LIFE IN ISRAEL
ISRAEL'S BOKER
MIME THEATER
•
Composer-Conductor Harlap
Went From Ladle To Baton
LEORA FRUCHT
Special to The Jewish News
erusalem — When the
Opera Theater of Jeru-
salem performed its
first piece in January, the
man conducting the newly-
formed chamber opera was
Canadian-born Aharon
Harlap.
If today Harlap is stirring
audiences with his baton, 20
years ago he was stirring
soup with a ladle in the kit-
chen of a kibbutz. "At 22 I
thought I could conquer the
world," says the successful
conductor-composer. "But
when I came here, I had to
start from scratch."
After completing a year of
studies at the Royal College of
Music in London, the aspiring
musician from Winnipeg had
planned to return to Canada.
"But I had a feeling that
Israel was where I should be,"
he says, recalling how he then
went to the Israel embassy in
London to inquire whether
Israel needed musicians.
"Sure, they need everybody,"
he told me.
"The minute I got off the
boat I felt at home," he recalls.
"I didn't speak a word of
Hebrew, but I got by with my
Yiddish." Why by boat?
"Because it was cheaper and
I was broke."
A kibutz seemed like a good
place to start: The unpreten-
tious lifestyle suited his per-
sonality and budget.
At Kibbutz Ein Hashofet,
Harlap was adopted by a
family of musicians to rival
the Von Trapps. "The father
played the viola; the
daughter, cello, and the
mother sang," he recalls. In
between his kitchen shifts,
Harlap began to organize
what has since become the
Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra.
"That's how I learned to com-
pose and conduct."
Things are a bit different to-
day. With the number of
engagements he has, his kit-
chen work is limited to whip-
ping up the occasional meal
for four in the Jerusalem
apartment where he lives
with his wife and two young
children. The . only kibbutz
work he does nowadays is con-
ducting the Kibbutz Artzi
and Upper Galilee choirs and
the kibbutz movement's
Young Symphony Orchestra.
In Jerusalem, he leads
the prestigious Reuben
Academy's opera workshop
and, most recently, has
become one of the co-founders
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0.1
Richard Nowitz
will perform and do a
Children's Mime Workshop
Children 5 and Over
Aharon Harlap is working to diversify his musical — and spiritual — life.
of the Opera Theater of
Jerusalem.
Harlap has guest-conducted
for Israel's finest orchestras,
as well as for ones in South
Africa, New York, Boston and
his hometown, Winnipeg. As
a composer, he has won
widespread recognition that
includes an international
prize for one of his works.
In his rented apartment in
the Talpiot neighborhood of
Jerusalem, wearing a baggy
sweater and old corduroy
jeans, Harlap looks more the
kibbutznik than the prima
donna artist.
"In my heart, I still feel like
a kibbutznik," he admits.
"That's why I feel so at home
working with the kibbutz
choirs. The people have a kind
of simplicity. No frills. No
pretensions."
But as a composer, Harlap
found life on a kibbutz too in-
sulated. He longed for the
stimulation of a city.
Jerusalem offers him that,
and more.
"My most important com-
positions have been written
here. There's something
special about this city;
something that enriches you."
His compositions reflect
this. They are infused with all
the drama and pathos of the
most epic chapters in Jewish,
particularly biblical, history.
His repertoire, which has
been performed in many dif-
ferent countries, includes
works based on "The Sacrifice
of Isaac," "If I forget Thee 0
Jerusalem," "Ecclesiastes,"
and a piece on the Holocaust
that won an international
prize.
"I was never what you'd call
religious," he says. Brought
up in a traditional Jewish
home in Winnipeg, his father
was a chazzan and a mohel
(ritual circumciser).
Harlap says that the death
of his father, however, made
him more deeply religious. "I
felt that through religion I
could be close to my father —
if not physically, then at least
spiritually."
This spiritual dimension
has enriched his music and
his life, he says. A student of
the Talmud, he adheres to the
Rambam's philosophy of
diversifying one's life. "Most
musicians spend their whole
life studying scores. It's im-
portant for me, however, to do
everything: to conduct and
compose, but also to study
religion, to be in touch with
nature, and to spend time
with my family. In Israel, I
can lead a diversified, full life.
Overall, I'd say I can count
my blessings."
World Zionist Press Service
Vanunu Wants
Prompt Appeal
Jerusalem (JTA) — Morde-
chai Vanunu, who was sen-
tenced in March to 18 years
imprisonment for giving
away Israeli nuclear secrets,
has complained to the
Supreme Court over the delay
in hearing his appeal.
Vanunu wrote from prison
to High Court of Justice
President Meir Shamgar and
the court registrar, Shmuel
'Pzur, complaining that condi-
tions in prison made it dif-
ficult to contact his lawyer.
The court, meanwhile, an-
nounced the hearing will be
held in May 1989.
Vanunu also asked the high
court, through Feldman, to
bring his appeal before a
panel of five justices.
I
4
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