Arts & Entertainment
Kobrin's Keys
"I absolutely hate piano competitions:' 27-
year-old Moscow-born pianist Alexander
Kobrin said earlier this year. "Not only do
they create a huge stress for pianists, but
they are totally subjective, because what it
takes to win is completely up to the whim
of the judges. But competitions are a nec-
essary evil, since without them pianists
would never get careers. Of course, once
you win, the real challenge is to prove your
victory wasn't a fluke."
This observation from the winner of
2005's 12th Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition may have been colored
by the fact that while he was competing
for the prestigious prize in Fort Worth,
Texas, his wife was in Israel,
awaiting the birth of their first
child.
And Kobrin's certainly
no fluke. He also is the win-
ner of the 1999 Busoni
Competition, the 2000 Chopin
Competition and the 2003
Hamamatsu Competition. As
the Gold Medal winner of the
Van Cliburn competition, he
received three years of inter-
Alexander
national concert
engagements coor-
dinated by the Van
Cliburn Foundation
in the United States,
as well as a CD
recording of his
award-winning per-
formances of Brahms
and Rachmaninoff for the Harmonia
Mundi USA label.
Kobrin has toured extensively in
Europe, Asia and South America to criti-
cal acclaim. When he is not performing,
he teaches at the Moscow State Gnessin
Academy of Music (he resides in Moscow
part time), where he completed his own
piano studies.
Kobrin will open the
Cranbrook Music Guild's 57th
season 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16,
at Christ Church Cranbrook,
470 Church Road, in Bloomfield
Hills. His program includes
Haydn's Sonata in C minor,
Beethoven's Sonata No. 4 in E-
flat major and a series of works
by Chopin.
An afterglow with refresh-
ments and a chance to meet the
Kobrin
artist follows. Single
tickets are $30; sub-
scriptions are available
for $100. To reserve
tickets, call (248) 644-
6352 or go to www.
cranbro okmusicguild.
org.
In The Key Of Life
"I have always believed photography
teaches us not just to look, but really see
writes Metro Detroit award-winning photo-
journalist Linda Solomon in new book, The
Key: Celebrated People Unlock Their Secrets
to Life (Stewart, Tabori and Chang; $17.95).
A collector of vintage keys, Solomon, author
of the New York Times bestselling book
People We Know, Horses They Love, decided
to make photographs of these intriguing
objects.
As she was doing so, she fell upon a
revelation: The keys we truly treasure are
those that wisely address life's difficulties
and bring us peace of mind.
So Solomon decided to couple her black-
and-white photographs of beautiful old
vintage keys with words of inspiration
from 56 celebrities who provide wisdom
about everything
from the "Key To
Equality" (Gloria
Steinem: "Empathy,
the most revo-
lutionary of all
emotions") and
the "Key To Living Each celebrity's
Life to the Fullest" insight is accompa-
(Dr. Andrew Weil:
nied by a key that
"Achieving and
symbolizes the inter-
maintaining opti-
viewee.
mum health")
to the "Key to a Signature Style" (Diane
von Furstenberg: "Come to terms with
who you are and enjoy it!") and the "Key
to Changing Your Life" (Canyon Ranch
Founder Enid Zuckerman: "Finding fulfill-
ment in service to others and making a dif-
ference in people's lives").
Many Michigan celebrities, like
Aretha Franklin (the "Key to Respect":
'Acknowledging that the world does not
revolve around you alone"), are included.
Part of the proceeds of the book will benefit
breast cancer research.
Solomon will discuss and sign copies of
her book 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, at Borders
Birmingham, 34300 Woodward Ave., in
Birmingham. (248) 203.0005. I1
FYI: For Arts related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to: Gail Zimmerman, JN Out &
About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com . Notice must be received at least three weeks before the scheduled event.
Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.
ws
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
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54
Dylan And Elvis
Legendary singer-songwriter Bob
Dylan, 66, showed up for Yom Kippur
services this year at Congregation
Beth Tefillah-Chabad of Georgia, a
Chabad-affiliated Orthodox congrega-
tion in an Atlanta, suburb. Dylan was in
the Atlanta area to play
a concert the evening
following the conclu-
sion of Yom Kippur.
Shmais.com, a news
service about happen-
ings in the Lubavitcher
Bob Dylan
(Chabad) commu-
nity, reports that Dylan
arrived at the service with two other
men and took a seat at the back of the
synagogue. Rather quickly, some of
the 900 congregants recognized their
famous guest. Dylan was honored with
the sixth aliyah and afterward had a
number of prayers said for members
of his family. He stayed on for the ser-
mon and for the Yizkor service.
October 11 • 2007
Shmais says that when Dylan was
called to the Torah, "the shul was
silent, and lots of people changed
seats to get a better look."
It appears to be Dylan's practice
to attend Yom Kippur services at
a Chabad-affiliated synagogue. In
the '90s, he was spotted at Chabad
services in California and Minnesota.
In 2005, he attended services at a
Chabad synagogue in Oyster Bay, N.Y.,
where he also was granted the honor
of the sixth aliyah.
Dylan and his band travel to
Michigan for a concert at 7 p.m. Friday,
Oct.12, at Eastern Michigan University
Convocation Center in Ypsilanti. Also
performing — solo, for the first time
in 12 years — will be singer-songwriter
Elvis Costello. Tickets are $29.50-
$69.50. (248) 645-6666.
50 Years
This September marked the 50th anni-
versary of the premiere of Leave it to
Beaver, the long-running TV sitcom.
Leave it to Beaver touched a chord
with baby boomers and has remained
in reruns since the last
new show aired in 1963.
The only Jewish mem-
ber of the regular cast
was Frank Bank, now
65, who played Wally's
homely friend, Clarence
"Lumpy" Rutherford.
Lumpy was kind of a dolt, but in
real life Bank is a very successful
bonds broker. In 2003, Bank wrote an
autobiography in which he described
his great success with the ladies. This
proves, I guess, that fame — even as
"Lumpy" — is a surefire aphrodisiac.
Film Notes
Director-screenwriter James Gray, 38,
tries again for a hit with his third film,
We Own the Night, co-starring Joaquin
Phoenix, whose mother is Jewish.
Phoenix plays Bobby Green, the
coked-out manager of a Russian-
owned nightclub in 1980s Brooklyn
who tries to keep his distance from
the Russian gangsters who frequent
the place. Bobby's brother, Joseph
Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg), is an up-
and-coming NYPD cop, and his father,
Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall), the
deputy chief of police.
Joseph asks Bobby (who has
changed his last name) to inform on
Russian Mafia drug dealers who fre-
quent the club. Things go wrong, and
Bobby becomes enmeshed in a violent
struggle between his family and the
mob. The film opens on Friday, Oct.12.
In 2000, a Jewish literary critic
who met Gray described him as "very
Jewish-cerebral, funny, brilliant, self-
deprecating." Gray also wrote and
directed his first two films: Little
Odessa (1994), about a young Russian-
Jewish immigrant who is a contract
killer and his
Brooklyn-based
family; and The
Yards (2000), a
gritty tale about
New York corrup-
,
tion,
with some
Joaquin Phoenix
Jewish
charac-
and James Gray
ters. Both films
earned good notices but did not set
the box office on fire. I