4100

arts & entertainment

From the Yiddish stage and Leonard
Bernstein to Simon E(Garfunkel
and Debbie Friedman, a Jewish
musical revue hits the high notes.

ib.

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

0

ne hurdle confronted planners of
Hitting the High Notes, a concert
to be presented Monday evening,
June 23, at the Berman Center for the
Performing Arts in West Bloomfield.
With all the available
material from talented
20th-century Jewish
composers, it took con-
siderable discussion to
whittle down choices
into a cohesive program.
Final decisions were
made by the performers:
Teddy Abrams
Teddy Abrams, conduct-
ing a chamber group of
the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra, and singers
Michael Smolash and
Neil Michaels, the can-
torial team at Temple
Israel.
The audience will hear
Michael
selections as diverse
Smolash
as "Ikh Hob Dikh Tsi
Fil Lib" ("I Love You
Much Too Much") by
Alexander Oshanetsky
from the Yiddish stage
and "A Lot of Livin' to
Do" by Charles Strouse
and Lee Adams from the
Broadway musical Bye
Neil Michaels
Bye Birdie.
"We wanted to repre-
sent Jewish music in its most pure form,
which is klezmer," says Abrams, DSO assis-
tant conductor soon to be music director
of Kentucky's Louisville Orchestra. "That
morphs into Yiddish theater, which has

become almost extinct because of the lan-
guage barrier.
"Yiddish theater has morphed into
traditional musical theater in the United
States. To close the circle is varied music
by American Jewish composers not neces-
sarily working in a Jewish genre but hav-
ing some connection or affinity to Jewish
music:'
One person whose music helps complete
that circle is Aaron Copland, who will
be represented by his piece Music for the
Theatre.
The idea for the con-
cert came from Howard
Lupovitch, director
of the Cohn-Haddow
Center for Judaic
Studies at Wayne State
University.
Lupovitch thought
Howard
the concert would be an
Lupovitch
entertaining outgrowth
of his lecture series,
"Jewish Musical Tradition in America:
for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit. He linked his idea with the annual
John M. Haddow Memorial Program in
Jewish Culture.
As the director of Cohn-Haddow, I'm
trying to partner with other Jewish orga-
nizations:' Lupovitch says. "I wanted to
do something with the DSO, Temple Israel
and the Berman, which is such a great
space.
"I contacted the cantorial singers and a
representative of the symphony and told
them what I was doing with the lecture
series, but I deferred to the others regard-
ing what would be performed.
Cantor Smolash worked toward spot-
lighting songs of favorite composers, such
as "Liza" (George and Ira Gershwin and

Gus Kahn), "Maria" (Leonard Bernstein
and Stephen Sondheim) and "Alexander's
Ragtime Band" (Irving Berlin).
"I think `Papirosn' (Herman Yablokoff)
is one of the most touching Yiddish songs:'
Smolash says. "It's about an orphan trying
to sell cigarettes in wartime to get a bit of
money for food. I sing it a lot in different
concerts and contexts, and it speaks to me
in different ways."
In yet another direction, he likes Simon
and Garfunkel's "Feelin' Groovy:' which
also is on the program.
"When people learn about music, it's
best to pair that with experiencing the
Smolash says. "I hope this cements
everything learned in the lectures and
provides a beautiful evening of music for
everyone who attends:'
Smolash and Michaels will be present-
ing solos and duets.
"We narrowed down our list of songs in
part based on the repertoire the symphony
orchestra already had in its library and
songs that Cantor Smolash and I have in
our repertoire says Michaels, a cantorial
soloist who lists one of his favorite songs
in the program as "All the Things You Are"
(Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein).
"I'm very proud of the things we have
going on Jewishly in this community.
We're close-knit, and that becomes stron-
ger when we pool our resources. I'd like
to see these collaborations happen more
often:'
To heighten the presentation, Abrams
called upon New Yorker Lev "Ljova"
Zhurbin to work on arrangements.
"I chose a smaller ensemble of musi-
cians to replicate the ensembles that would
have played the Jewish-influenced music
in its original forms:' Abrams says. "The
ensemble closely matches what would be

found in a pit orchestra for Yiddish theater
or a Broadway musical.
Abrams, who has played klezmer
clarinet with the Sixth Floor Trio, feels a
passion for music of the Yiddish theater
because of his mentor, Michael Tilson
Thomas, music director of the San
Francisco Symphony. Thomas' parents,
Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, helped
found Yiddish theater in America.
Abrams points out that the Jewish com-
posers merged many styles, including clas-
sical elements and jazz, to create distinc-
tive popular music.
As Abrams leaves his work in Michigan
to take up his new post in Kentucky, he
is deepening his own work as a Jewish
American composer. He has written
Overture for his first concert with the
orchestra he will be leading.
"I hope our program at the Berman can
create a living history, which music can
do as no other art form because we all live
inside sound:' says Abrams, impressed
with how devoted the Jewish community
has been to the DSO.
"People listening to a live performance
are participants in the musical process.
They're time-traveling, experiencing cul-
ture as it changed and grew.
"The program won't feel like little seg-
ments of music. It will feel like one big
picture, an overwhelming view of what
this music is like. I actually feel close to all
this music:'

❑

Hitting the High Notes will be

performed at 7 p.m. Monday, June
23, at the Berman Center for
Performing Arts, 6600 W. Maple
Road, in West Bloomfield. $25. (248)
661-1900; www.theberman.org .

Jews

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

At The Movies

tl

a)

46

The film version of the hit stage musi-
cal Jersey Boys, about the lives and
careers of the members of the famous
'60s singing group the Four Seasons,
opens on Friday, June 20. Like the
stage musical, the film features the
many hits of the Four Seasons. But
what helped make the stage musical
so special was its great script, co-
written by Marshall Brickman, now

June 19 • 2014

79, and Rick Elice, now 57.
They extensively interviewed the
band members and crafted a truly
dramatic story that earned the duo a
Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.
They also wrote the film's screenplay.
None of the original four band
members were Jewish. However, Erich
Bergen, 28, who played band member
and principal songwriter Bob Gaudio in
a touring version of the stage musical,
reprises this role in the film. This is the
first big screen role for the tall, dark
and handsome thespian.

His parents met at a
New York acting class.
Bergen's father is
Jewish while his moth-
er is a lapsed Catholic.
In 2011, the Jewish
Journal of Greater L.A.
reported that Erich
strongly identified as
Jewish. It then quoted
him as he explained
how the drama of the Passover seder
was like a classic theater play:
"We're all in one room together

witnessing something that people
for many years have done before
us. We are not new to this story, but
we are experiencing it for the first
time together. To me, that's what I've
found in the Jewish religion: that the
tradition of keeping the story going
is what's most important — of mak-
ing sure that everyone knows and is
affected by the story."
The film Ida, originally scheduled
to open at the Maple Theater in
Bloomfield Township on June 20, has
been moved to June 27.

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