Maya Rae performs April 9. (photo by Robert Albanese)
Only 13 years old and already a veteran of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Only 13 and already dedicating her time and talents to helping others.
Maya Rae and her Rhythm Band perform an evening of jazz and soul at Temple Sholom on April 9.
“This show is a benefit concert for the settlement of two Syrian refugee families,” Rae told the Independent. “If my music can make a difference towards helping people and making the world a better place, I can’t think of anything else that I’d rather be doing. Tikkun olam is about the pursuit of social justice and I believe strongly that we need to help refugees of all parts of the world to find a safe place to settle.”
She added, “Right now, the Syrian refugee crisis is one that is very prominent, and of epic proportions. Millions of innocent people have been displaced with nowhere to go. I felt compelled to participate and to do something meaningful at a local level. Our rabbi at Temple Sholom, Dan Moskovitz, has urged the Temple Sholom congregation to take action, and this is my way of doing so.”
Scheduled to join her at Temple Sholom are Luis Giraldo (piano), Eli Bennett (saxophone), Ayla Tesler-Mabe (guitar), Ethan Honeywell (drums), Evan Gratham (double bass) and Benjamin Millman (piano and ukulele).
The Grade 8 student at York House started taking singing lessons when she was in Grade 3. “My first official performance was for the jazz festival in 2012. I remember singing the solo part of ‘Lean On Me’ by Bill Withers, with Cecile Larochelle’s Anysing Goes choir supporting me with the beautiful chorus line. It was an extremely memorable experience for me.”
Earlier this year, she was asked by the organizers of the jazz festival – Vancouver Coastal Jazz and Blues Society – to perform in the Women in Jazz series, which took place in March. “As part of that preparation,” said Rae, “I was introduced to some wonderful young musicians who I asked to support me for those two shows. As we were preparing for those performances, I was inspired to do a benefit concert in my synagogue with the same set and the same musicians…. I’ve since decided to add another set, and a few more musical friends and surprises to expand the show. I’m really happy with the results so far and can’t wait for April 9th.”
Rae said she chooses to cover “songs that deliver meaningful messages through their lyrics. I also like to pick songs that could have impact on the listeners, and also spark awareness about the significant issues we are facing in this generation.”
She has a YouTube channel on which there are a few videos, including for the song “I’m Still Waiting for Christmas,” which was released last year and is on sale on iTunes, as well.
“I have co-written a few songs with various artists/musicians that will be released in the near future,” she said, adding that she is hoping to have more time to write this year.
“My goal is to continue to enjoy playing and making music with others,” she said. “It would certainly be a dream come true to make a living through my music.”
This summer, she’ll be busking on Granville Island, and she invited everyone to “please stop by.”
More information about Rae’s upcoming events and recordings can be found at mayaraemusic.com. For now, though, her focus is on the April 9 concert, which starts at 8 p.m., at Temple Sholom. Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for children/students, and the proceeds will aid two refugee families. RSVP to Temple Sholom at 604-266-7190 or register at templesholom.ca.
A-WA plays at the Chutzpah! Festival on March 12. (photo by Tal Givony)
For a breakup song, “Habib Galbi” is pretty darn upbeat. And the three women in the video – who are singing of a lover who has left – don’t seem too crushed. In fact, they end up dancing the Yemenite step with three young men in tracksuits and baseball caps, who seem to have popped in from a hip-hop video. Colorful clothing contrasts with bleak desert, a traditional melody pulses with a pronounced electronic beat. In a word, A-WA.
The three women are sisters Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim. They hail from the village of Shaharut in southern Israel. The video for the title track of their first CD was filmed nearby, though the sisters have been based in Tel Aviv for about five years now. “Tel Aviv is one of our favorite cities in the world and one of the coolest places in terms of culture, food, fashion and music,” they told the Independent in an email interview.
And they have been to many cities in recent years, touring all over Israel, Europe and now North America. On March 12, they perform at Biltmore Cabaret as part of the Chutzpah! Festival. The week later they’re in Toronto. The only other place they’ve performed in Canada to date is Montreal. “We had so much fun and we can’t wait to be back again!” they said.
A-WA’s CD Habib Galbi (The Eighth Note, 2015) is described as “electronic, funk/soul, folk, world and country”; its style, “Afrobeat.” Produced by Tomer Yosef of Balkan Beat Box, it comprises 12 traditional Yemenite songs that have been modernized with the help of Yosef’s unique vision, for sure, but the Haim sisters grew up listening to, creating and/or performing an eclectic musical mix, from “Greek music, Yemenite music, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, progressive rock and more,” according to their website. And they grew up in a culturally mixed household, with their father’s parents having come to Israel from Yemen and their mother being of Ukrainian and Moroccan heritage.
“We grew up in a very musical family,” they explained to the Independent. “Our parents are both music lovers and they used to play records around the house all the time; a lot of Middle Eastern stuff, but also a lot of great pop from the West. Our dad used to play his bouzouki and guitar every day – he’s obsessed with old Greek music. We have one brother and two younger sisters and they all sing and play instruments. Our brother is a sound engineer and he helped us from the very beginning to record demos for the album. Our littlest sister, Tzlil, is working on composing the film score of her dreams.”
When the sisters heard the recording by Yemeni singer Shlomo Moga’a of “Habib Galbi,” they were hooked. “From there,” reads their website, “a door was opened [to] a hidden treasure of ancient Yemenite women’s chanting, that was passed from generation to generation for centuries and has been recorded a few times. Moga’a was one of the only chief curators of these songs and after passing has left a legacy just waiting to be discovered.”
“When we released the track ‘Habib Galbi,’ we had no idea how people would react to it, but we loved it and wanted to share it with the world,” the sisters told the Independent. “We always had a good feeling but the fact that it went viral so fast and reached so many people worldwide is still overwhelming for us. It was such an awesome surprise!”
In an August 2015 article in the Forward, writer Madison Margolin describes A-WA – pronounced Ay-Wah, and meaning yes or yeah in Arabic – as “part of a movement that celebrates Jewish-Israeli cultural roots in Arabic. Now, after decades of discrimination, the younger generation of Mizrahim is rediscovering their Jewish ethnic identity as Middle Easterners and reclaiming their heritage.”
“It seems like there is a revival of Mizrahi culture and also a longing for the magic and simplicity of old times, not only in Israel, but in the whole world, and we think it’s great,” the sisters told the Independent. “People feel a strong desire to explore their histories, especially artists, who are constantly seeking inspiration from their roots. For us, Yemenite culture was always really fascinating and something we are very proud of.”
The sisters said that, in school, they all took dance, theatre, art and voice lessons, and performed as much as they could around the area. But then they went their separate ways for a spell. Tair got a BA in music and did her master’s at Levinsky College of Education, Liron got a degree in architecture and interior design, and Tagel studied illustration and visual communication.
“We started A-WA,” they said, “because we were always already playing music together and just wanted to keep creating, so the project was born. Music was always our passion and having our own band is a dream come true. We actually are best friends (really!) so working together is a lot of fun and it keeps our bond strong.”
About touring, they said, “Being on tour means having a very dynamic schedule with long hours of traveling, but the chance to meet new people, see cool places for the first time, expand our own perspectives, and opportunities to try a lot of different food, make it all worth it. It is also really challenging because of the feeling of being away from our home and family and close friends, but, in a way, it keeps us and the whole band very united.”
While they’ve already started working on their next album, the sisters said, “We’re mainly focused right now on the release of our debut Habib Galbi in the U.S. and Europe, but, in the meantime,” they admitted, “we’re already jotting down songs for the next album and finishing up collaborations with some musicians we’re really excited about. We will always keep true to our funky Yemenite sound and might mix in some English stuff, but as for the Greek” – the music their father loves so much – “we’ll have to wait and see.”
For more on A-WA, visit a-wamusic.com. Their March 12 performance at Biltmore Cabaret, 2755 Prince Edward St., starts at 8:30 p.m. For tickets ($29/$25/$21), call 604-257-5145 or visit chutzpahfestival.com.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has confirmed that it has invited Israeli singer Achinoam Nini (Noa) to perform at the Vancouver Jewish community’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations on May 11 at the Chan Centre.
After initial controversy because of Nini’s political views, including a petition that has stalled at just over 430 signatures and the withdrawal of funding by JNF Canada, Pacific Region, support has grown.
The Jewish Independent was one of the first to publicly support Federation’s decision, telling the Canadian Jewish News in a Feb. 19 article that the controversy was “unmerited,” and following up in a JI editorial that was published online Feb. 22 and in the newspaper last Friday. (jewishindependent.ca/lets-talk-about-nini) Also on Feb. 22, a group of more than 30 Israeli Canadians sent a letter urging Federation to “stick” to its invitation.
On Feb. 23, Federation announced two new event sponsors: the embassy of Israel in Canada and the consulate general of Israel in Toronto, which is the official representative office of the government of Israel in Ontario and the Western provinces. “We were thrilled when both the embassy and the consulate approached us with offers to be official sponsors of our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration,” said Stephen Gaerber, chair of the Federation board, in a statement. “As official representatives of the state of Israel, we see support from the embassy and the consulate as strong messages that there is room for diversity both within Israel and within our community. We are also very happy that the deputy consul general is once again planning to represent the state of Israel at our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration.”
JNF Canada chief executive officer Josh Cooper and president Jerry Werger issued a statement on Feb. 25 clarifying JNF’s position: “We want to be absolutely clear that JNF Canada is not protesting, boycotting, delegitimizing or censoring this event. After hearing from so many of our donors, we simply are not comfortable using charitable funds to support this particular artist.
“JNF Canada is a non-political organization which believes in strengthening the state of Israel for all of her citizens. It remains our position that Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations and other community events should be inclusive.”
Last week, Federation received letters of support that are cited here and can be found in their entirety at jewishvancouver.com.
In addition to saying, “in no way can we allow for differences of opinion to undermine those core values which unite us in our desire for a strong Jewish future with a strong Jewish democratic Israel at the centre,” Natan Sharansky of the Jewish Agency for Israel wrote, “As one who has often had the pleasure of enjoying Noa’s outstanding voice and spectacular talent, I applaud the Vancouver Federation and I know your Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations will be wonderful.”
The director general of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Alan Hoffmann, also issued a supportive statement: “Canada and Israel share the same democratic values that allow for a wide range of opinions, including diverse expressions of Zionism. An inclusive dialogue about Israel is at the heart of JAFI’s efforts to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel.”
Former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Mark Gurvis, who is now executive vice-president of Jewish Federations of North America, wrote, “In today’s political environment, which is so highly polarized, it has become all too common to brand political opponents as enemies – disloyal, treasonous. It isn’t unique to Israel – we see it today in every Western democracy. It is a phenomenon that is ultimately a far greater threat to communal or national cohesiveness than the different ideas themselves.”
Gurvis spoke of the compromise that was necessary to arrive at the recent landmark decision in Israel to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel. He concluded that there should be a place at the celebration of “Israel’s central place in our collective Jewish gestalt … for the broadest possible cross-section of people who love Israel. The only way we have a future together as a people is if we make our tent larger, and not smaller. It doesn’t mean we have to agree with one another. It just has to mean we recognize and accept each other’s place in our collective journey.”
Julia Berger Reitman and Linda Kislowicz of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA also stressed the importance of pluralism and the need to “support the values of Israel and Canada where democracy and freedom of expression are promoted.” They pointed out, “Artists often play a unique social role. Not only do they entertain us, they also help us to confront issues and stretch beyond the usual sensibilities. They help us find new forms of expression through their art.”
From several local rabbis, Federation received letters of support, or was copied on letters that thanked Israel’s representatives for Israel’s support and/or discussed the importance of a large tent and a multiplicity of opinions in Judaism. Writers included Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom, Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt of Congregation Schara Tzedeck and Rabbi Philip Bregman of Hillel BC. Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Infeld wrote a letter thanking Israeli Ambassador to Canada Rafael Barak and made a short video for his congregation, which can be viewed on the home page of jewishindependent.ca.
Members of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver – Moskovitz, Infeld, Rosenblatt, Bregman, Beth Tikvah Rabbi Howard Siegel, Har El Rabbi Shmuel Birnham and Or Shalom Rabbi Hannah Dresner – expressed their “appreciation to all of those that have come out in support of our community’s Yom Ha’atzmaut concert and celebration…. Our community, like others, has a spectrum of opinion about Israel, its policies and politics. We are grateful that the spirit of democracy, which is one of Israel’s trademarks in the Middle East, has been championed in Vancouver by Israel’s diplomats.”
The RAV letter concluded with the hope that members of the community would include the May 11 concert “among their observances of Yom Ha’atzmaut.”
More than 50 Jewish community organizations support the annual event.
Israel’s Victoria Hanna is coming to Vancouver for the Chutzpah! Festival (photo from Chutzpah!)
Victoria Hanna is unique. There is no doubt that her concert at the Chutzaph! Festival on Feb. 23 will be one of the most uplifting and intriguing performances you’ve ever seen.
A longtime vocalist and performer, Hanna’s mainstream popularity skyrocketed last year when the video of her song “Aleph-Bet (Hosha’ana)” went viral. She describes herself as a voice artist, and the phrase does best describe her work. Though music is a large part of it, Hanna explores the sounds that we make when we speak, the physical mechanics required to form letters, diacritics (the nekudot in Hebrew) and words, their meanings and those of the space into which they travel. She uses her whole body as an instrument, singing, voicing beats, gesturing with her arms, tapping her chest, stamping her foot. She is mesmerizing to watch and hear.
“I am very curious about voice and speech,” Hanna told the Independent. “I had a stuttering problem and it made me enter deeply into the act of voice.”
When Forbes Israel chose the Jerusalem-based artist as one of the 50 most influential women in 2015, it noted as one of her most important messages: “If you have a disadvantage you can turn it into a kind of gift.”
Hanna grew up in Jerusalem in a religious family, “in which the language and elocution of prayer were valued, above all other arts,” notes her bio. Hence, her source material: texts such as Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation, traditionally ascribed to Abraham) and the writings of 13th-century kabbalist Rabbi Abraham Abulafia.
“I grew up hearing both Iraqi-Persian and Egyptian liturgy,” she said, “and it influenced my art in the sense that I am completely intrigued by the scales and accents.”
The way in which Hanna presents the melodies and the rhythms of the texts gives listeners a sense of meaning even if they don’t understand the words.
“When I sing in ancient Hebrew for audiences who do not speak Hebrew,” she explained, it provides “a better understanding that language is sound, and music crosses boundaries.”
She also crosses boundaries between the seen and the unseen, making tangible the intangible. She uses letters, nekudot (or vowels), syllables and her whole body to create choreography in the space sound inhabits. She refers to it as “voicing space.”
“The concept,” she said, “means ‘to fill the space with voice,’ giving the voice action. Voice in action has to react to space. When you intend to put the voice into space, then it is called ‘voicing space.’”
Her art includes song and spoken word.
“Singing has to do with the purity of voice and speaking has the intention to deliver information,” she explained. “These two levels are mentioned in the kabbalistic scripts as two different dimensions.”
Her performances also include theatre, music, of course, and video or some form of visual. In a 2015 lecture-performance at Tel Aviv University (TAU), which she has posted on her website, she uses a dry-erase board to illustrate various concepts.
A graduate of Nissan Nativ Acting Studio, Hanna has performed around the world – in Mumbai, Berlin, Sao Paolo and Boston, to name only a handful of the diverse places she has been. Her Chutzpah! show in Vancouver marks her first visit to Canada.
Hanna recently released her second single, “22 Letters,” a “kabbalistic rap from Sefer Yetzirah.” In the TAU lecture, she explains that there are 22 letters (in Hebrew). These foundation letters are engraved by the voice, carved with breath set in the mouth in five places: in the throat, in the palate, in the tongue, in the teeth, in the lips. With these 22 letters, God depicted what would be formed and all that would be formed; He made nonexistence into existence. She connects the creation of letters, writing, to human conception, birth. Therefore, our souls are full of letters, from head to foot, and the letters combine with the nekudot, alternating sounds, back and forth, in many melodies.
Her work is thought-provoking as well as entertaining, but is there some specific understanding that she is seeking, or that listeners are supposed to glean? “The exploration is the purpose,” she said, examining the “meeting point between voiced language and space.”
And it’s a journey that many are now following her on. As to what about her personal search speaks to so many people, she said, “I think that voice is a universal code, the basis of everything. The word was created by sound.”
For more on Hanna, visit victoriahanna.net. Her Feb. 23 performance at Rothstein Theatre starts at 8 p.m. For tickets ($29/$25/$21), call 604-257-5145 or visit chutzpahfestival.com, where the entire festival schedule can be found.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
