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May 27, 2005
25 years of song 'n' shmooze
Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir celebrates at a spring concert June
5.
SIMA ELIZABETH SHEFRIN
The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir will be celebrating its 25th birthday
next month, with a special annual spring concert. By all accounts,
the choir's success has been measured not only by its musical achievements,
but also by the warm family atmosphere created by the choir's directors
and participants throughout its history.
The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir (VJFC) was founded in 1980 by choral
director Searle Friedman, with the aim of keeping Yiddish music
alive. The only Yiddish choir west of Winnipeg, the VJFC also sings
in Hebrew, Ladino, English and the languages of other Jewish homelands.
Friedman brought to the venture his German training in choral conducting,
as well as his experience with the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir. He
continued as choir director until his untimely death in 1990.
Many choir members affectionately recall the early days under Friedman's
direction.
"Searle was the most salt-of-the-earth, personable man you
would ever hope to meet. If you were in trouble, he never let it
go," said former member Stevie Steiner in an interview. "Every
day at choir there was a story, every day there was something funny,"
she added.
Steiner's sentiments are echoed by other members of the choir, present
and past. Heather Korbin tells a story about an occasion on which
Friedman, frustrated in his attempts to encourage the different
sections of the choir to blend together, finally turned to the singers
and insisted: "I want everybody here to get together and feel
each others' parts." The whole group collapsed in laughter.
While Friedman had ongoing health problems, he never lost his sense
of humor or his dedication to the project. Choir member Victor Neuman
spoke of visiting Friedman in the hospital on a day on which Friedman
appeared to be in poor shape. When Neuman asked him how he was,
the older man replied, "Well, you know Victor, I've gotten
great news from my cardiologist." Just as Neuman was breathing
a sigh of relief, Friedman added, "He's a tenor and he doesn't
like the choir he's in, and he might be joining us."
Friedman left behind a rich legacy of close to 100 choral arrangements
of traditional, contemporary and original Yiddish music, which the
Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir still performs. Current choir director
David Millard is working on a project, Preserving the Legacy, funded
by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation, to edit and computerize
Friedman's arrangements.
Millard himself, by all accounts, also seems to be something of
a treasure, as well as an excellent conductor. Millard, who has
a bachelor of music and a master's in linguistics, has been with
the choir about 10 years.
"Before that," Neuman explained, "David, who is an
Anglican, knew nothing of Yiddishkeit. At first, he had to rely
on our pronunciation. Over the years, he's dug into Yiddish in a
big way to the point that he's the choir authority on Yiddish now.
He knows the alphabet [and] has become something of a Yiddish scholar.
He has become one of us."
Neuman recounts how, on any given day, a whole choir rehearsal can
dissolve over a difference of opinion on how a Yiddish word is pronounced:
"Sometimes we argue for 15 or 20 minutes and, where some conductors
would curtail the debate, David gets right into it."
Sylvia Friedman, Searle Friedman's widow, is still a member of the
choir and continues to be a motivating force.
"I love the choir," she told the Bulletin. "You
can be dog tired before you go to choir and you go home singing.
It's just such an uplifting kind of hobby and I love the idea that
we're singing Yiddish songs and perpetuating Yiddish and bringing
pleasure, not just to the older people but to the younger people
if they allow themselves to be exposed to it."
Neuman suggested that people are drawn to the choir partly because
of the family atmosphere.
"We function as a family and have a lot of fun," he said.
"Every rehearsal is a good shmooze fest."
The choir is certainly open to all: you don't have to be Jewish
and you don't have to read music to join. To find out for yourself,
consider attending the celebratory concert on Sunday, June 5, at
2:30 p.m., at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, 6184
Ash St.
The mostly Yiddish program includes the première of "Fond
Memories of Ivje: A Medley of Yiddish Folk Songs," which was
arranged and offered to the choir by New York musician Thomas Garber.
Cantor Steve Levin, formerly of Beth Israel Synagogue, is the special
guest artist and choir soloists include Stephen Aberle, Andi Alexander,
Peter Alexander and the Jewish Western Bulletin's own Cynthia
Ramsay.
For more information about the choir, contact Donna at 604-325-1812.
Sima Elizabeth Shefrin is a visual and community artist
and the artist/co-ordinator of the Middle East Peace Quilt which
has been touring North America since 1999.
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