From the Artist
Tribute to all Immigrants
Cantor Garfein says her album "pays tribute to all immigrants arriving in America looking for that golden chance of opportunity and freedom." She points out the album’s cover photo, taken from the southern edge of Ellis Island, represents the "new immigrant" looking south toward the Statue of Liberty "in anticipation of a new life." Symbolically, Cantor Garfein says, the album begins with "The Colossus," by Max Helfman, which sets to music the words of poet Emma Lazarus, a Sephardic Jew: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…." The text of the full poem, written by Lazarus in 1883, is enshrined in bronze at the pedestal of the Statue Liberty.
Product Description
BRAND NEW RELEASE!!!
Album debuted at New York City's Carnegie Hall on November 10, 2005.
"Golden Chants in America...Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004," which includes music from the Spanish-Portuguese Jews, the synagogue and the Yiddish and Broadway theater, is the CD is the first U.S. recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America.
The historic album includes forward liner notes by acclaimed therapist and author of, "Musically Speaking," Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer.
Featuring Music in Six Languages
The album features compositions sung in a virtual rainbow of languages, including Spanish, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), German, Yiddish, Hebrew and English—much of which was brought to America by the Spanish-Portuguese, Russian and German Jews over the last 350 years. Album selections include "Bendigamos," a Spanish-Portuguese Jewish grace after meals sung in 16th century Castilian Spanish; and "Halleluyah," and the "Deutsche Kedusha," the great music of Vienna and Berlin written for the synagogue by Salomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski, respectively. To this day, most American Reform and many Conservative and Orthodox congregations continue to utilize Sulzer’s "Shema" and Lewandowski’s "Kiddush" in their services.
Other album highlights feature Yiddish and Broadway music, including "Vos is gevorn fun mayn Shtetele?" (What has become of my Shtetl?), "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," and Jerome Kern’s "Can’t Help Lovin’ that Man," from the 1927 musical, "Show Boat."
The CD pays tribute to several of the modern Jewish composers, including Cantor Robbie Solomon, who has written extensively for the American synagogue. His gospel-style "Peace by Piece," embodies a universal anthem that expresses commitment to social action and the ultimate goal of peace.
Cantor Garfein demonstrates how modern interpretations of ancient prayer melodies have been influenced by contemporary American harmonies with selections of "Yih’yu L’ratson" and "Oseh Shalom" (prayers for meditation and peace), by composer Cantor Marshall Portnoy.
About the Artists:
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."
On November 10, 2005 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, Cantor Garfein presented the concert and historic CD debut of "Golden Chants in America...Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004," Including music from the Spanish-Portuguese Jews, the synagogue and the Yiddish and Broadway theater, the CD is the first U.S. recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America.
Cantor Garfein is also a featured soloist on two recordings from the Sacred Music Press, Celebrating the Past and Present, honoring the 50th anniversary of the School of Sacred Music, 1999, and Kol Sasson Kol Simcha, a commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 2001.
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 Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 with Mandy Patinkin in a benefit concert for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater. In 2003, Cantor Garfein made her debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in a concert celebrating the release of Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s book, "Musically Speaking." She has been a participant in the opera program at DiCapo Opera in New York City and at the Aspen Music Festival. As a teenager, Cantor Garfein was a participant in the Young Artists’ vocal program at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts.
Cantor Garfein graduated cum laude from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with a degree in vocal performance and opera. 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).
Jonathan Faiman; pianist, arranger, co-producer
A multiple ASCAP award winner, Jonathan Faiman was described in The New York Times as "a pianist with the kind of technique that affords remarkable clarity even in the speediest lines."
Critically acclaimed, his solo CD, Hie Up The Mountain, has been called "a major contribution to the available body of music by the generation now making its mark in American music". He is a member of the Locrian Chamber Players and The Actors Company Theatre, with whom Mr. Faiman has composed and performed for numerous concerts and productions. Some of this music can be heard on Play On: Music for The Actors Company Theatre, a CD for which Mr. Faiman was executive producer. Soon another CD will be released, featuring Mr. Faiman's work as pianist and producer, of music by Nils Vigeland performed by members of Locrian.
Mr. Faiman made his orchestral conducting debut with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has performed concertos, solo recitals, and chamber music concerts with The Ambrosia Trio and other musicians throughout North America and in Israel. In New York City, Mr. Faiman has performed extensively in most major halls, including Avery Fisher, Florence Gould, Merkin, Miller Theatre, Symphony Space, and Weill/Carnegie Recital Hall. He is also much sought-after in the world of Jewish music and has performed in synagogues throughout North America.
Mr. Faiman's commissions include Ian Hobson and the Sinfonia da Camera, Michael Mao Dance, and the Mirage Theatre Company.
Mr. Faiman has taught at Concordia College and is on the faculty of Bloomingdale School of Music and the Preparatory Division of Manhattan School of Music, from where he holds a Doctorate.
For more information, please visit www.jonathanfaiman.com.
Check out the artist's website:
http://bariproductions.comTrack List:
1. The Colossus
2. Bendigamos-Az Yashir Moshe
3. Ein Keloheinu-Non Komo Muestro Dyo
4. Halleluyah (Psalm 111)
5. Deutsche Kedusha
6. Kedusha-L'dor Vador
7. Yih'yu L'ratson
8. Elu D'vorim
9. Vos is gevorn fun mayn shtetele?
10. Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen
11. Can't Help Loving that Man
12. Meditation
13. Lechi Lach
14. Peace By Piece
15. God Bless America
Other Genres:
