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October 8, 2010
Joy from Jewish music
Sol Zim joins locals for Chanukah concert.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
If you’ve ever attended a service at a Conservative synagogue, you know Cantor Sol Zim’s music. His stated mission is “to spread the joy of Jewish music and culture throughout the world, to adults and children alike.” And he’s the perfect man for the job.
“Let me put it this way: I started in cantorial when I was three years old,” Zim told the Independent in a phone interview from New York. “My father put me on the pulpit. My father was a cantor; I come from many generations of cantors.
“From that early age, I had such a natural voice and then, of course, as I grew older, my father sent me away [from Portland, Maine] to boarding school at the yeshivah in New York ... but he wouldn’t let me be at this school unless I was involved with a choir because he saw that I had musical abilities in that area and I was always singing.”
When he was younger, Zim sang with some of the best Jewish choirs in the New York area and he has since performed sold-out shows throughout North America, England, Australia, South America, South Africa and Israel. The local Jewish community will have a chance to sing along with the world-class performer when he headlines Unite2nite, a pre-Chanukah concert put on by Jewish Seniors Alliance and the Louis Brier Foundation, along with King David High School, Richmond Jewish Day School, Vancouver Talmud Torah and Vancouver Hebrew Academy. Zim will be joined by a 10-piece orchestra, the Vancouver Jewish Men’s choir and the KDHS, RJDS and VTT choirs.
The cantor, who has a lifetime contract at the Hollis Hills Jewish Centre of Queens, N.Y., is also a prolific composer. He has written hundreds of recognizable melodies and arrangements for the Conservative movement, such as versions of L’Dor V’Dor, Adon Olam and Sim Shalom. Though he has a rabbinical degree, he said, “I don’t use it. I love singing and I’ve felt, through music, there is a way to reach people even more than just sermonizing.”
There have been 18 books of Zim’s music published. Nonetheless, Zim remains grounded. “I’m a community person,” he said. “I’m glad that my wife helped make my choices at a young age,” he said, referring to the decision to stay in New York when he was tempted by a contract offer from the Vienna State Opera. At the suggestion of Jewish American tenor Jan Peerce, Zim had started studying opera and found he had quite a talent for it. He performed more than 20 operatic roles and was interested in pursuing that path, but his wife wanted a more stable life for herself and their then two young children. “I don’t want to be a vagabond,” is what she told Zim, who listened and, he said, that’s when he began to do concert work.
“I love what I do,” said Zim, who feels a responsibility to impart his love of Jewish music to younger generations.
“That’s why I insisted that the concert that I do have children, children who are from the day schools, and I wanted them involved, that’s what I insisted upon. Why? Because I think it’s very important that they feel ... you know, they’ll listen to a pop song – I want the Jewish music to get into their veins, too, so that they feel, when they go into a synagogue, they can feel a little spirituality, because they’ve done it as kids.”
Zim has performed with thousands of children around the world over the years. “Younger people have to feel that they’ve been part of something and it may spark something within them to want to feel Jewish,” he said. “Going to a very good parochial school or a private school ... or a yeshivah, it’s good, but sometimes they don’t even feel special. But when they do a concert and they’re on stage, it gives them presence, it gives them a feeling of importance, from young to old,” he added, noting that he has performed with many adult choirs as well.
About the upcoming Vancouver concert, Zim said his goal is for the audience to leave saying, “I’m so proud to be Jewish, instead of just saying, I went to another concert.”
Jewish music has been Zim’s life and it’s something that, though he enjoys many different styles, “I do believe that I, as a Jew, my mission is to bring Jewish music on the best, highest level to my audiences, to make sure that they feel a spiritual, emotional contact with me through my music.”
Unite2nite takes place at the River Rock Casino Resort Theatre in Richmond on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m. For tickets, call 604-261-5550 or 604-280-4444.
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