Musicians
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!
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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.
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It's programming time. This is the phase of a program's life when I cast a wide net. The aim is to get MORE repertoire at hand than I will actually need for "Days of Awe and Rejoicing," and then I start to plan and winnow and see what will make the most compelling through-line of music. It's a totally different process from rehearsing or performing.
I am jealous sometimes of those conductors who just have to say, "Okay, let's do Brahms 3 and Beethoven 8 and Rach 2 with a great pianist." I suppose I brought it on myself because of the sorts of programming that Chicago a cappella does. Our concerts tend to include about 20 short pieces -- an hour and a half, including intermission.
So finding cool Jewish classical music includes:
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Submitted by Jon Weber on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 12:23pm.
Greetings from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! At long last, I am happy to make my debut in the blogosphere as a new contributor to Chicago Classical Music.
As the Education Manager of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, I am afforded a constant stream of opportunities to be inspired by the music performed at Symphony Center--a haven for the transcendental experiences created by the world's greatest collective of classical musicians and the best guest artists anywhere.
But what gives me the greatest charge of excitement is seeing young people witness--and be captivated by--the expressive capacity demonstrated by our musicians.
Such was the case at the June 5 culminating performance to our Silk Road season.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 11:18am.
Jim Hirsch is on vacation. Today's guest blogger is Chicago Sinfonietta clarinetist Dileep Gangolli.
An emerging genre in classical music - classical crossover - has captured a great deal of attention recently. And for good reason.
The statistics are some of the most compelling in the entire music 
industry according to the respected polling firm A.C. Nielsen.
Classical crossover album sales (yes, consumers still buy CDs!) were up 22.5% while popular genres were down including rap (down 20.7%) and R&B (down 18.4%).
Did someone say classical music is dead?
So what is classical crossover and why am I, a musician in the Chicago Sinfonietta, writing about it here on Jim's blog?
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The envelope, please...
I am happy to announce that we finished our recent round of callback auditions, and I have offered a spot on the Chicago a cappella roster to both of the talented baritones who made it to the final round.
Brian Streem will sing the first and fourth programs in our 07-08 season, and Michael Boschert will sing the middle two.
For more on the upcoming season, take a look at:
http://www.chicagoacappella.org/concerts/Brochure_200708.pdf
I hope that each of you will have a chance to hear the ensemble as constituted with these terrific baritones.
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Amy Iwano. I was on a Southwest Airlines flight the other day, off to attend to some family business in Ohio before the Grant Park Music Festival is scheduled to swing into action later this week. Leafing through Spirit Magazine, the Southwest Publication designed to keep our minds off turbulence and on happy, interesting thoughts, I happened upon an article featuring the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ own Amy Iwano.
The subtitle reads, “A musician (and mother) picks the best classical albums for kids.” Since Amy is an expert on chamber music AND kids, I urge you to pick up a copy this month to see what she has to say. If you don’t have access to a Southwest flight this month, check out the article online by clicking here. Go Amy.
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Callbacks are second-round auditions. At Chicago a cappella, they have one primary aim: to make sure that a singer will blend well with the other people in his/her section.
This is harder than it may seem at first glance. True, our first round weeds out most people. However, even a singer with the right "chops" for the ensemble may not have a voice that blends particularly well with the other person in the section.
One cannot predict with much accuracy (at least I cannot) how well a given pair of voices will blend. I realize--well, I really should say, I have learned primarily by hard knocks--that two-to-a-part is the very hardest sort of blend in the world. Wishing has nothing to do it; the ears don't lie!
So last Wednesday we had auditions for the two finalists who emerged from first-round auditions.
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From time to time a singer will audition and simply blow me away. This happened twice yesterday. In neither case was the singer auditioning for an actual vacancy; we just have open auditions now, so people came and showed their stuff, knowing that if an opening comes up down the road, they will be considered for a slot in the ensemble and will be brought in for a second-round callback at that time.
Twice yesterday, a singer came in and simply took over the room. The two of them were different in temperament. One was supremely confident - she just exuded that she was in charge, not in an arrogant way, just that she was being asked to be the soloist, and she did. What a treat! The other was a little more shy but no less compelling, with a voice that filled the room and rang and rang, with pure line and terrific emotion and a voice that I didn't really want to stop hearing.
I know I probably sound like an old fart in saying this: it is simply one of the most refreshing things in the world for me to hear a singer who totally knows what she or he is doing.
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Listener Memories, Recordings and Rare Interviews Pre-empt Regular Music Schedule
98.7WFMT, Chicago's Classical Experience, is paying tribute to Russian musician and human rights activist
Mstislav Rostropovich who died this morning in Moscow. Today, Friday April 27, and tomorrow morning, Saturday April 28, the station is airing recordings from its archives of Rostropovich cello performances and conducting various orchestras around the world. In addition, the station is airing voicemails and reading emails from listeners recounting memories of the world-renowned musician, who visited Chicago many times during his lifetime. Rare interviews have also been posted on wfmt.com.
The special tribute pre-empts previously scheduled musical programming. "Today represents a major loss for the classical music world" said WFMT Program Director
Peter Whorf, "and it's only appropriate that we use our archives to pay tribute." On his blog, Whorf posted a rare audio clip of composer
Dmitri Shostakovich speaking of his friend Rostropovich as well as a recent interview producer
Jon Tolansky conducted with him in 2002. One Internet listener remarked via email that "the great significance of Mstislav Rostropovich to the music world and the world in general is tremendous. As you played his recording of what he played at the [collapse of the] Berlin Wall, I was deeply touched. Your efforts all morning to honor this great person is just one more reason what we love your station. "Thanks so much for all you do daily to enrich our lives." More information about 98.7WFMT and 98.7WFMT Streaming is available at www.wfmt.com .
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