arts & life

Heart
StrinqF

Violinist Eugene

Drucker performs

— and speaks about

his new novel.

Celebrity Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the
Jewish News

AT THE MOVIES
Opening this week: I'll See You
in My Dreams is a romantic
dramedy starring Blythe Danner
(mother of Gwyneth Paltrow)
as Carol, a Los Angeles widow
making room for two new
male friendships. "Sweetly
handled," says Variety, the film
is grounded at every step by
Danner's calmly radiant, deeply
felt performance ... [aided] by a
script [that is] a succession of
moments to savor, where what
matters isn't the fairly predict-
able narrative destination so
much as the simple pleasure
of spending time in these char-
acters' company." The charac-

36

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

aried strings are
attached to Eugene
Drucker's perfor-
mances at this year's Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival — the
violin strings he plays either
as soloist or with the Emerson
String Quartet, the violin strings
he recalls as played by his
German-born, mentoring father
and the violin strings played
by the central character in his
Holocaust novel.
Drucker joins the festival,
which runs June 13-28 at various
locations, just as his Emerson
colleague, Paul Watkins, enters
the event as artistic direc-
tor. (Watkins is married to the
daughter of the late Ruth Meckler
Laredo, a famed pianist raised in
Detroit.)

ters include two suitors, one
younger (Martin Starr), and one
older (Sam Elliott), plus three
of Carol's old friends, played by
June Squibb (Oscar nominee
for 2013's Nebraska), 84, Rhea
Perlman (Cheers), 67, and Mary
Kay Place.

MUSIC NEWS
The induction ceremony for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took
place last April and HBO pre-
miered a film of the ceremony
on May 30 – but re-showings
will be frequent this month, and
you can also
catch it on On
Demand. The
Jewish induct-
ees included
the legendary
Lou Reed, who
died in 2013
at age 71, as a
Reed

The violinist will be returning
from Israel, where he performed
with the Raanana Symphonette
Orchestra. Three concerts
commemorated the Judischer
Kulturbund, an organization that
was allowed to showcase Jewish
talents across Nazi-controlled
Germany.
Artists, like his father, who
were ousted from mainstream
cultural opportunities could
find work for a time through
the Kulturbund, which so many
understood was established to
impress foreign countries with a
ruse of the way Jews were treated.
"I'm intrigued by the theme of
`New Beginnings: Making Music
in America,"' Drucker says about
the Michigan festival in a phone
conversation from his New York
home.
"We're going to play Dvorak's
American String Quartet, which

solo act. He had previously, in
1996, been inducted as a mem-
ber of the Velvet Underground,
the seminal '60s rock band that
strongly influenced the punk
and alternative music of the
next several decades.
Also inducted was the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band, a
Chicago-based band that played
electric blues. Two original
band members (and Hall induct-
ees) were/are Jewish: Mike
Bloomfield (1943-1987), a great
guitarist who also played with
Bob Dylan. About his affinity
for the blues, Bloomfield once
said, 'It's a natural. Black people
suffer externally in this country.
Jewish people suffer inter-
nally. The suffering's the mutual
fulcrum for the blues." The
other bluesy tribesman, Mark
Naftalin, 70, was the Butterfield
Band's organist.

Eugene Drucker

was written during the time
Dvorak was living in the United
States ... when he was visiting a
Czech community in Iowa.
"Dvorak became aware of
African American and Native
American folk music during the
time he was in the United States,
and he urged American musi-
cians to try to absorb and use
some of those influences:'
The Emerson Quartet, which
this year was awarded the

On May 28, the mega-popular
pop band OneRepublic played
Tel Aviv, despite pressure from
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions (BDS) groups not
to perform in Israel. The five-
member band from Colorado
Springs also toured the sights
and sites of Jerusalem. The
Grammy-nominated band has
had great chart success since
forming in 2003. Their hit song
"Counting Stars" has sold more
than 7 million copies since 2013,
and the video has had 800 mil-
lion views on YouTube.

TRIPLE CROWN ALERT!
The Belmont Stakes, the third
race in the Triple Crown, is
being run this Saturday, June
6 (coverage begins on NBC at
5 p.m.; the race, around 6:30
p.m.). American Pharoah, who
is owned by Egyptian-born

Richard J. Bogomolny National
Service Award (Chamber Music
America's highest honor), also
is presenting works by Charles
Ives, a musical pioneer who was
interested in hymns sung in
Protestant churches throughout
New England.
"There also are pieces by
Aaron Copland, who has gener-
ally been considered the quintes-
sentially American voice," says
Drucker, 63. "I'm playing two

Ahmed Zayat,

73, is vying to
become the
first horse
since 1978
to win the
Crown. Zayat's
wife, Joanne,
Zayat
recently
spoke to the
New Jersey Jewish Standard.
When asked what it's like being
Orthodox Jews at the Kentucky
Derby, she responded: "There
is no conflict. Most of our big
races are on Saturdays, so we
walk to the track." They stay at
a hotel in Louisville, which is an
easy walk on race day, and get
kosher meals from a caterer.
"But for the Preakness and
the Belmont," she added, "We
can't walk from any hotel, so we
rent a [big] trailer."

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