Friday, November 26, 2010

A Shabbos Treat - The Choir of KAJ Sings at Moriah Senior Center

The turnout was wonderful as the Choir of Khal Adath Jeshurun generously donated their time and talent to brighten the day of close to 100 senior citizens who turned out to enjoy a delicious lunch and a wonderful performance.
Here are some exerpts:











UPDATE: Videos available on Koshertube here here and here.

14 comments:

KAJ Choir Director said...

The choir is fortunate to have such a champion in the PR department.
Thank you for your continued support, and archival expertise!
Good Shabbos, ESF

BLD said...

Quite nice ! And nice to see the very fine Zekan Baiso, Mr. B. Moss -Amush!
Quick Q - Why all the books ? Most Jewish Choirs seem to be able to memorize the material. I presume that most of what is being sung here has been sung for many years. Just Wondering....

Yekkishe Bekishe said...

Thank you very much for the clips. I wish the Kehilo made recordings of the Choir practice on a regular basis, so that all of us Yekkes in Exile can have something to teach our children.

FBB said...

Wow. I didn't even realize I missed it until I listened to/ watched U'venucha Yomar, I have to say, I teared up a little.

Thank you.

Do you have Tzaddik Katamar? I saw it on the program you posted, I'd loooove to hear that, and have my kids hear it, since we sing it here every friday night!

G6 said...

FBB -
The Tzaddik Katomor is the only song that got chopped up.
I actually have it in two pieces.
Email me off blog and I'll try to send it to you.

KAJ Choir Director said...

BLD, thanks for your comment. There are a few parts to your question, which I will endeavor to answer. Firstly though, I wonder to which ‘Jewish Choirs’ you refer. If you have the opportunity, I invite you to check out YouTube videos of the London Jewish Male Choir, the Moscow Male Jewish Choir, the Great Synagogue Choir (Jerusalem) and the NY Synagogue Choir. All of these choirs are performing with music.
1. While it may be true that some choirs do not use music, when performing music that involves 3 or 4 parts, with intricate musical cues, the singers can benefit from seeing how the other parts relate to their own. This is no different than an orchestra, where every musician has his own music to read. While the choir could memorize music were it required, I am more interested in cultivating musicians than parrots. Having said that, every choir is certainly at liberty to perform with or without music.
2. Not all of the pieces sung yesterday are from the shul repertoire. Some have only recently been learned by the choir. Having said that, just because music has been sung ‘for many years’ does not preclude the opportunity to discover new nuances and musical expressions. I believe we read the same Torah year after year, and yet new interpretations and understandings of the texts are constantly being revealed to us.
3. The decision had been made in rehearsal that since some choir members needed to use music (we actually have NEW members who don’t yet know the 50 year old melodies; btw, the KAJ Choir is currently accepting resumes from qualified applicants) the entire choir would use music. Uniformity IS important in a performance, not only in sound but appearance.
I’m happy to answer any more questions you might have and thank you for taking the time to ask the question.
Gut Vokh.
KAJ CD

Hasya Ya'ara said...

This post is so exciting to me because I am just learning Hebrew, and every morning, I read Ma Tovu in Hebrew.

Hasya Ya'ara

WAdsworth3 said...

Thanks for posting!

PS: which Yigdal was sung?

G6 said...

It was one of the Lewandowski Yigdals (there are two).

fan said...

I thought SB is the choir leader

Avram said...

Fan-

You are partially correct. SB is the very worthy conductor of the choir. He directs us whenever we sing in shul. However, the choir is privileged to have the talented ESF as our musical director. He is the one who actually teaches and trains us. At those times when the choir performs other than in shul it is he who directs and accompanies the choir.

YW said...

The B'Tzeis Yisroël that they sung on Simchas Torah reminds me of when I sing it, I start trying one tune and I end up singing at least four different tunes.

YW said...

I really like the Onim Zemeros that they sang/sung (Sorry I don't have a Breuers education) today. I was wondering Where is origin of the tune? Do they practice it and if they do the next time they sing it could you video it and post it for our friends oversees and across the world could see the latest edition to the Kaj choir.

Avram said...

The Anim Zemiros that the choir sang this past Shabbos is based on the zemer "Koh Ribbon Olam" composed by Kaminski and arranged for the choir by its late musical director Seymour Silbermintz z"l. We only sang it once or twice at that time until it was discovered recently by our chazan Ezra Lasdun. He requested that we sing it in honor of his son's bar mitzvah and it is now back on the regular rotation.