Bringing Jewish music to the concert hall

The Mizrahi Orchestra, an ensemble of musicians specializing in the music of the Babylonian Diaspora, is truly unique: “They play nearly all the [authentic] musical instruments that were heard in the Temple — no other orchestra in Israel does that,” singer-songwriter Avihu Medina tells Haaretz. Unfortunately, the orchestra’s future is looking increasingly bleak. Established in 1998 by Bar-Ilan University professor Vladimir Sabirov, the Mizrahi Orchestra (also known as the Maqam Orchestra) “has nearly ceased to function due to a lack of financial resources, and its members only appear today in smaller ensembles,” reports Haaretz.
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In the 1920s, Ostrava-born David Friedmann was famous for his portraits of Berlin Philharmonic musicians. With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Friedmann’s artistic career came to an abrupt end and in 1938 he fled Berlin to Prague. He was deported in 1941 to the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, and eventually to Auschwitz. His wife and daughter perished, but he found a lifeline in his artistic abilities, painting portraits of SS officers who recognized his gifts. After his liberation in 1945, Friedmann lived in Czechoslovakia before fleeing the Communists to Israel, and later immigrated to the United States, where he died in 1980. His daughter, Miriam Friedman Morris, was determined to retrieve as much of her father’s work as possible. Her efforts have resulted in a new exhibit, “Giving Music a Face: David Friedmann’s Lost Musician Portraits from the 1920s.” Click here to read more about the exhibit and David Friedmann’s remarkable life. Click here to listen to Ms. Morris’s interview with New York Public Radio on the Deutsches Haus NYU exhibition.

Mark Glanville and Alexander Knapp (of a A Yiddish Winterreise) just announced a new performance of “Di Sheyne Milnerin,” a reworking of Schubert’s cycle of unrequited love. On October 6th, 2012, they we will perform at St. John’s, Smith Square, London. Their CD (from the label Nimbus) is due out in September. Visit their website for more information.

Working with musicians from all over the world, we’ve learned a lot about how to rescue not only lost music but stranded musical instruments. So this New York Times report caught our eyes:

As if booking a gig wasn’t hard enough, tightened baggage regulations and inconsistent policies among airlines have made it difficult for musicians to figure out how to get their instruments to the next show…But a new bill passed by Congress this month sets a uniform national policy on the matter.

The new policy allows musicians to store instruments in the overhead compartments–or purchase an extra seat for their cello.

To get a taste of Pro Musica Hebraica’s April 2nd concert, check out this review in Los Angeles Times of Marc-André Hamelin’s 2009 performance in San Francisco. Among the pieces he performed, and which he will perform again for Pro Musica Hebraica, are Charles-Valentin Alkan’s symphonic etudes:
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