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October 30, 2009
An eclectic musical program
Har El is presenting The 3 Cantors with Marvin Hamlisch.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Tickets for The 3 Cantors in Concert with Marvin Hamlisch go on sale Nov. 2. Having sold out everywhere they've performed, concert creator Cantor Alex Stein recommended that community members buy their tickets early for this show that will not only entertain, but also benefit several local organizations.
Presented by the North Shore Jewish Community Centre/Congregation Har El, Stein, who is senior cantor at Toronto's Adath Israel Synagogue, and New York-based Hamlisch will be joined by Cantor Shimon Farkas from Sydney, Australia, and Cantor Yaakov Motzen from Miami, Fla. The men will be accompanied by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum in June.
"I was in Calgary and I wanted to do a concert, I wanted to do something out of the box," explained Stein about the idea for The 3 Cantors, which he conceived when he was the cantor at Calgary's Beth Tzedec. "I wanted to have a concert with a symphony orchestra in the synagogue. It's something that had not really been done before. So, in 2005, we ventured with my synagogue and brought in what was known as The 3 Cantors in Concert and we did that with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. We sold out the event."
Stein added, "After that concert, somebody mentioned to me, 'How're you going to top this one?' That's when I went into thinking mode and I wanted to bring in somebody who was Jewish that could complement the cantors."
Stein said that Hamlisch was his first choice. "He can certainly conduct us; he can bring us in, he can bring us out," said Stein. "It's teamwork: a soloist needs a conductor, a conductor needs a soloist. So that's why I thought, let's go with Marvin Hamlisch. First of all, he's a household name. The other element that I liked about it was that it takes away from the whole cantorial side of it and brings in a different element, of the Broadway side."
About his fellow singers, Stein explained, "Cantor Farkas from Australia I grew up with. He was the cantor when I was a child listening, he was like a mentor to me.... Cantor Motzen I was first introduced to when I was 12 years old. I was invited by Cantor Farkas to sing at a concert in Sydney and in Melbourne, in Australia, and that was a three cantors concert that featured myself, Farkas and Motzen."
Stein said, "That was something I wanted to replicate. It was a personal thing for me as well. I still maintain an unbelievable, close relationship with the two cantors."
Stein first met Hamlisch at a concert about a year prior to the 2007 Three Cantors performance in Calgary, for which Hamlisch joined the singers.
"We met each other, we spoke of the idea and then, when we had the first concert and we had to think, who are we going to bring in [next time], my heart was leaning towards Hamlisch," explained Stein. "We were very lucky that we were able to get him and he accepted the invitation."
In 2008, The 3 Cantors concert sold out again, this time in Australia. The Vancouver performance will mark the sixth concert that Stein and Hamlisch have shared the stage in North America. The Orpheum show will benefit the North Shore Jewish Community Centre/Congregation Har El, as well as Canuck Place Children's Hospice, the CKNW Orphans Fund and the North Shore Hebrew School.
Stein said he and his family – his wife, Shoshanah, and their four children – have several friends at Har El, including some of the event committee, which comprises event chair Candace Kwinter, Heather Berger, Jessica Eken, Susan Hilton, Emmy Maerov, Ruth Ross and Doreen Rozen.
In addition to his relationships here, Stein said, "I love Vancouver for the simple reason: I'm born and bred in Sydney, Australia, [and] I can open my eyes in Vancouver, take away the mountains and I honestly believe that I'm back in Sydney, Australia."
Unfortunately, Stein won't have much time to enjoy Vancouver when he's here in the summer, as he's got several performances scheduled for that period. "This is what we do for our supper," he said. "We literally sing for our supper."
But it's much more than just a job for Stein, who spoke of his love of Jewish music and his desire to share it with others.
"My late grandfather, of blessed memory, was a cantor and an opera singer," he said. "My mother was an opera singer for 30 years in Sydney, Australia. Music was in the air. I breathed music, I slept with the music, I heard the music constantly. I remember, as a little child, my mother would be vocalizing, my grandfather would be vocalizing, and then, as a four-year-old, I would try and copy what they were doing. The talent was noticed at a very young age and I was also sort of a weird kid: I would go to synagogue and I would love listening to the cantor and the choir.... There was a running joke in the family that when I was circumcised, the mohel, the person who did my circumcision, used a tuning fork and not a knife."
Stein mentioned the possibility of a North American Jewish organizational tour for the concert.
"The whole thing about the concept," he said, "is that it's something that is not necessarily done.... It features three different elements. First of all, you're getting three cantors, and then you're getting a different element, where you're getting a full symphony orchestra, and then you're getting the third component, where you're getting Broadway and Marvin Hamlisch. You put the three of those together, to me, that's why I'm passionate about it: I just think it's a phenomenal, phenomenal concert."
The 3 Cantors in Concert will take place on Wednesday, June 23, 7:30 p.m., at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets are $180 each and are available at Ticketmaster, 604-280-4444. A tax receipt will be issued for $90 of each ticket plus any additional donation. For sponsorship information, contact Kwinter at 604-761-5000. For more information, visit 3cantorsvancouver.com or e-mail [email protected].
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