My Yiddish Lullaby—From Second Avenue to Broadway
Music of Yiddish and Broadway
theatre will be highlighted at a concert, "From Second
Avenue to Broadway," honoring 350 years of Jewish life in
America. Zalman Mlotek and his New Yiddish Chorale will
join New York Cantors Robert Ableson, Rebecca Garfein and
Jennifer Frost in song
7p.m.
Thursday, February 3, 2005
Congregation Rodeph Sholom
7 West 83rd Street off of
Central Park West.
The concert will feature Broadway songs
made famous by Jewish composers and music made famous by
Yiddish Theatre stars, Molly Picon and Menashe Skulnik.
Tickets: $18 advance/$20 at the door
Student/senior: $10 advance/$12 at the door.
Benefactor seating and dessert reception tickets are $108.
For more info: (212) 362-8800, ext. 1337.
www.rodephsholom.org
As a select ensemble of Yiddish singers featured on Mandy
Patinkin’s highly regarded Yiddish recording, Mamloshen,
The New Yiddish Chorale was founded in 1995 by its
conductor Zalmen Mlotek, to preserve and perpetuate Yiddish
language, culture and ethics through music. Since its
founding, the Chorale has performed and recorded a
sophisticated repertoire of traditional Yiddish songs,
works written for chorus in Yiddish by major composers, and
new choral compositions based on texts of important Yiddish
poets.
An internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and
theater music, Mr. Mlotek has been honored with a Drama
Desk Award and two Tony Award nominations for his work as
co-creator, musical director and conductor of The Golden
Land and Those Were the Days.
He conceived and musically directed the first All Star
Klezmer Extravaganza at Lincoln Center with Itzhak Perlman,
which was filmed by PBS for Great Performances and later
released on CD and video as the best-selling In the
Fiddler's House. Among his more recent projects was an
international tour and workshop production of Ghetto Tango,
the CD released by Traditional Crossroads.
Mr. Mlotek is currently the Executive Director of the
Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre in New York City, the longest
continuously operating Yiddish theater company in the
world.
Born in Brooklyn, Robert Abelson is Cantor at Temple Israel
in Manhattan. Specializing in Yiddish Art Song, Cantor
Ableson, under the guidance of the late, distinguished
composer, Lazar Weiner, performed works by little-known
Jewish composers in addition to Mr. Weiner’s compositions.
A graduate of the School of Sacred Music of the Hebrew
Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, on whose
faculty he now serves, he performed with the New York City
Opera for many seasons. He has also sung with other
prestigious operatic companies, including the Seattle Opera
Association, St.Paul Opera, and the Goldovsky Opera Theatre.
Cantor Ableson has appeared in concert with many
orchestras, including the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony and the Mostly Mozart
Festival. One of the stars of the Jewish musical review,
On Second Avenue, Cantor Ableson has appeared in a variety
of film, television, and theatre programs. More recently,
he had a starring role in the Broadway musical hit, Those
Were The Days, which completed a national tour.
Cantor Rebecca Garfein, mezzo-soprano, is the Senior Cantor
of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City, and is the
first female Cantor ever to hold this position. Cantor
Garfein has appeared in numerous recitals throughout the
United States, Israel, and Europe. In 1997, Cantor Garfein
was invited to participate in the Jewish Cultural Festival
in Berlin, Germany and was the first female Cantor to give
a solo concert in the same city her grandfather of blessed
memory fled. At the 1998 Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival,
she became the first female Cantor to preside in a German
synagogue, and released a CD of the live recording of the
1997 Berlin concert, "Sacred Chants of the Contemporary
Synagogue."
A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Cantor Garfein has been a
featured soloist with the Ra'a'na'na Orchestra and the
Zamir Chorale at the Jerusalem Theater in Israel and in
2001 was a soloist at the 350th anniversary concert of the
Curacao Jewish Community.
Cantor Garfein made her New York City debut with the New
York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra at Cami Hall and recently
made her Carnegie Hall debut at a concert with Dr. Ruth
Westheimer celebrating the release of Dr. Ruth's new book,
Musically Speaking.
Cantor Garfein graduated cum laude from Rice University’s
Shepherd School of Music. In 1993, she received her
Master’s Degree in Sacred Music and Cantorial Investiture
from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
(HUC-JIR).
Cantor Jennifer Frost, born in Chicago, was raised in
Southern California. Her first Following her studies at the
University of California at Irvine, where she received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, she attended Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion where she received a
Masters Degree in Sacred Music and Cantorial Investiture.
In addition to her work as a Cantor, Cantor Frost performs
with Soul on Fire, a theatrical concert of devotional
music. Having recorded its first album, Soul on Fire is
currently touring throughout the United States.