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June 20, 2008

Singing her way into hearts

Russian-born singer finds herself while doing what she loves.
OLGA LIVSHIN

A search for identity is a favorite theme for many creative people. For some, it takes a lifetime to find out who they are. Svetlana Portnyansky got lucky. She discovered her identity in high school and, ever since, the two main attributes have defined her, intertwined and inseparable like banners of victory: she is a singer and she is a Jew.

Growing up in Moscow in the 1970s, Portnyansky was taught from an early age to hide her Judaism. "Don't stand out, don't attract attention" was the mantra of many Russian Jews of those times; it was safer that way. When, during the last year of high school, she read A History of the Jews by Cecil Roth, a book illegally translated and distributed in Russia, her eyes were suddenly opened.

"That book was a kind of direction to me," Portnyansky admitted, "how to be free and to be proud of your nationality and your people, people with such a long and strong history. I put a Magen David around my neck then and I never took it off." Wearing a Star of David openly in Russia in the 1980s, before Perestroika, was a statement of courage and defiance.

At about the same time, Portnyansky realized that she wanted to be a singer, which was almost as revolutionary a move for a Jewish girl in Russia. She pursued her dream relentlessly, finally graduating from the prestigious musical institution in Moscow – Gnesin State Musical Academy. Persisting in her quest to express her Jewish identity in music, she found an outlet for her art in the Jewish theatre Shalom, to this day the only professional Jewish theatre in Russia. Soon after Shalom opened in 1988, Portnyansky became one of its stars, sharing her fondness for Jewish music with rapt audiences.

In 1990, after Portnyansky won first place in the Russian Pop and Rock Festival, Ladder to Parnassus, her singing career skyrocketed. Her beautiful voice and soul-reaching songs, as well as her youthful, energetic personality, contributed to her professional success. She became famous, appearing frequently on radio and television. Despite the sweet trappings of stardom, she clung to her national integrity, continuing her promotion of Jewish music and culture, often singing folk songs in Yiddish. "During one of my first TV broadcasts," she recalled, "I refused to take the Magen David off my neck in front of the cameras. I can proudly say that I was the first person on Russian television with the legal Jewish identification."

Wishing to delve deeper into her Jewish roots, which was nearly impossible in Russia, Portnyansky immigrated to the United States in 1991. She knew she might not maintain her status of a star in the star-studded artistic landscape of America, but she valued freedom and democracy much more than fame. In New York, instead of searching for a label, she enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary to become a cantor. Later, she moved to California and continued her studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

"The excellent example for me was Yentl – the legendary heroine of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story," she said. Following Yentl's footsteps, Portnyansky became a cantor for a Conservative synagogue in 1993. In this, as in her every other endeavor, she was travelling along a controversial road.

Portnyansky has never abandoned her singing career. She has been able to combine her secular concert performances with Judaic prayers. A pop singer and a soul singer, a country singer and a cantor, she brings her warm Jewish spirituality, delightful, chiming soprano and the wealth of her versatile repertoire to the grateful public all over the globe.

In the last decade, she has performed in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She has sung in almost every major city in the United States and Russia and she often sings in Israel, her favorite place. "Orthodox Jews, those who might be offended, don't listen to me. All the other people from all over the world, both Jews and non-Jews, come to my concerts. I have the opportunity to deliver ... the beauty of Jewish music to the big auditorium of earth," said Portnyansky.

The emotional voltage of Portnyansky's concerts is usually high. Alternating between lyrical Hebrew songs, solemn religious hymns, mischievous Yiddish folk songs and passionate Russian romances, she takes listeners on a journey of the heart, guiding them from sorrow to joy, from bouts of nostalgia to the summits of Jewish pride and dignity.

Her repertoire, dizzying in its variety, consists of "Jewish traditional songs and cantorial compositions, Russian songs and romances, Broadway and popular American music, classical and jazz stylization and also songs in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Armenian and Ukrainian." 

On June 22, at 7 p.m., Portnyansky will perform in Hebrew, Yiddish, English and Russian at Temple Sholom Synagogue in Vancouver. Tickets are $35. For more information call 604-687-5762.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.