NEW PALTZ — The Department of Music and the Jewish Studies Program at SUNY New Paltz have collaborated on a series of lectures and concerts to be held throughout the fall semester 2005. Titled, The World of Jewish Music, it will highlight and explore Jewish music ranging from cantorial through klezmer and modern classical music, including jazz and the music of Broadway.
The series of presentations by musicologists and performers will be held each Tuesday evening. Their participation is supported by the Louis and Mildred Resnick Institute for the Study of Modern Jewish Life and the Tuesday Evening Concert Series of the Department of Music. Questions including “What is Jewish Music?” “Is there an identifiable Jewish music sound?” and “Why are there so many famous Jewish composers?” will be open for lively discussion.
The World of Jewish Music
Call 845-257-2700 for information
Lectures are 6:30 – 7:45 pm. Free and open to all
Concerts begin at 8:00 pm. There is a nominal entrance fee All events are open to the public.
Lecture – Discovering Jewish Music
September 6: 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Marcia Edelman, educated at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, is professor of music and education at Gratz College in Pennsylvania and author of Discovering Jewish Music. She will address some of the key genres and many of the people whose works have influenced the broad spectrum of Jewish music over a 4,000-year period.
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Lecture – The Klezmer World
September 13, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
David Krakauer, internationally acclaimed clarinetist, has performed and recorded with the Tokyo String Quartet and the Kronos Quartet. He is one of the foremost musicians of the vital new wave of klezmer, touring the globe with his Klezmer Madness! Ensemble. Krakauer will discuss klezmer music, past and present.
Concert – David Krakauer and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Quartet
September 13, 8 pm
Julien J. Studley Theatre
$10 general, $8 seniors/staff, $4 students Tickets available at the door one half hour prior to performance
The program includes Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind by a rising young Argentinean composer, Osvaldo Golijov, for klezmer clarinet and string quartet, a musical work exploring and illuminating the history of Judaism. Others works include Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet, Piano, String Quartet with Ruthanne Schempf, piano; and Lullaby for String Quartet by George Gershwin. The Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Quartet members are the principal players of the orchestra and are the quartet-in-residence at SUNY New Paltz.
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Lecture – The Infusion and Reinterpretation of Elements from Host Cultures in Jewish Music
September 20, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Robert Gluck was educated at the Juilliard and the Crane schools of Music and trained at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. He is a pianist, composer, rabbi and educator, and a performer of works for interactive electronic music systems.
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Lecture – The Black-Jewish Century of American Music
September 27, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Jeffrey Melnick, educated at Cornell and Harvard, is currently associate professor of American Studies at Babson College in Massachusetts. He is the author of several books including A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song, and Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South.
Concert – Faculty Sampler
September 27, 8 pm
Julien J. Studley Theatre
$5 general, $4 senior/staff, $3 students. Tickets available at the door one half hour prior to performance
Music Department faculty are showcased in a concert featuring a variety of music including Kol Nidre by Ernst Bloch performed by cellist Susan Seligman.
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Lecture – Klezmer: Roots and Revival
Saturday, October 1, 5:30 pm (note special time)
Jacobson Faculty Tower 1010
Hankus Netsky is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and scholar. He teaches improvisation and Jewish music at the New England Conservatory in Boston where he is founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, America’s premiere klezmer and Yiddish repertory ensemble. Dr. Netsky has taught Jewish Music at Hebrew College, New England Conservatory, and Wesleyan University, and lectures extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Several of his essays on klezmer music have been published by the University of California Press. He has composed extensively for film and television, and collaborated with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, and Theodore Bikel. He has also produced numerous recordings, including ten by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Dr. Netsky holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from New England Conservatory in composition and a Ph.d in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. He has been the recipient of the NEC’s outstanding alumni award and the Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser awards for excellence in teaching.
Concert – Hankus Netsky
October 1, 9:00 pm
Rosendale Cafe, Rosendale, NY
Hankus Netsky will perform live at Rosendale Caf?. Call 845-257-2700 for ticket information.
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Lecture – Contemporary Jewish American Composers (post 1950s)
October 11, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Carole Cowan, SUNY New Paltz faculty and concertmaster of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, will discuss important trends following WWII, the diverse styles that emerged, and what is happening today in music. The talk will include illustrations of music by Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Aaron Copland, Jacob Druckman, Roberto Sierra, Shulamit Ran and others.
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Lecture – Fiddlers on My Roof: On Being a Jewish Composer in the United States and Germany
October 18, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Stanley Walden has been a clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, was also the founder of the Department of Musical Theater at the University der Kunste in Berlin, Germany. The composer of many works of orchestral, chamber and theater music, including Oh, Calcutta, he will illustrate his talk with excerpts from his opera Kafka-Letter To His Father, Kaddish, A Coronach, and Sh’mah.
Concert – Music of Hudson Valley Jewish Composers
October 18, 8 pm
Julien J. Studley Theatre
$6 general, $5 senior/staff, $3 students. Tickets available at the door one half hour prior to performance
Sh’mah for Violin and Cello, written by Stanley Walden for Carole Cowan and Susan Seligman will be premiered. Works by well-known Hudson Valley composers including Aaron Copland, Robert Starer, Herbert Haufrecht, and Meyer Kupferman will be performed by faculty and regional artists.
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Lecture – Quest for a New Voice: Stefan Wolpe and the Modern Hebrew Art Song
October 25, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Austin Clarkson, professor emeritus of Music, York University (Toronto), previously held positions at Columbia University (where he was founding editor of the journal Current Musicology) and Yale University. His most recent book is On the Music of Stefan Wolpe, Essays and Recollections, from which he will draw material for his lecture.
Concert – Songs of Stefan Wolpe
October 25, 8pm
Julien J. Studley Theatre
$6/5/3 available at the door
A musical project of Bridge Records, The Wolpe Ensemble, comprises well-known New York musicians including Patrick Mason, baritone; Tony Arnold, soprano; Jacob Greenberg, piano; and Robert Shannon, piano, will perform Wolpe settings of Yiddish folk songs. Works include excerpts from Dr. Einstein’s Address about Peace in the Atomic Era, Der faule Bauer mit seinen Hunden, Ten Early Songs, and Hebrew texts from the Bible.
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Lecture – Jewish Women and Music
November 1, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Carole Cowan will discuss Jewish women in their diverse roles as cantors, performers, and composers. She will highlight composers Ruth Shonthal, Betsy Oliveros, Judith Zaimont, and Pulitzer prize winner, Shulamit Ran.
Concert – Music of Jewish Women Composers
November 1, 8 pm
McKenna Theatre
$5 general, $4 senior/staff, $3 students. Tickets available at the door one half hour prior to performance.
Among works to be performed will be Snazzy Sonata by Judith Zaimont, and Fragments from a Woman’s Diary by Ruth Shonthal. Performers will include pianists Ruthanne Schempf, Sylvia Bucelli, Emily Faxon and other faculty and regional musicians.
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Lecture – Why so Many Jews? The Jewish Presence in Art Music, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, Jazz and Rock
November 8, 6:30 pm
College Hall 114
Philip Ehrensaft, educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities, now of Metro Countryside Research, is a sociologist and music journalist who has written innumerable reviews of concerts and CDs for important music periodicals. This concluding lecture of the series will directly address, and perhaps answer, the question posed by the title of Mr. Eherensaft’s lecture. ?30?
