Music – Page 18

From earth to the heavens

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb will perform Shiv’a at Performance Works on Feb. 20. (photo by Gem Salsberg)

There are so many levels on which one can experience Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s music, and her most recent releases are no exception. Shiv’a, which comes out today, is cathartic, simply enjoyable and everything in between. Her other recent release, Gomory, is ethereal and visceral, and everything in between. Two very diverse recordings, they exemplify Gottlieb’s range of talent.

Gottlieb will perform Shiv’a on Feb. 20, 9 p.m., at Performance Works on Granville Island, as part of Winterruption. She will be joined by a Vancouver-based string quartet led by violinist Meredith Bates, and by N.Y.-based drummer Ronen Itzik (originally from Jerusalem), who is coming to Vancouver especially for the performance. The concert is part of a double bill with singer-songwriter Alejandra Ribera.

Shiv’a has been years in the making. Gottlieb began it following the deaths of three close friends, and she has described the work as “a meditation on the process of mourning.”

“I composed the piece between 2007-2010, while I was living between Wellington, New Zealand, New York City and Jerusalem, Israel,” Gottlieb told the Independent. She met the quartet ETHEL in 2009, “and they and percussionist Satoshi Takeshi were very involved in the final stages of the composition process while I was still working on the piece.

“In 2011, we did an Indiegogo crowdfunding effort and, with 75 pre-orders of the album, we were able to fund the recording of the piece in N.Y.C. Since then, I gave birth to three other albums, and three babies, until finally, in 2015, Shiv’a found the right ‘home’ as part of the roster of 482music, a unique record label that features mostly N.Y.- and Chicago-based musicians.”

It was 482music that suggested releasing the recording as an LP rather than a CD. “For me,” said Gottlieb, “releasing music in this format has been a lifelong dream. LPs are my favorite format to listen to music in. I love the warmth of the sound and the physical feeling of holding a record. It also allows for a true feature to the artwork.

image - Noa Charuvi’s painting “Babel,” which Ayelet Rose Gottlieb chose for the cover of Shiv’a. — Noa Charuvi’s painting “Babel,” which Ayelet Rose Gottlieb chose for the cover of *Shiv’a*.

“I chose to use Noa Charuvi’s painting ‘Babel’ for the cover,” she continued, “as it seems to me to portray beautifully what I was trying to convey with the music of Shiv’a – something is broken, but that fragility holds much beauty, becomes abstract, allows for the imagination to roam. What was there before that is now lost? What will come in place of these ruins? What work needs to be done in order to clear the mess and rebuild? These same sentiments are found in Yehuda Amichai’s poem ‘An Old Toolshed,’ which serves as the epilogue to Shiv’a.”

When the Jewish Independent spoke with Gottlieb just over a year ago about her album Roadsides (“Music is the poetry of life,” Jan. 9, 2015), the Vancouver-based musician, who has called various places home, said she was still looking for her language here in the city. “I think this is an ongoing search,” she said when the JI caught up again with her about her two new releases. “I have a band here in Vancouver that I really love working with, though it has been a little while since we last had a gig. It features some of Vancouver’s most creative musicians – Aram Bajakian on guitar, Peggy Lee on cello, Dylan Van Der Schyff on drums and Meredith Bates on violin. Last spring, I composed a new song cycle, ‘12 Lunar Meditations,’ which they performed along with the Voice Over Mind Choir (led by D.B. Boyco) as part of the Western Front’s vocal festival. This was the first substantial piece of music I had composed since I moved here, and these musicians, Vancouver and the changes in my personal life, all blended into this composition.”

In addition to writing and performing her own material, Gottlieb forms part of the Mycale quartet, the group that recorded Gomory, part of John Zorn’s Masada project.

“John Zorn’s Masada project has been ongoing for over 25 years and has become a ‘cult’ project with a huge following worldwide,” explained Gottlieb. “These compositions all use the ‘Jewish scale,’ which gives them a klezmer-ish feel with a contemporary edge.

“In his second book of compositions for this project, The Book of Angels, Zorn commissioned different musicians to arrange and interpret his music. Among the musicians who participated in this Book of Angels series of recordings are guitarist Pat Metheny, trumpeter Dave Douglass, saxophonist Joe Lovano and many others. This is a magnificent list of artists for those of us who love jazz.”

And this is where Mycale comes in. Zorn formed the all-female a cappela quartet in 2009.

“We are Sofia Rei from Argentina, Malika Zarra from Morocco, Sara Serpa from Portugal (who joined the band in 2013 in place of Basya Schechter) and myself, from Israel,” said Gottlieb. “We all are band leaders and composers of our own individual projects and bring our musical styles into our arrangements of John Zorn’s music. We sing in Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Berber and French. John Zorn invited us to record two albums for this special series of recordings. The first was released in 2010 – Mycale: Book of Angels, Vol. 13 – and the latter was released in May of 2015, Gomory: Book of Angels, Vol. 25. We feel very honored to have been invited to participate in this incredible series, and especially to tour with Mr. Zorn globally as part of his Masada Marathon performances, which took us all over the world – Europe, Canada, U.S.A., Australia and South America.”

All of Zorn’s compositions in this work, added Gottlieb, are titled after angels and demons. “Gomory is a demon who disguises himself as a beautiful woman riding a camel,” she explained.

As for current and future projects, Gottlieb said, “My primary project right now is my family. My third little girl was born just one month ago, so we are all in search of a new rhythm to dance by. Other than that, I recently recorded a duo album (which is still in the works) with my longtime collaborator, pianist Anat Fort. I am hoping to keep performing and developing my new piece ‘12 Lunar Meditations,’ which, following the Vancouver debut, was performed in N.Y.C. last fall with some remarkable participants, including legendary jazz-vocalist Jay Clayton. I am working on some new collaborations here in Vancouver, which hopefully I’ll be able to share with you soon.”

In addition to the Feb. 20 concert at Performance Works, Gottlieb and Itzik will be giving a workshop at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (604-257-5111) on Feb 21, 2 p.m. Open to all, the cost to attend is $15 per person.

For more on Gottlieb and to purchase Shiv’a, Gomory or other of her recordings, visit ayeletrose.com.

Memorial reflects loss, hope

On Jan. 26, Robyn Driedger-Klassen (soprano), Joseph Elworthy (cello), Mark Ferris (violin), François Houle (clarinet) and Mark Fenster (baritone) will be joined by Lani Krantz (harp) and Kozue Matsumoto (koto) in a performance of Renia Perel’s Songs of the Wasteland. (photo by Lindsay Elliott)

On the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 26, Renia Perel’s Songs of the Wasteland will be presented by the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM).

The musical memoir is written for two singers and an instrumental ensemble. The first part, “From Tragedy to Triumph,” features songs of remembrance, including to the children who died in the ghettos and to Perel’s family who were killed – she and her sister Henia were the only ones who escaped. The second half, “Survival,” begins with a song Perel dedicates to her husband, Morris, who passed away in 1999, and concludes with “Jerusalem,” Perel’s hope that, one day, there will be no more war.

“I regard Songs of the Wasteland as an epochal work of art that hopefully will in future be as commonly heard during times of Holocaust remembrance as say Britten’s War Requiem during Nov. 11 observances,” Joseph Elworthy, executive director of VAM, told the Independent. “This was one of our far-reaching goals when I first discussed with Renia about mounting the production on Jan. 26, the eve of the UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”

Perel approached Elworthy in December 2014 about collaborating with VAM, he said, “as she held a long-standing respect and admiration for the quality of music education we deliver. Songs of the Wasteland was the perfect instrument to realize this desire.”

And Perel’s work connects to VAM’s vision and purpose.

“VAM believes in the transformative power of music to influence our personal development and daily existence,” he explained. “Music has the power to express the inexpressible while allowing room for the listener to formulate their own inner narrative. It is not surprising that Renia turned to music to express her sense of loss and remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust.”

Elworthy also noted, “It is important to point out that VAM is first and foremost an educational institution and not a concert-presenting organization. This allows us more liberty to choose repertoire and projects that will bring educational value for our 1,400-plus students, as well as the community of music appreciators throughout Greater Vancouver.”

This will only be the second public presentation of the work. Elworthy – who, in addition to being executive director of VAM, serves as the head of the academy’s cello department – will take on the cello part.

“The cello so closely resembles the timbres of the human voice, therefore making it a perfect instrument to capture the beautiful nuances of the Jewish liturgical tradition, which are so rooted in song,” he said. “The cello writing for Songs of the Wasteland is exquisite and greatly reminds me of established cello masterpieces such as Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei and Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo.”

Elworthy will be joined by VAM faculty members Mark Ferris (violin) and Robyn Driedger-Klassen (soprano), as well as Mark Fenster (baritone), François Houle (clarinet), Lani Krantz (harp) and Kozue Matsumoto (koto).

“We are fortunate to have Mark Ferris (VAM violin faculty and concertmaster of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra) as the music director of this production,” said Elworthy. “Mark was part of the original cast and has great insight to the totality of this composition.”

Also part of the original performance was Fenster, the eldest child of Holocaust survivors.

“When Mark Ferris called me and described the piece, I was immediately interested, mainly because of my own family heritage and musical connection with Yiddish and cantorial singing,” said Fenster about why he chose to participate in the 2010 presentation. “Then, later, when I met with Renia and discovered that she and my father lived quite close to one another in prewar Poland, this was an even stronger reason – I could, with my small part, possibly help these two souls, and the many others this piece would surely touch, find some peaceful healing through the expressions in this powerful piece.”

While the music and message of the work remain the same, Fenster said, it somehow “feels more intense this time. I cannot say why. Perhaps because there seems to be more publicity, more media coverage, more interest in the story behind the music, the composer’s journey and her wishes, or because there seems to be intolerance and hatred quite present in the news today. Also, since it is being performed at the VAM this time rather than the Telus Theatre in the Chan Centre, I also feel this may offer a more intimate performance experience for the audience.”

Fenster said that, in performing the work again, his “feelings around the healing and peace-wishing elements of the piece have grown stronger, more profound. Otherwise, I still feel very much as I did in 2010. I still see my mom and dad, their (our) families, and all they went through. And I also see and feel the hurt so many still carry, the ripples from these times and how they have projected into our beings, no matter which faith or personal connection. We’re all affected.”

What also hasn’t changed for Fenster since 2010 are the emotions that Songs of the Wasteland invoke.

“The most difficult work for me in singing this piece is being able to share this art with an honest, open heart, but without it drawing me to tears,” he said. “It took me several weeks of practise in 2010 to get past the tears, and it hasn’t become any easier this time…. I hope we all realize that it doesn’t matter which flag is flying or being torn down, the result is always the same – deep experiences of loss, pain, for us all, from generation to generation. I hope this heartful piece penetrates our fears and leads us to the light that guides us to see love in everyone. That is what I believe is offered in all the scriptures in every tongue.”

One of Fenster’s personal and professional goals is to help people feel peace, believe in themselves and find their own unique joy. In that context, he said, “I wish my own parents could be here to see, hear and feel this piece and all that the composer, arranger, musicians and technicians are sharing. I know they would cry, and smile, and inside they would feel a sense of completeness, a sense that what they went through is understood, compassionately accepted, and that it has led to some wonderful miracles, like their own gratitude, liberation, joy and family.”

For more on Renia Perel’s life and musical work, see “Renia Perel is a ‘survivor who is blessed.” For tickets to Vancouver Academy of Music’s Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m., performance of Songs of the Wasteland, visit vam.eventbrite.ca.

Join in Shabbat of Song

photo - Rabbi Ilan Acoca of Congregation Beth Hamidrash — Rabbi Ilan Acoca of Congregation Beth Hamidrash *(photo from Beth Hamidrash)*

One of the ways to thank God for blessings, says Rabbi Ilan Acoca, is through singing. Shabbat Shira, which takes place Jan. 23, tells of the Israelites breaking into song as a way to thank God for the parting of the sea during the Exodus.

“Traditionally, it’s a special Shabbat,” said Acoca, spiritual leader of Beth Hamidrash, Vancouver’s only Sephardi congregation. “Obviously, there’s a lot of liturgy in our

Judaism, depending on the background that we have, there’s a lot of music. On this particular Shabbat, there is even more music and more liturgy and, therefore, it makes a special Shabbat.”

To mark the occasion, Beth Hamidrash is organizing Shabbaton Shabbat Shira: East Meets West, which will celebrate the different musical approaches among Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews. Cantor Yaacov Orzech of Schara Tzedeck Synagogue will bring the Ashkenazi flavor. The West Coast Andalusian Ensemble, an ad hoc group of Vancouver and Los Angeles musicians coming together for the first but maybe not the last time, will celebrate the Sephardi traditions.

photo - Cantor Yaacov Orzech of Schara Tzedeck Synagogue — Cantor Yaacov Orzech of Schara Tzedeck Synagogue *(photo from Beth Hamidrash)*

“The idea is that often we look at our differences as Jews and our backgrounds,” Acoca said. “Music brings people together, so the idea behind it is definitely to bring the beauty of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi music, but it’s more than that. We unite the community and show them that, yes, we may have our differences in background and our philosophy and so on and so forth, but we are one people. Therefore, we thought that the best way of doing it, rather than to give speeches about unity, which rabbis often do, we thought the best way was to put speeches aside and concentrate on the music.”

Acoca credits Orzech for coming up with the idea, but it is something that used to happen among congregations in Montreal, where Acoca grew up.

***

Shabbaton Shabbat Shira: East Meets West takes place Jan. 22, 4:35 p.m., services followed by Kabbalat Shabbat then dinner, 6 p.m., and a lecture by Rabbi Acoca on Discovering the Richness of Sephardi Liturgy ($18; $10 for kids 6-12, free for 5 and under): reserve by Jan. 20. Jan. 23, 9 a.m., services with Kol Simcha Singers and sermon on The Power of a Song, musaf led by Cantor Orzech, lunch with Sephardi and Ashkenazi delicacies. Jan. 23, 8 p.m., music celebration with Acoca, Orzech and West Coast Andalusian Ensemble, with Sephardi refreshments – suggested donation $10.

Klezfest in Winnipeg

Winnipeg Klezfest co-producers Bev Aronovitch, left, and Miriam Bronstein. (photo from Rady JCC)

After attending the week-long KlezKanada Laurentian retreat near Montreal, Miriam Bronstein and Beverly Aronovitch wondered, why not do the same in Winnipeg? And so, they began planning – the city’s first Klezfest took place at the Rady Jewish Community Centre on Oct. 10 and 11.

Bronstein, a retired music and high school drama teacher who continues to perform at the Fringe Festival, is also very involved with Soup Sisters, an organization that makes soup for women’s shelters. Aronovitch is a jazz musician, producer and retired teacher.

As both Bronstein and Aronovitch are of Eastern European decent, klezmer spoke to them. “I’m a singer, she’s a piano player, so we thought it might be fun to go spend time in that scene,” said Bronstein. “I never realized that I actually speak Yiddish because, as I grew up, my mother spoke Yiddish with me, but I only answered her in English. So, it’s actually quite remarkable that I can speak Yiddish.”

Of the KlezKanada experience, Bronstein said, “It was life changing. It reconnected me with that Eastern European community. It was very, very cool.”

At KlezKanada, Aronovitch and Bronstein enjoyed seeing people of all ages, from toddlers to 90-year-olds, dancing to the music, as well as McGill University students taking a klezmer course.

“There were people from all over the world, musicians from all over the world, and they weren’t all Jewish,” said Bronstein. “It was just such a scene that both of us just said, ‘Oh my gosh! We have to do this in Winnipeg!’ We just took it on when we came home. We didn’t forget about it. We just pursued it.”

Although KlezKanada was a week long, Bronstein and Aronovitch felt that the first such festival in Winnipeg had to be shorter, at least for starters. They began by booking the world-famous Klezmatics from New York and, with the help of Winnipeg’s own Finjan – Kinzey Posen, Shayla Fink, Myron Schultz and Daniel Koulack – they put together a full day of festivities. It kicked off with a Saturday night Klezmatics performance, followed by several Sunday workshops, culminating in a concert led by members of Finjan and the Klezfest faculty.

“We had a wonderful workshop about great Yiddish composers and beginner klezmer playing sessions, and then a more advanced session called Readers’ Romp,” said Bronstein.

“One idea we had that is unique to Winnipeg was that we very much wanted to cross borders and recognize we have many ethnic communities in Winnipeg, so we had a workshop called Common Roots,” she said. “We got Ukrainian musicians and Romanian musicians. We brought people in from the city and the theme was ‘Weddings.’ They played what you’d play at a Ukrainian wedding and then the members of Finjan played what you’d play at a Jewish wedding.”

Bronstein would like to expand on the Common Roots concept next time, as there is a big Eastern European contingency in Winnipeg. She’d also like to see annual Mamaloshen Festival of Yiddish Entertainment and Culture attendees participate in Klezfest.

With their first Klezfest behind them, Bronstein said, “We’re just kind of basking in the glow. It was hugely successful. In the end, everybody was dancing in the foyer. It was so wild, it was so thrilling. People were so elated to be part of it. I taught at the Jewish day school here and there were 25 high school students who were part of the event.

“There were some people, some non-Jews – a considerable amount considering it’s Winnipeg and it’s a small community in general – but it would be nice if it was even more widespread. I think that, the more we do it, we increasingly make the name known, and it will open up even more to the general community.”

Bronstein and Aronovitch would eventually like to see participants get to a point where they are able to lead a performance at the end of the festival. Bronstein envisions this as “a participatory type of performance, where people who did dance classes can present what they learned and people who did the playing workshops can be a part of the band.”

She added, “It was a pleasure to work with our fantastic working committee and the Rady JCC. Without them, it could not have happened.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Holocaust memorial music

Musical memorials to the Holocaust tread on sensitive ground. On one hand, they perform a crucial function for humanity’s collective memory. On the other hand, there is significant risk of belittling the topic in the name of artistic expression. Two composers who have successfully navigated the risky waters of this endeavor to produce musically significant works with dignity and veneration are Charles Davidson and Sheila Silver. Released by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music earlier this year, Out of the Whirlwind: Musical Reflections of the Holocaust gives both works their rightful place in the archive’s pantheon of music of the American Jewish experience (milkenarchive.org/volumes/view/19).

Davidson’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly cantata is based on the 1960s publication (of the same name) of poems written by children interned at Terezin, a ruse camp set up by the Nazis to throw off the scent of those who suspected the mass murder of Jews under Hitler’s reign. Though it was simply a waypoint en route to the Auschwitz death camp, Terezin depicted a scenario where prisoners enjoyed relative freedom and produced significant artistic output.

Davidson’s tribute to the child poets comprises nine poem-settings for children’s choir and piano, performed here by the San Francisco Girls Chorus. From touching beauty to foreboding, despair and all points in between, his composition gives unique expression to the range of emotions contained in the poems while conveying its own identity as a work of art. I Never Saw Another Butterfly has been performed more than 2,500 times, including in 1991 at Terezin, in the presence of former Czech president Václav Havel.

Silver’s string trio To the Spirit Unconquered was inspired by the writings of Italian poet and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi. Silver uses a variety of techniques to convey different aspects of the concentration camp experience described in Levi’s writings: fear, through dark string tremolos and crashing, dissonant piano chords; memory, through floating piano lines and swooning strings; barbarism, through quick, syncopated rhythms, staccato stabs, and angular melodies; transcendence, through the soaring melodies of the final movement. In a 1998 interview with the archive (milkenarchive.org/videos/view/112), Silver claimed To the Spirit Unconquered as her most successful piece, stating that it had been widely performed and won over audiences skeptical of modern music. In her own words, it is “about the ability of the human spirit to transcend the most devastating of circumstances, to survive and to bear witness.”

Though both of these works can be appreciated on their artistic merits alone, their grounding in the maxim to never forget imbues them with an inescapable urgency. They command listeners of all faiths and backgrounds to approach them with undivided attention.

Ullmann’s last work

Viktor Ullmann, 1924. (photo from Arnold Schoenberg Centre Los Angeles)

The memories of City Opera Vancouver’s production of The Emperor of Atlantis in 2009 still resonate. Written by Viktor Ullmann (composer) and Petr Kien (librettist) in 1943-44 at Theresienstadt concentration camp, its stirring score and lyrics, both of which, remarkably, reflect hope for a positive future, stay with you. No doubt, Project Elysium’s Cornet: Viktor Ullmann’s Legacy from Theresienstadt will have a similar effect.

In two public performances (and one private), the group Elysium will present Cornet, the last work that Ullmann finished before he was deported to Auschwitz on Oct. 16, 1944, and killed there two days later. Set to excerpts from Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, it tells the “tale of a young soldier who experiences love and death in a single night.”

Combining recitation and piano, the piece will be performed by pianist Dan Franklin Smith, who is also music director of Elysium, with Gregorij H. von Leïtis, who is the group’s founder (in 1993) and artistic director, among other things. The evening will include Ullmann’s Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 49, written in Theresienstadt in 1943, and a lecture by Michael Lahr, Elysium program director and executive director of the Lahr von Leïtis Academy and Archive. Project Elysium was created by Vancouver performer and producer Catherine Laub to bring Elysium to Canada.

“In honor of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Elysium – an organization focused on performing music of composers persecuted during the Nazi regime – is coming to Canada for the first time to present a concert of Viktor Ullmann’s music. One of the concert dates will be the actual date 71 years ago that Ullmann arrived in Auschwitz from Theresienstadt and was immediately put to death,” Laub told the Independent. “The focus of the endeavor is not to dwell on the suffering and death of this artist but to celebrate a man who created beauty during an intensely painful time, and be uplifted by artistry that justly survives his shortened lifespan. In Michael Lahr’s words, ‘The adamant will to live, the unshakable hope that good will prevail no matter how horrible the attempt to crush it – this is the message of Ullmann’s music from Theresienstadt. Elysium offers Ullmann’s music as a powerful symbol of hope.’”

In addition to being a performer, composer and teacher, Laub has been a concert producer since she moved to Canada from the United States in 2006. She founded the Erato Ensemble, with William George, and has been involved on the production side with various other ensembles. Since the creation of the monthly Sunday concert series at Roedde House Museum in 2012, of which she is artistic director, she said, “I have started to focus more energy on being aware of which artists and which projects are poised to bring important gifts to audiences and communities in Vancouver. Project Elysium is the largest-scale project I’ve been involved with from an organizational standpoint, and it’s unique in that I’m not wearing my performance hat at all.”

The Project Elysium concerts, she said, “have been in the works since December 2013, when I reconnected with Gregorij von Leïtis and Michael Lahr on a trip to Munich. I first worked with them when I was fresh out of graduate school and participating in their young artist program. In the years since, I had become more familiar with the second part of their mission statement: ‘… fighting against discrimination, racism and antisemitism by means of art.’ It inspired me that here were people with a clear artistic mission as well as a humanitarian focus. In today’s world, where we all expect quick sound bites and instant gratification, it has to be clear why live performance and the arts – beyond big-budget Hollywood – are relevant and important. This seems like a clear answer to me, and it’s never been more important to be reminded of what happens to the world when we don’t listen to such messages.”

image - Drawing of composer Viktor Ullmann by Petr Kien, graphic artist, Theresienstadt inmate and librettist of The Emperor of Atlantis — Drawing of composer Viktor Ullmann by Petr Kien, graphic artist, Theresienstadt inmate and librettist of The Emperor of Atlantis. (image from project-elysium.org)

“Never forget.” This was one of the reasons that City Opera Vancouver decided to produce The Emperor of Atlantis.

Artistic director Dr. Charles Barber first encountered Ullmann’s music when he was in graduate school at Stanford. “I had made friends with Lotte Klemperer, daughter of the great conductor Otto Klemperer,” Barber told the Independent. “She and her father knew his work, and she introduced me to Ullmann’s broken life and unbroken promise. We listened to recordings together, and Lotte told me about his music and its time.”

Barber also knew Ullmann’s work through violin teacher Paul Kling. “He had played Ullmann’s music, knew it intimately, and was imprisoned with him at Theresienstadt. Prof. Kling considered Ullmann one of his teachers, and strongly believed in his genius.”

While Ullmann and Kien did not survive the Holocaust, Kling did, and, said Barber. “I felt an obligation to help maintain, in his name, the music that might have been.”

The choice of Atlantis, said Barber, had to do with “its unique story, its historical context and its relevance today.” City Opera presented it “in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and they were wonderful collaborators in bringing this British Columbia première to the Rothstein Theatre.

“City Opera specializes in chamber opera: the small forms, the intimate eloquence, the affordable advantage. Atlantis met all of these criteria, and more. The music is wonderful, the libretto is bold and vivid, the voice is favored and the audience was moved. It’s what we hoped to achieve, and it’s what we tried to honor.” (For more on the 2009 production, visit jewishindependent.ca/oldsite/archives/feb09/archives09feb06-01.html.)

While Barber, unfortunately, won’t be able to attend Elysium’s Cornet concert – he will be in Quebec City with COV, conducting its opera Pauline – he put the program into context. He said, “It highlights Ullmann’s gifts: concision, wit, superlative technical accomplishment, daring, and a strong foundation in European musical traditions.

“Ullmann’s significance in musical history is, alas, limited. He was one of the great lights in a musical generation destroyed by the Nazis. We will never know what his place would have been; we only know what it might have been. In his 46 years, he seems to have composed as many works. Only 13 survived him after he was killed at Auschwitz.

“His music works for me, and I think will for the audience coming up, because of its eclecticism. Ullmann was an authority on many sources, he drew widely upon them, but found a voice that was unlike others of his day. He was not an academicist. He wrote for real people, and presumed in them a shared awareness of musical and cultural traditions, and a desire to advance them – playfully, skilfully and imaginatively.”

“While it isn’t possible to rewrite history,” said Laub, “this project functions as a kind of musical ‘rescue mission,’ bringing recognition to a brilliant composer whose work was nearly lost to us. His story and his music allow us to make a more personal connection to a time that is almost too overwhelming to contemplate. This connection is essential as it helps us not only mourn but learn.”

Echoing these comments, Barber said, “These concerts will not be a funeral procession. Ears will be challenged, knowledge will be deepened, and awareness will be empowered.

“According to my teacher Paul Kling, the real Ullmann was a witty and profoundly learned man who delighted in sharing knowledge and in jolting listeners. What an irresistible combination.”

Cornet will take place Oct. 16, 8 p.m., at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre, and Oct. 17, 8 p.m., at Pyatt Hall. Tickets ($30/$20) are available from the Cultch box office, 604-251-1363, and tickets.thecultch.com/peo.

Tradition and jazz fuse

Sim Shalom founder Rabbi Steven Blane leads the services and the band on the online synagogue’s new CD. (photo from Sim Shalom)

Google “Canada synagogue live streaming” and a handful of choices come up, including Vancouver’s Temple Sholom. There are many more options out of the United States, but it appears that there is only one completely online synagogue – Sim Shalom. Though if you’re in New York at the right time, you could attend Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services. This year, they will take place at the club Bitter End. But, if you can’t make it or watch them online, you can hear a sampling of the congregation’s interpretation of the prayers on their new CD, Sim Shalom’s Live Jazz High Holidays.

Sim Shalom founder Rabbi Steven Blane leads the services and the band. The CD comprises some of music from the services last year and was recorded live at Zebulon Sound and Light (aka ZEB’S) with jazz guitarist Saul Rubin. It features Carol Sudhalter (sax and flute), Tai Ronen (bass), Jack Glottman (piano), Frank Levitano (drums) and Itai Kris (flute). Sudhalter, Ronen, Glottman and Levitano will once again join Blane for this year’s High Holiday services – Sim Shalom’s fourth – which will be live streamed, and include live chat.

For those who are not willing or able to bring themselves to participate in – or even watch – Shabbat or holiday services online, the CD is a nice compromise. That is, if you like jazz. With the exception of a mostly traditional rendition of Kol Nidre and Ashamnu, the prayers are full-on jazz, though many regular attendees at a non-Orthodox synagogue that has a cantor and/or choir will recognize most of the main melodies and be able to sing along.

Given that Sim Shalom’s vision “is to become the principle online worship, spiritual and learning resource for the Jewish unaffiliated and the interfaith,” it is appropriate that Sim Shalom’s Live Jazz High Holidays begins with Hine Ma Tov, a hymn expressing how good it would be if people could sit together in unity.

The Barchu and Sh’ma that follows will be familiar to anyone who has heard White Rock South Surrey Jewish Community Centre Cantor Steve Levin lead a service (sans instruments), as will at least a couple of others. Rounding out the CD are Halleluyah, Amidah, M’chalkayl, Untanef Tokef, B’rosh Hashana (which will become a favorite of listeners), Ochilah L’el, Sh’ma Koleynu, Shofar Service (the blowing of the shofar followed by a rousing Areshet Sefataynu), Avinu Malkeynu and Hayom.

“During the High Holidays, members of the Jewish community reflect upon life and the year that has passed. They pray that the year ahead will bring blessings and peace,” reads the CD’s promotional material. “Jazz is thoughtful music, improvisation within a structured form that can be filled with many emotions. Playing jazz in many ways is a metaphor for experiencing life. The new CD reflects the juxtaposition of emotions where jazz and the High Holidays intertwine.”

In reality, the range of emotions this CD evokes most likely will be limited to the happier, less introspective end of the spectrum, but that’s not a bad thing. Sim Shalom’s Live Jazz High Holidays is a well-produced live recording that captures the positive energy in ZEB’S at last year’s services. It is an enjoyable and uplifting CD.

A downloadable version is available at cdbaby.com/cd/rabbistevenblane for $9.99 US, or 99 cents US per song. For more information about Sim Shalom, including how to join its services online, visit simshalom.com.

World musicians play

Itamar Erez will perform together with Liron Man and François Houle on Sept. 11 at VCC Music Auditorium. (photo from CWR)

On Sept. 11, Itamar Erez takes to the stage with two of his “favorite musicians on earth”: Liron Man and François Houle.

Presented by Caravan World Rhythms, World Trio will take place at Vancouver Community College Music Auditorium. Just last month, Erez returned from Germany and Tunisia; he leaves for Colombia about a week and a half after the VCC concert.

“It has been busy and not always easy touring,” Erez admitted to the Independent, “but the thing is that I really enjoy sharing my music with new audiences around the world and it gives me more energy and enthusiasm to continue in my way and to create and perform.

“This year, I have played in Germany, Austria, Cyprus, India, the U.S.A., Canada, Tunisia, to name a few places. Tunisia was definitely a highlight. I played with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, the great sufi musician, in front of 6,000 people, got to visit the old city of Carthage and Sousse, and enjoyed the good Tunisian food and their warm hospitality. This summer, I also performed (with my percussionist, Yshai Afterman) at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which was great. And, a few days later in Freiburg, we collaborated with Iranian musicians from Isfahan in a program called Face to Face – Music from Iran and Israel. It was really an amazing experience.”

Last year was also a remarkable one for Israel-born Erez, and not just for his many performances. Adding to the honors he has received over the years for his work, he garnered the 2014 ACUM and Landau prizes for special achievement in jazz.

Erez has two CDs with the Adama Ensemble – Desert Song (2006) and Hommage (2010) – and one with Afterman, New Dawn (2013). About his work with Afterman, a fellow Israeli, he said, “This duet has been working since 2011 and is touring extensively in Europe and Asia. We are very proud of this CD – in a duet setting, there is a lot of freedom to each musician, but at the same time you cannot hide behind other musicians. There is a lot more responsibility to each of us, so it is very challenging.

“Antonio Serrano, master of the harmonica, who collaborated for a long time with Paco De Lucía, until his [De Lucía’s] recent death, is a special guest on this album and can be heard in two tracks,” added Erez, who is currently working on new material for an upcoming CD.

Erez (piano and guitar) will be joined by Man (handpan and percussion) and Houle (clarinet) at VCC.

“I have known François for a long time,” said Erez. “He premièred some of my music when I lived in Vancouver at the end of the ’90s. I was always impressed by his creativity and musical skills but we never got to collaborate together until now. François is a musician who can play anything, in any style, and always keep his own unique voice.

“Liron is a good friend and a brilliant musician,” he continued. “We started together the Lavo Ensemble in Israel about two years ago and toured there. Liron is one of the best handpan (known also as Pantam or Hang) player in the world, and a great flamenco guitarist. His energy for making music is really contagious.”

Since this past July, Erez once again calls Vancouver home. When he returns from Colombia, where he will play with the Lavo Ensemble, he will have a solo guitar set at West Coast Guitar Night on Oct. 17 at the Cultch. “I will also be teaching at the VSO School of Music starting this fall,” he noted.

Now that he has moved back, there will hopefully be many more opportunities to hear him play.

VCC Music Auditorium is at 1155 East Broadway St. Tickets for the Sept. 11, 8 p.m., concert are $20/$30 in advance from caravanbc.com or 1-800-838-3006, and $25/$35 at the door (students receive a $5 discount).

Impromptu interview

After having spent decades trying to visit Wilensky’s lunch counter, made famous by the Mordecai Richler novel and film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, I finally made it to the weekday-only Mile End joint in Montreal a couple of months ago.

It’s a modest place with a tiny menu – two main course options, a few beverages and – for those seeking vegetables – pickles. As I finished my Wilensky’s Special (a fried bologna, salami and mustard sandwich on a kaiser) chased with a chocolate egg cream, I spotted a neighborhood fixture finishing his hotdog: Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin), the Yiddish hip-hop artist and music producer. He has been dubbed “hip-hop’s answer to Mordecai Richler.”

We made our way to a St. Viateur patio for coffee as we spoke about his latest album, his growing up in Gatineau, Que., his love for early Yiddish film, his views on Zionism, and the art of musical “sampling.” Our impromptu interview was interrupted frequently. Like the King of Kensington, Socalled seemed to know everyone in the neighborhood.

Socalled had been on my radar since my husband brought home his Passover album, The Socalled Seder: A Hip-Hop Haggadah, 10 years ago. In that album, ads for Manischewitz, along with Passover dinner table chatter, are sampled over a driving hip-hop beat; the track “The Ten Plagues” features the lyricist rapping that “sometimes bad things happen to bad people for a good reason, you dig?,” the “Miriam Drum Song” features an urgent fiddle, and the hip-hop single called “Who Knows One” is heavily klezmer inflected.

His latest effort, Peoplewatching, is perhaps more accessible musically, and is frequently quite beautiful, though whatever Jewish aspect is there is much more subtle. Still, Dolgin insists that his Yiddish interests influenced him. He explained that the track “Never See You Again” features a chord progression from an Abraham Ellstein song used in the wedding scene of the 1936 film Yidl Mitn Fidl (Am, A7, D7, F7, E7, Am – for readers with a piano or guitar nearby). There are a couple of bits of klezmer. And there is a sad and pretty song about Shabbat candles starting a fire near his Hutchison Street apartment in Mile End.

As for the sampling so integral to his music, Dolgin describes it as “giving you sounds with the atmosphere cooked in…. It’s archeological. It’s like cultural alchemy.”

My fellow Canadians in particular will no doubt be tickled by the final track, “Curried Soul 2.0.” Familiar to radio listeners as the theme to the CBC Radio nightly current affairs program As it Happens, “Curried Soul” is featured here in an extended version of the remix that CBC invited Socalled to produce. In a charming bit of hyperbole, Dolgin told a CBC interviewer that he was daunted and floored by the opportunity to tinker with the show’s theme because he “heard it every single day of my life.”

It’s not only Canadian listeners who have been privy to that storied evening broadcast: some Israelis have been featured on the show as well, including Meretz MK Michal Rozen and Tel Aviv-based pollster and political commentator Dahlia Scheindlin.

These days, beyond promoting his new album, Dolgin is busy with a Yiddish barbershop quartet he founded called Julius, in homage to the Oscar Julius Quartet. Many of the songs Dolgin’s quartet performs were originally in Yiddish translated into English, which Dolgin helps put back into Yiddish.

I was curious about what motivated Socalled to seek out Yiddish in the first place (a trip to a Salvation Army vintage record collection supplemented by a textbook called College Yiddish) and whether his continuing interest in the language and culture has anything to do with a rejection of Zionism – the nationalist movement which sought to “negate the Diaspora” in its urgent, Hebrew nation-building project (not so, in his case).

“I don’t believe in countries or nationalism,” Dolgin said, “but if we are going to live in a world with countries or nations, it’s not insane for the Jews to have a country.” He added, “I think Palestinians should have a home, too.” That said, he stressed that he is “more ashamed by how Canada has treated its aboriginal people. I’m more worried about the report on residential schools.”

Politics aside, I wondered whether Dolgin gets to speak any Yiddish these days. He does: at Yiddish festivals around the world, with an “old Jew he met in Russia” and, most often, with his Chassidic landlord. It’s Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, after all.

Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. A version of this article was originally published on haartez.com. For an in-depth interview with Socalled, visit jewishindependent.ca/oldsite/archives/oct11/archives11oct07-01.html.

Constant musical evolution

Babe Gurr’s Butchart Gardens Summer Festival concert on July 24 is the first of several in July/August. (photo from Babe Gurr)

Musician Babe Gurr has a busy summer ahead with concerts at Butchart Gardens Summer Festival, Islands Folk Festival, Harmony Arts Festival and as part of the PNE’s Mosaic Concert Series.

The multiple-award-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer is well-known to many in the Jewish community, having performed at Rothstein Theatre and in the Chutzpah! Festival a number of times, including opening for Idan Raichel last year. Her most recent CD is Hearts Up to the Sun, which has earned deserved praise. On her website, Capilano University’s Gary Cristall – who, among many other career milestones, was a co-founder of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival – describes Hearts: “Musically, it is as hot as Louisiana hot sauce and the horn arrangements sound like they might well have come from there. Babe’s voice is sounding as good or better than ever. The band is great. But the songs … wow! The songs mark a step forward. They are even better than the ones she won awards for with her last release, SideDish.”

The Jewish Independent recently interviewed Gurr about her work and its beginnings.’

JI: I understand that it wasn’t until you were in your 20s that you joined a band and set off on a musical path. How did you end up joining a band, and what type of band was it? What were you doing (or planning on doing) as a job/career at the time?

BG: I joined my first band when I was 25 and it was a jazz/pop band, which was very stupid and daring of me as I knew nothing of jazz music other than what I heard of my parents’ album collection. I was living in Victoria at the time and working as a dental assistant, which never really fit as a job for me, but when I graduated high school, my parents didn’t think music could or would ever be an option and so steered me toward something respectable like working with teeth. Nothing against teeth – we all have and need them but, ugh, not for me. I really wanted to be involved with music and so I auditioned for this jazz/pop band and, amazingly, they took me under their wing and taught me the ropes of being in a band and, on the side, the lead guitar player, Dave English, would give me lessons on how to play the jazz chords on the guitar. Later on, I also started to sing and joined various bands over the years, playing rock, jazz, folk and top 40, before I started to write my own music.

JI: What was it about music that made you so passionate about it that you wanted to create it and try to make a living at it?

BG: That is a hard thing to put a finger on. I knew from a very young age I liked music and would lay on the floor with my head near my parents’ stereo speakers listening intently to the music. But I guess the pivotal point was seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show when I was a little girl – I just was completely wowed!

JI: You released Hearts Up to the Sun earlier this year, your fifth CD, I believe. How would you say your music/style has changed/evolved since your first recording?

BG: My music is a mash up of so many genres these days, pop, roots, blues, rock, world and a hint of jazz. I guess that is the result of the freedom one has when you are an independent artist and you have been around awhile, you just stop worrying about fitting in and create what you like, and then hope that you still have an audience for it.

JI: Do you have a specific creative process? If so, could you share how, in general, an idea becomes a song?

BG: I am fascinated by how a song will come to me – not that they are brilliant or complex but, still, it is a strange process, creativity. The music comes as a result of noodling on my guitar until I find something I like and the lyrics can be inspired by so many sources, some personal and others influenced by all that is happening around me.

JI: Could you tell me a bit about your band, how you guys got together, how long you’ve been playing together?

BG: I love the guys I play with, whether it is my three-piece or eight-piece band, they are all such talented players and so fun to work with. I have been playing with Nick Apivor, percussion/piano, for many years – I think we started to play in a duo in the late 1800s; actually, we met in our 20s. Then, I guess, violinist Tom Neville has been with me for about 10 or 12 years. The newer additions to the band are sax player Steve Hilliam, Malcolm Aiken on trumpet, Liam MacDonald on drums, Adam Popowitz on lead guitar and Darren Parris on bass.

JI: Are there any projects on which you’re currently working that you’d like to share with readers?

BG: There is a really interesting project that I will be involved with and we will be starting to workshop this summer, that puts together various dancers with a variety of musicians, but I am not able to talk about it yet – mum’s the word, for now.

JI: If there is anything else you’d like to add, please do.

BG: Another hat I like to wear is that of a record producer and I have been lucky enough to have produced a number of talented singers’ CDs along with my own. It probably is my favorite thing to do in the music business. I compare it to a painter who sits with a blank canvas with an idea and then takes that idea and expands and enhances it with colors and strokes or, in the musical sense, arrangements and various instruments and sounds. It is so exciting to hear a song come to life in the studio.

For information on Babe Gurr’s upcoming shows, visit babegurr.com.