(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – “Fiddler OFF the Roof,” a chamber music program exploring the question “What Is Jewish Music?” and featuring works by Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Mahler, Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, Max Bruch, plus the world premiere of contemporary composer Paul Schoenfield’s “ZEMER,” takes place at the Mahaiwe on Sunday, April 17, at 3pm, as part of the Close Encounter with Music series.
The fascinating phenomenon of Jewish music — spanning multitudes of cultures and centuries — its ancient roots, its meandering trails that wend their way across continents, and its contribution to the American voice – will be examined in this diverse concert of art music, folk, and popular songs.
Medieval Iberian ballad repertoire will meet German Enlightenment in Bruch’s Kol Nidre and Mendelssohn’s incomparable Piano Trio in D minor. Ravel’s rendition of Kaddish, which recycles the ancient chant in Aramaic for the departed dating back to the First Century, will be sung by tenor Alex Richardson, who this season appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Symphony, at Santa Fe Opera and Spoleto USA.
The program will include a world premiere of “ZEMER” (“Song”) for cello and piano by celebrated American composer Paul Schoenfield. Exemplifying the kaleidoscopic exploration of diverse traditions and the symbiosis of East and West, Schoenfield’s ZEMER is an adaptive reshaping of liturgical material to concert hall spirit, based on a melody by local composer Cantor Max Roth.
Works from the world of klezmer include Divertimenti from “Gimpel the Fool” by David Schiff and Béla Kovács’s “Klezmer Medley,” a tribute to Argentinian-born klezmer clarinetist/composer Giora Feidman.
Joining artistic director Yehuda Hanani and tenor Alex Richardson are clarinetist Paul Green, pianist Michele Levin and violinist Sarah McElravy. Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, popular songs by Gershwin and Kurt Weill, Kol Nidrei, Sephardic melodies by Paul Ben-Haim and Eastern European melodies by Joseph Achron offer a rich spectrum — but only the tip of the iceberg — of what constitutes Jewish music. Since in Jewish humor the answer to a question is always another question, “What Is Jewish Music?” raises many theories, but more questions.
A program essay by Seth Rogovoy — author of “The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover’s Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music” — addressing the concert’s theme will be provided.
Cellist Yehuda Hanani has performed with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony and many others. He has been a guest at Aspen, Chautauqua, Marlboro, Yale at Norfolk, Round Top (TX), Blue Hill, Bowdoin, Great Lakes, Ottawa Festival and Finland Festival, among many others, and has collaborated with fellow musicians including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Itzhak Perlman, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, and the American and Tokyo quartets. In New York City, Yehuda Hanani has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, The Frick, and the Metropolitan Museum’s Grace Rainey Rodger Auditorium. A prolific recording artist, his pioneering recording of the Alkan Cello Sonata received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters With Music, he has been at the forefront of presenting thematic concerts with commentary in cities across the U.S. He is professor of cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and artistic director of the Catskill High Peaks Festival. His broadcasts on Northwest Radio WAMC’s “Classical Music According to Yehuda” with Dr. Alan Chartock reach thousands of listeners weekly.
By age twelve, clarinetist Paul Green was already studying with the noted clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff. A year later, he was recommended to Leonard Bernstein and performed and recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals in a Young People’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic. Invited by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1965 to perform at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, he played with such artists as Jacqueline DuPre and Richard Goode. That year he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, giving his solo debut in New York in 1966. He attended Yale University, where he studied with Keith Wilson and became principal clarinetist of the New Haven Symphony. There he received a BA in Theory and Composition, and continued at the Juilliard School, receiving an MS in Performance. In 1997, he was an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. Information Agency, performing in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In 2007 he received an MM in Jazz Performance from Florida International University. Presently, he has an active musical career both in Western Massachusetts and South Florida. As co-director of “A Summer Celebration of Jewish Music” and director of the Jewish Jazz Project, he presents a wide variety of Jewish music throughout Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Festival appearances have included Colorado Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Festival, Manchester Music Festival and the Festival at Sandpoint. He is a faculty member of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, the Berkshire Music School, and the Hotchkiss School. In Florida, he is the director of Klezmer East, a founding member of the Miami Jazz Coop, and principal clarinetist of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra.
Michele Levin, pianist and composer, has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike as a multi-faceted musician of extraordinary sensitivity, virtuosity and dedication to the art of making music. Ms. Levin is a graduate of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music as a double major in piano and composition. She began her studies there at the age of eleven, and is the first woman ever to receive their Master’s Degree in Composition. The Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Washington, D. C. awarded her first prize, in competition with pianists from 14 countries. Ms. Levin has performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Florida Philharmonic, the Miami Chamber Symphony, the Sinfonia Virtuosi, the New World Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Virginia Symphony. She has also given solo and chamber music recitals in major cities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Central and South America. In demand as a chamber musician, she has toured with violinists Joseph Silverstein, Peter Zazofsky, Ruggiero Ricci, Donald Weilerstein and Bayla Keyes; with violists Paul Neubauer, Atar Arad, and Steven Ansell; with cellists Yehuda Hanani, Ronald Thomas, and Wolfgang Boettcher; and with harpist Heidi Lehwalder. Ms. Levin appears regularly with the Muir String Quartet and as guest artist with the Miami String Quartet. In 2007, the Muir Quartet gave the world premiere of Levin’s own String Quartet No. 1, which was dedicated to them. In 2010, she joined members of the Muir in the world premiere of Joan Tower’s Piano Quartet. She has recorded for Koch International, Eco-Classics and Hungaroton.
Canadian violinist Sarah McElravy is a founding member of the award winning Linden String Quartet. She has toured extensively throughout Canada, Europe, and the United States, performing in some of the world’s great halls including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. As an educator, Ms. McElravy has broad experience, having been in residence at the music departments of Yale University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Idaho and frequently presenting master classes, lectures, and educational outreach performances at various colleges around the U.S. Notable residencies include those with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and the Caramoor Center for Music as the 2011-12 Ernst Steifel Quartet-in-Residence. Ms. McElravy has worked closely with composers Gabriel Kahane, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Andy Akiho and recorded an album of music from eight prodigious young composers who were mentored by Chickasaw composer and pedagogue Jerod Impichaachaaha’ Tate, released by Azica Records. With the Linden Quartet, she was winner of the gold medal and grand prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, a management contract with Concert Artists Guild out of New York City, the Coleman-Barstow Prize at the 2009 Coleman National Chamber Ensemble Competition, and the 2010 Hugo Kauder Competition. Ms. McElravy is the founder and artistic director of Chamber Music Society México (CMSMx), an organization dedicated to presenting world-class chamber music in México City. She received her BM and MM degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and subsequently completed a two-year graduate string-quartet-in-residence program at Yale University’s School of Music, mentored by the Tokyo String Quartet.
American tenor Alex Richardson is increasingly in demand as a leading tenor in opera companies around the world. Last season he sang in Salome at Opera San Antonio, in Susannah with Toledo Opera, was featured in Szymanowski’s King Roger with Charles Dutoit and the Boston Symphony, as tenor soloist in the Verdi Requiemat the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as tenor soloist in a concert of opera highlights with the Carolina Philharmonic, and in Stravinsky’s Les Noces at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. He joined the roster of singers at The Metropolitan Opera this year, where he will be covering the role of Alwa in a new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu, directed by William Kentridge and conducted by James Levine. In 2014 Mr. Richardson sang in Salome with the Boston Symphony and Andris Nelsons, was seen as Molqi in John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer at Long Beach Opera, as Pinkerton inMadama Butterfly with Dicapo Opera at The Tilles Center, and as the tenor soloist in Louis Andriessen’s De Materie with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Concert Hall. He performed at the Spoleto Festival USA singing the role of Vá?a Kudrjáš in Ká?a Kabanová; was featured as a soloist in the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with Charles Dutoit and the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, sang the title role in the American premiere of Franco Faccio’s Hamlet at Opera Southwest and Baltimore Concert Opera, and wrapped up the year with performances of Cavalleria Rusticanawith the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. Mr. Richardson has appeared with St. Petersburg Opera, Winter Opera Saint Louis, New York City Opera, and Washington National Opera among many companies. OperaNews has noted his “Vocal luminescence… singing with passionate lyricism and a deep burgundy coloring.” As a roster member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, he sang in recital on the concert series “On Wings of Song” and completed residencies and recitals in towns throughout America. Mr. Richardson has been a featured soloist at Tanglewood numerous times—most recently in the 75th Anniversary Gala Concert, which was televised on PBS’s Great Performances. He also has performed the role of Vogelgesang in Die Meistersingerunder the baton of James Levine, and the solos in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Maestro Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Mr. Richardson debuted the role of the Soldier Ruiz Alonzo at Santa Fe Opera in Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar, directed by Peter Sellars. Subsequently, he performed the role of the Bullfighter, making his debut with the Atlanta Symphony in Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center and at the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. He made his debut in the same role with the Chicago Symphony at Chicago’s Symphony Hall. Originally from Las Cruces, New Mexico, Mr. Richardson holds degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Manhattan School of Music.
“Fiddler OFF the Roof”
Sunday April 17, 3 pm
Michele Levin, piano; Paul Green, clarinet; Alex Richardson, tenor
Sarah McElravy, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello
Tickets: $45 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $25 (Balcony)