AUGUST 31 • 2023 | 71

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

I

t’s hard to tell when an artist really 
starts “working” on an album. 
Maybe it’s the first voice memo 
or line scribbled in a notebook, the 
first idea that leaves their head and 
enters the normal realm. Maybe it’s 
when they have the green light to 
record, a plan is in place, and the stu-
dio is booked. 
Or maybe, it’s deeper than that. 
Which feels like the case with Aaron 
Markovitz, Temple Israel’s Zipser 
Foundation Artist in Residence, who’s 
new album “
An Infinite Wave,
” is now 
available thanks to the support of the 
Burton A. Zipser and Sandra D. Zipser 
Foundation. 
Markovitz has recorded albums 
before, but this is his first Jewish 
album, and it serves as both a nod to 
his distinct style, mixing in Bluegrass 
and singer-songwriter elements, and 
Jewish life that he’s focused on since 
coming to Temple Israel in a formal 
role in 2022. 
The album is also a mix of English 
and Hebrew, and some of the songs 
have been heard, and celebrated, 
already at Shabbat services. In fact, 
the first song on the album “Pursuers 
of Peace” was initially written for a 
Shabbat service, and then was brought 
in as part of the album process. 
“I guess that’s when you could say 
the album started. I didn’t know I was 
working on the album then, but that’s 
when the ideas and things started to 
come together,
” Markovitz said. “It was 
pretty cool to be able to craft the album, 
using some new things, some original, 
and some other things from the past.
”
When Markovitz writes music, he 
usually establishes the lyrics first. It’s 
not a hard and fast rule, but in general 
the line will come to mind, that’s when 
he’ll start to think about the melody 
and the best way to deliver the line. 

From there, it’s all about 
finding the right finish and not being 
afraid to try new things with both 
lyrics and melodies. For example, 
Markovitz had some elements of cer-
tain songs that he said sounded good 
but needed to be changed or tweaked 
in the process. 
In the end, he created an album that 
flows from start to finish, touching 
on important Jewish elements like 
redeeming the world, key holidays and 
finding peace in everyday life. 
The album title, “
An Infinite Wave,
” 
came after Markovitz was researching 
Jewish history and knowledge. 
“I had just started to play around 
with musical ideas and a line that just 
spoke to me, and it connects really 
well to Judaism, and what I had been 
reading,
” Markvovitz said. “So it kind of 
became the title track or theme, with-
out it officially being the title track.
”
The line “
An Infinite Wave,
” used 
in the final two songs of the album, 
is part of a fitting closeout to a new 
musical tradition that Temple Israel 
and the larger Jewish community have 
embraced with Markovitz. 

To download and listen to “An Infinite Wave,” 

visit www.aaron-markovitz.com.

Temple Israel artist-in-residence 
releases new album.
‘An Infinite Wave’

SEAN SHAPIRO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Aaron Markowitz

