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Dave's beta blog post

eads — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:33:18 -0400

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Coming Full Circle: from Minsk to Chicago

Jonathan Miller — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:00:10 -0400

Yesterday I guest-conducted the Jewish Community Singers of Metro Chicago, a terrific volunteer civic group of about 70 singers called (in Hebrew) Kol Zimrah. I was brought in to lead KZ for a half-dozen weekly rehearsals and then the final concert, performed at the lovely Weinberg center at the corner of Lake Cook Road and I-294. The house was packed, with people overflowing to the patio outside, which fortunately had been supplied with speakers from the audio system that was carrying us on microphones.

The program lasted about an hour. Would you believe that there was a connection between one of the songs and my own grandmother? Oy! As it turned out, the program contained a "niggun" in Yiddish. A "niggun" [plural "niggunim"] is a wordless tune, which in this case sounded like "tschiribim-bam-bam," and so on. This particular niggun was arranged by Alice Parker, who was Robert Shaw's longtime collaborator, and a brilliant arranger in her own right.

However, more interesting to me was the composer of the original tune, Lazar Weiner. I learned from a friend that Lazar Weiner, who wore many hats in the NYC Jewish-music scene a hundred or so years ago, was the music director of the Freyheyt Gezang Vereyn (Freedom-Song Union), basically the choral-music arm of the Communist Party in New York City in the 1920s. Here is a picture of Weiner conducting.

And who sang with Lazar Weiner in the Freyheyt Gezang Vereyn? None other than my father's mother, Lillian Cohen, born Leah Krikun in Minsk, what is now Belarus. Now THAT is a small world!

All of the repertoire on yesterday's concert was Jewish. Most of it was in Hebrew; there was that "niggun" in infectiously fun Yiddish, and one in English. Much of the music is somewhere in the region between liturgical and classical music. I decided to feature scores by Max Janowski, my great mentor, as well as works by Lewandowski, Bonia Shur, Yehezkel Braun, Bob Applebaum, Donald McCullough (a lovely song on a Jewish text), Chaim Parchi, and others.

The pieces ranged from Chassidic melodies to the Yiddish "niggun", to classical music by Israeli, European, and American composers and arrangers. The choir sang its collective heart out, and we brought down the house. The energy and spirit were wonderful; this is an impressive choir, with some very good soloists and a strong track record of championing the music of living composers, including commissions, so its mission is close to my heart.

How does music come full circle in your life? I am sure that there are remarkable connections all over the classical-music world just like the one about my grandmother. I can only imagine that, most of the time, people become involved in classical music through *personal connections* to other people who are making classical music, and it goes on from there. What are your connections? Share them with this online community. We'd like to hear your stories too.

Making Someone Happy

Jonathan Miller — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:31:40 -0400

Last weekend, Chicago a cappella had a special performance, along rather unusual lines. A longtime patron was having a big birthday, and his wife hired us to go the Unitarian Church of Evanston for a surprise party and concert.

Sometimes it's hard to know if you're affecting someone, but this was not one of those times. The fortunate birthday boy, Craig (who was turning 50) sat up in the front row, enjoying all of it. One of the requests was the hilarious song by Paul Carey, "Mashed Potato/Love Poem" from the cycle "Play With Your Food!" We hadn't sung it in a few years, and it was wonderful to once again witness that song's effect on an audience.

It was especially touching when Kathryn Kamp and Betsy Grizzell sang a duet that had been written for Craig's wedding thirteen years ago. Then we sang "Happy Birthday" in wonderful harmony, with all the people who had gathered in that reverberant space. At that point, Craig said, "I don't know if my heart can take much more of this," to which I replied, "Okay, we're done!" (which we were).

I have often taken pride in the intimate connection we have with our audiences, even with 300 people in the concert hall. This was a lovely occasion when the intimacy was the total point, and all of the singers totally delivered.

To Amy, Kathryn, Susan, Betsy, Trevor, Hoss, Aaron, Matt, and Ben: thank you.

To Craig and Judith: thanks to you of course, and congratulations, and many happy returns!

Have a good week.