Over the last hundred years, Hanukkah has swelled in significance and popularity among the American Jewish community. In a twist, this trend strangely seems to suit the ancient rabbinic injunction that the holiday miracle ought to be publicized far and wide. In the last decade, social media has provided countless opportunities for increasingly creative, occasionally […]
Read MoreJewish communities can be found all over the world and can be heard speaking many different languages. Ladino is the vernacular favored by many Jews of Sephardic (Spanish) descent. Also called “Judaeo-Spanish,” it contains elements of Hebrew, Greek, and various Balkan dialects as well. The Bosnian-born songwriter Flory Jagoda brings us this infectious, sultry ode […]
Read MoreThis medieval poem so closely associated with Hanukkah is often sung to a triumphant, march-like tune based on a German drinking song. Benedetto Marcello, a Venetian contemporary of Vivaldi, composed this wandering, evocative melody that gives new life to the notion of “rededicating the altar” (since “rededication” is a literal translation of the Hebrew word […]
Read MoreHot a gitn Khanike! This week we’re sampling just a smattering of Hanukkah music from around the world and across time. The great 20th century cantor and Yiddish film star Moishe Oysher released a number of self-titled Jewish holiday LPs, including the Moishe Oysher Chanukah Party (1950) narrated by his young daughter Shoshana who, as we hear her […]
Read MoreI seem to have spent the week writing about bel canto singing without posting a single aria from the bel canto era. Let’s rectify that with this beauty I found online: the young Renata Scotto singing the Mad Scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor.” It was filmed in Tokyo with what look like the Metropolitan Opera […]
Read MoreI’ve been ruminating about bel canto all week—not just the sometimes thrilling, sometimes mediocre Donizetti operas the term usually implies, but the larger meaning of “beautiful singing.” Maria Callas and Ella Fitzgerald are bel canto singers in their very different ways. So is Tony Bennett, with his expansive delivery of the melody, his connection to […]
Read MoreI’ve been thinking about bel canto the past few days. Usually the term refers to a fertile era in Italian opera at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Composers like Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini used long-lined melody and bravura passagework to tell their high-flown, romantic love stories. Many of these operas end with the exquisite […]
Read MoreMy friend Becca Jo’s challenge to stop telling her what performances I didn’t like, and instead show her what I did like, has stayed with me. Ever since our conversation last Friday I’ve been pondering: where does my own heart lie? What is my musical home base? I’ve played everything from blues to Berlioz, Sondheim […]
Read MoreThis week I find myself floating around in what feels like a weightless state, after four months of unremitting pressure. Almost all of the NYFOS subscription concerts fell into the autumn season, along with the preparations for the Juilliard concert in January. We were not able to do our annual Christmas show, A Goyishe Christmas, due […]
Read MoreAll songs from this week’s “Song of the Day” come from women of color performing at COLORSXSTUDIOS. COLORSXSTUDIOS is a unique aesthetic music platform showcasing exceptional talent from around the globe. COLORS focuses on the most distinctive new artists and original sounds in an increasingly fragmented and saturated scene. All COLORS shows seek to provide clear, […]
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