo concerts, for registered conference participants only, will take place at The Jewish Theological Seminary, offering participants a guided, focused listening experience of enlightening works introduced by composers and musicologists and featuring renowned performers. Cameo Concert I takes place on Monday, November 10, 2003 at 12:00 noon, when Darius Milhaud’s Études: String Quartet on Ancient Provençal Synagogue Melodies enjoys its New York Premiere. The piece reflects on Milhaud’s identity, as indicated in the opening line of his memoirs, “I am a Frenchman from Provence, and by religion a Jew.” Cameo Concert II, Monday, November 10, 2003 at 5:00 pm, features Bruce Adolphe’s Ladino Songs of Love and Suffering, which will be introduced by the composer. The poetic text is in Ladino, a language that combines Castillian Spanish and Hebrew, and served as the vernacular for Sephardi Jews dating back to their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Cameo Concert III, entitled Lazar Weiner and his Circle: American Yiddish Art Song, takes place Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 12:00 noon. Weiner was considered the greatest and most prolific of any composer working in the Yiddish art song genre in either America or Europe. His son, composer/performer Yehudi Wyner, will discuss the program and accompany the singers at the piano. Cameo Concert IV, Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 5:00 pm, features Yehudi Wyner: Tanz un Maisele, a chamber piece influenced by Yehudi Wyners’s Jewish heritage and experience, introduced by the composer himself. Wyner, who studied piano performance at The Juilliard School and composition with Paul Hindemith and Randall Thomson, has been a member of the Bach Aria Group since 1968 and currently serves on the faculty of Brandeis University. Reconstruction of a Colonial Era Shabbat Service Experience Shabbat in the New World as those in Colonial times did on Saturday, November 8, 2003 at 9:00 am at The Jewish Theological Seminary. This historical reconstruction of an American Colonial era Sabbath service authentically re-enacts the musical manner in which the first American Jews would have celebrated the Sabbath, sung the prayers, and chanted the Bible during the 17th and 18th centuries. The service is led by Hazzan Henry Rosenblum of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Hazzan Aaron Bensoussan of Congregation Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda in Downsview, Ontario; with the Choir of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School. Featured guest speaker will be Leon Botstein, President of Bard College, Musical Director of the American Symphony Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. A festive Kiddush will follow services. The musical repertoire of early American Jewry was an important offshoot of the western Sephardi tradition as developed in Amsterdam during the late 16th and 17th centuries. Although learned Sephardi hazzanim (cantors) from Europe took great care to keep this music as intact as possible, there were some inevitable variations over time. These differences have served to distinguish the American brand of the western Sephardi tradition. Workshops and Lectures Through symposia, scholarly papers, lectures, panel discussions and workshops, renowned international and American scholars and artists will examine a wide panorama of topics over an intensive five-day period. The extensive list of speakers and performers include luminaries in such fields as classical music, cantorial art, klezmer performance, Hassidic music, the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, Yiddish song and liturgical music, among many others. Several sessions are devoted to Giants of 20th Century Classical Music and the rarely explored Jewish themes that link them. Presentations on Sunday, November 9 at 10:00 am will examine Aaron Copland’s music and his use of the “biblical prophetic voice,” admired composer Miriam Gideon’s work in a contemporary context, and the iconoclastic Stefan Wolpe’s Jewish art music. Discussions continue on Monday, November 10 at 9:30 am, when the focus will be on Arnold Schoenberg as an American-Jewish composer. Concluding the discourse on this topic will be none other than composer Milton Babbitt, as he moderates Plenary Session VIII on Tuesday, November 11 at 3:30 pm, leading a discussion about Kurt Weill, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ernest Bloch entitled The Composer as Emigré. Not only focusing on traditional concert music of the classical realm, the conference will devote much time to American Jewish music at the Grass-Roots Level, looking at how different regions of America enfolded Jewish music into their own lives and communities. On Sunday, November 9 at 10:00 am, two such examples will be discussed: synagogue music from the American deep south – cities such as New Orleans, Birmingham and Mobile, where Jewish life prospered at the turn of the 20th century, and the varieties of American Yiddish song that flourished among Jewish folk choruses and developed through grass-roots performance practice. Renowned charismatic composer and performer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach exemplified grass-roots music, combining a spiritual message of Hassidic-type Jewish mysticism with an American style of folk music and winning the devotion and admiration of millions of fans worldwide. Plenary Session II, on Sunday, November 9 at 3:30 pm, is entitled From Rebbe’s Courts to Carlebach: Hassidic Music in America and examines the manner in which Carlebach’s followers interpreted his influence. Eminent musicologist and professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem Edwin Seroussi moderates a discussion of various types of Hassidic music in America, with Harvard University musicologist Judah Cohen and pioneering publisher of Jewish music and Hassidic music authority Velvel Pasternak. In addition, this session includes the premiere screening of oral-history footage of Rabbi Benzion Shenker recorded for the Milken Archives. Several conference events are dedicated to the rich diversity of klezmer music. Titans of the klezmer world will lead masterclasses and workshops for musicians of all levels, including renowned clarinetist David Krakauer on Sunday, November 9 at 10:00 am and Hankus Netsky, founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, on Monday, November 10 at 9:30 am. Mark Slobin, a leading musicologist and klezmer expert, speaks at Plenary Session I, entitled Klezmer Music in America: Evolutions and Revolutions, on Sunday, November 9 at 2:00 pm. This discussion about the resurgence of popular interest in klezmer music and new insights into its development during the 20th century includes authorities from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Columbia and Cornell Universities. A centerpiece of the conference, the Convocation and Keynote Address on Sunday, November 9 at 12:30 pm speaks to the heart of the entire five-day event. In the Keynote Address entitled The Question of Music in American Judaism: Reflections at 350 Years, Jonathan Sarna, Chairman of the Jewish Studies Department of Brandeis University offers a landmark definition of American Jewish culture. The Convocation features the distinguished author and commentator Martin Bookspan as master of ceremonies, as he welcomes Neil W. Levin, Conference Director and Artistic Director for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music; Lowell Milken, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Milken Family Foundation; and the esteemed Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Cantorial Music has played a role of supreme importance in the development of American Jewish Music. Conference events for all levels of interest will examine both the history and the practice of this religious artform. On Monday, November 10 at 9:30 am, Sholom Kalib and Akiva Zimmerman will talk about legendary American cantors such as Leib Glantz, Pierre Pinchik and Yossele Rosenblatt. Workshops for cantors of all levels run throughout the conference, beginning on Monday, November 10 9:30 am when Eliyahu Schleifer of Jerusalem’s Hebrew Union College, leads a workshop about Cantor Israel Alter’s contributions to the art in its American form. A masterclass focusing on improvisation technique for cantors led by Simon Spiro, a leading interpreter of cantorial art, takes place on Tuesday, November 11 at 10:30 am. Henry Rosenblum, Dean of The Jewish Theological Seminary’s H.L. Miller Cantorial School, heads a workshop on Tuesday, November 11 at 11:00 am especially designed for the lay cantor and prayer leader. The Milken Archive for American Jewish Music is an historic undertaking – a project thirteen years in the making thus far that has taken its producers and artists around the globe. Trace the remarkable history of this unique project with personal insights from the key players on Monday, November 10 at 11:00 am at Plenary Session III: The Making of the Milken Archive. Join Neil W. Levin (Artistic Director, the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, and professor of music at The Jewish Theological Seminary), Paul Schwendener (C.O.O., A&R Advisor, and Director of Marketing, the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music), Gerard Schwarz (Music Director, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), and Edwin Seroussi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish Music Research Centre) as they discuss the missions and development of the Archive recording project, repertoire selections, and other issues that arose in compiling and recording the Archive. Highlights of this presentation will include the first public screening of a film-overview of the Milken Archive, as well as audio excerpts from world-premiere recordings. One of the goals of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music is to commission American Jewish music curricula for study at the secondary school and university levels as well as for adult and continuing education. The Archive is a rich and vast source of previously unavailable information that educators can use as a new tool in the Instruction of Jewish Culture, History, Religion and Tradition. Addressing that topic on Monday, November 10 at 9:30 am are distinguished educators and professors Ofra Backenroth (The Jewish Theological Seminary), Steven Brown (The Jewish Theological Seminary), Marsha Edelman (Gratz College, Philadelphia) and Harold Abeles (Teacher’s College, Columbia University). Choral Workshops constitute a major component of the conference-festival, addressing the surging renaissance of choral activities in the United States. Leading in the workshops will be renowned personalities of the choral world, including Avner Itai (Rubin Academy, Tel Aviv), Matthew Lazar (Founder and Director, Zamir Choral), composer Samuel Adler (The Juilliard School), Zalmen Mlotek (Folksbiene Yiddish Theater, The New Yiddish Chorale), Joshua Jacobson (Northeastern University) and Ronald Corp (New London Children’s Choir, New London Orchestra). These workshops run throughout the conference, on subjects ranging from classical choral works to Yiddish folk-music, and are addressed to expert and non-expert alike wishing to broaden their appreciation for and participation in choral music. Yiddish song has evolved in America since Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States before the turn of the 19th century, bringing the tradition with them. Folklorist and ethnomusicologist Chana Mlotek is honored for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Yiddish Song at a luncheon on Monday, November 10 at 12:30 pm. Her son Zalmen Mlotek, one of the most important and visible figures in the contemporary world of Yiddish theater and folk music, plays a large role throughout the conference, highlighting the passage of knowledge through generations of family. He discusses Lebn Zol Amerike: Music of the Yiddish Theatre, Second Avenue to Broadway in Plenary Session IV on Monday, November 10 at 2:00 pm, on a panel with among others Henry Sapoznik, producer of the acclaimed National Public Radio series about Yiddish Radio, and distinguished historian of the American Yiddish Theater Nina Warnke (University of Texas.). American Jewish music covers a vast array of work – from music written for religious services to music written in the pop-music vein – that doesn’t mix without controversy. Plenary Session V on Monday, November 10 at 3:30 pm offers differing views on what are appropriate types of music for poetic sacred texts, such as the question of introducing pop music into Hebrew liturgy, in a discussion entitled: Pushing the Limits: Tensions between Text and Music in the American Synagogue. Debbie Friedman, leading singer/songwriter in the popular and folk style, speaks on a panel with composer/conductor Michael Isaacson, Raymond P. Scheindlin of The Jewish Theological Seminary, and Lawrence Hoffman and Mark Kligman of Hebrew Union College.