Arts & Entertainment
ON THE COVER
MusicFest Schedule
The JCCs in West Bloomfield and Oak Park
bring to the stage a slew of perfomers.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
SUNDAY, FEB. 22
Family Day at MusicFest
2 p.m.: Kids & Strings
Oak Park
This is an interactive concert
for families and children ages
3-6, featuring the Ambassador
Quintet with Detroit Symphony
Orchestra members Marian
Tanau, Hai-Xen Wu,
Caroline Coade, Paul
Wingert and Larry
Hutchinson.
Tickets: $5 JCC mem-
bers and seniors in
advance; $4 children 3
and older; $18 for the
whole family; $7 non-
members and at the door. MOT
Tickets: $12 JCC members and
seniors in advance; $5 children
3-16; $15 non-members and at
the door.
THURSDAY, FEB. 26
7:30 p.m.: A Night of Opera
West Bloomfield
Michigan Opera Theater General
Director Dr. David DiChiera
will speak on famous Jewish
opera divas, divos and Jewish
composers of the
20th century. His
presentation will
be interspersed
with the signature
arias of the art-
ists, performed by
members of the
Michigan Opera
Theater.
General
Tickets: $12 JCC
Directo r Dr. David
7 p.m.: Safam
members,
students
DiChiera
and seniors in
West Bloomfield
advance; $15 non-members and
Famous for their Jewish-
American sound, Safam has
at the door.
been part of the music scene
SATURDAY, FEB. 28
since 1974. The group's music,
lyrics and arrangements all are
8 p.m.: Melissa Manchester
original, and its songs reflect
West Bloomfield
the struggles and dreams of the
Manchester began singing when
just a teen; she was discovered by
Jewish community. (For more on
Safam, see page C10)
Bette Midler and Barry Manilow,
who had hired her as a backup
singer.
In 1973, Manchester released
her first album. In 1979, she
became the first artist in the his-
tory of the Academy Awards to
sing two nominated movie themes
in the same year: "Through the
Eyes of Love" (from Ice Castles)
and "The Promise'
Manchester, who five years
ago observed her bat mitzvah
celebration at the Stephen S.
Wise Temple in Los Angeles, will
perform "V'al Kulam" during her
appearance at MusicFest. (For
more on Melissa Manchester, see
page C7.)
Tickets: $25 JCC members, stu-
dents and seniors in advance; $30
non-members and at the door.
SUNDAY, MARCH 1
7 p.m.: In Concert: The Cantors
and Cantorial Soloists of
Michigan — Up Close and
Personal
West Bloomfield
Guest cantors (scheduled
to appear) Earl Berris, Meir
Finkelstein, David Gutman,
Samuel Greenbaum, Kat
Hastings, Frank Lanzkron-
Tamarzo, Jen Roher, Pamela
The Fleur de Lys Chamber Ensemble
Schiffer, Darcie Naomi Sharlein,
Michael Smolash and canto-
rial soloists Rachel Gottlieb
Kalmowitz, Neil Michaels and
Penny Steyer perform some of
their favorite songs and present a
concert that pays tribute to can-
tors who have shaped the Metro
Detroit Jewish community.
Tickets: $12 JCC members, stu-
dents and seniors in advance; $15
non-members and at the door.
TUESDAY, MARCH 3
7:30 p.m.: Fleur de Lys
Chamber Ensemble
West Bloomfield
The Fleur de Lys Chamber
Ensemble comprises Andrew
Wu, Melody Wootton, Caroline
Coade and Una O'Riordan, who
combine works by popular and
lesser-known classical composers
in a concert filled with extraordi-
narily graceful, exciting and gentle
music. The ensemble's MusicFest
performance will include works
by Mozart, Sholom Secunda,
Gershwin and Bernstein.
Tickets: $12 JCC members, stu-
dents and seniors in advance; $15
non-members and at the door.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4
1 p.m.: An Afternoon of
Broadway and More with
Elaine Serling
Oak Park
Singer-songwriter
Elaine Serling has
been charming
audiences with
her enthusiastic
performances and
music for more
than 35 years.
Her concerts have
inspired and cap- Detroit native
tivated audiences Elaine Serling
of all ages in
cities throughout Canada, Israel
and the United States, including
her hometown of Detroit.
Tickets: There is no admission
charge for this concert.
THURSDAY, MARCH 5
7 p.m.: Lenore Marwil Film
Festival showing of Fiddler on
the Roof, starring Topol. This
is a sing-along version of the
movie.
Oak Park
From Israel to Japan, Fiddler
on the Roof is one of the most
ews
*al
I Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Oscar Time
The Academy Awards will be pre-
sented 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22,
on ABC. A highlight will be the
presentation of the Jean Hersholt
Humanitarian Award to comedy
legend Jerry Lewis, 82. Here, our
annual roundup of Oscar nominees
with a Jewish connection.
Acting Nominees
Sean Penn, 48, earned his fifth best-
actor nomination for playing the
title role in Milk, the story of Harvey
Milk, the gay-rights activist and
San Francisco supervisor who was
murdered in 1978 by fellow supervi-
sor Dan White. Penn's father, the
C8
February 19 • 2009
late actor/director Leo Penn, was
Jewish. His mother is Catholic. Sean
was raised secular and calls himself
agnostic.
Anne Hathaway is up for best
actress for her performance as a
troubled Jewish woman in Rachel
Getting Married.
Writers & Composers
Brit Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) and
American Eric Roth (The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button) compete
for the Oscar for best-adapted
screenplay. Frost/Nixon is based on
Morgan's original stage play. Morgan,
45, who is secular, is the son of a
German Jewish refugee father and
a Polish Catholic mother. He earned
a 2006 Oscar nomination for best
screenplay for The Queen. Roth, 63,
won a 1994 Oscar in this same cat-
egory for Forrest Gump. In a sad side
note, Roth recently told reporters
that he suffered heavy losses in the
Bernard Madoff scandal.
Mike Leigh, 65, is among the most
respected of British writers and
directors. He's been Oscar nominat-
ed six times. This year, he is up for
best original screenplay for Happy-
Go-Lucky, which he also directed.
Composers Danny Elfman, 55
(Milk), and James Newton Howard,
53 (Defiance), are up for the Oscar
for best original score. Both began
as rock musicians before switch-
ing over to film composition. This
is Elfman's fourth nomination for
best original score while Howard
has earned eight such nominations.
Howard said in a recent interview
that he identifies as Jewish even
though his late father's Jewish ori-
gins were unknown to him until he
was about 35. He added that work-
ing on Defiance, a film set during the
Holocaust, had special meaning for
him.
Foreign, Shorts & Docs
Waltz with Bashir, an Israeli animated
film about the 1982 Lebanon War
(opening Feb. 20 at the Maple Art
Theatre), directed and written by Ari
Folman, 46, is a heavy favorite to win
the best foreign-language film Oscar.
Folman served in the Israeli army
during the conflict.
Nominated for best live action
short film is German director/co-
writer Jochen Alexander Freydank's
Spielzeugland (Toyland), about what