Bridging Two Worlds: A Yiddish Musical Journey at Symphony Space

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Bridging Two Worlds: A Yiddish Musical Journey

(Past) Sun, Jun 3 at 4:30 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space
$30/$20

music

The Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus, with Conductor Binyumen Schaechter, is back at Symphony Space after sold-out Yiddish concerts in each of the last 4 years. English translations always provided.

This year's concert features the 1956 Birnbaum/Rauch operetta, Sholem Aleichem dir, Amerike! ("Hello, America!"), based on Sholom Aleichem's Motl, Peyse dem khazns ("Motl, Peyse the Cantors' Son"), and recorded in 1959 with Molly Picon in the role of Motl. The operetta covers the never-a-dull-moment journey of Motl with his family on the ship to America. Soloists in this work include Temma Schaechter of Di Shekhter-tekhter as Motl, Donna Breitzer, Erik Contzius and Jacob Feldman. The pianist is Shinae Kim.

This concert also includes works by the labor poets Dovid Edelstadt and Morris Rosenfeld (known as "The Poet of the Sweatshop"), and by the Soviet writers who lost their lives as a result of Stalin's purges, including Itsik Fefer, Izi Kharik, Moyshe Kulbak and Morris Pinchevsky. Also in this concert - works by the poets Kotlyar and Vladeck, and composers Gelbart, Gladstone, Handel, Polonsky and Schaefer.

Finally, there will be a World Premiere choral arrangement by Binyumen Schaechter of the song Mir lebn mit bitokhn ("We Live with Faith"). This is the closing number of the Yiddish musical, Shver tsu zayn a yid (English Title: "Double Identity"), adapted from Sholom Aleichem's play of the same name. Schaechter was commissioned to compose this musical (Book/Lyrics: Miriam Hoffman) in 1995 for the Folksbiene Theatre in honor of its 80th anniversary. The musical has subsequently been produced twice in Montreal and once in Vienna.

Visit thejppc.org for more info about The Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus / JPPC.

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