Nava Tehila concert, with Chava Mirel!

It isn't often that we have an opportunity to get to either a Nava Tehila concert or a Chava Mirel concert by subway, but we had that opportunity this past Sunday night, courtesy of Nitzotzot!  What a delight, to see both Yoel Sykes and Chava!  Here's a nice chunk of the concert.  You can see me at about the 58-second mark sitting along the right wall in a pink baseball cap (because the lighting was bothering my eyes). Here's a short snippet from another part of this concert.

Continuing what seems to be an old minhag/custom of ours, we raised the average age in the room by probably at least 30 years :), but no matter--we had a grand time not only singing, but dancing, as well  (look for two oldsters who first appear at about the 2 minutes, 40 seconds mark).  What fun!  I was misbehaving, as usual--one of these days, I'm going to get kicked out of a concert for singing along too loudly.  (I think I only get away with it because I almost always sing harmony.)  I do try to remind myself that no one is paying to hear me sing, but I find it hard to curb my enthusiasm.  Thank you so much to Nava Tehila and Chava for such beautiful music!

More Rising Song Intensive video links

Here's Deborah Sacks Mintz leading a beautiful niggun.

Here's Rabbi Josh Warshawsky leading a livelier niggun.  He was so high-energy when he was leading this niggun in his morning class that he was hopping up and down as if he'd had four cups of coffee with breakfast! 😀 What fun!

February 3, 2020 update:
Deborah told us that the beautiful niggun linked above is Hanerot Halalu, by Margie Rosenthal and Ilene Safyan.  See Giving credit where it's due.  [Feb. 2021 update:  I've since learned that this is considered a traditional tune--no one seems to know who wrote it.]

Rising Song Intensive: Galeet Dardashti teaches respectful integration of Sephardi/Mizrachi music

Post #1 about the Rising Song Intensive is here.

"Integrating Sephardi/Mizrachi Vocal Repertoire Artfully and Respectfully" was the official name of the course that I took with Galeet Dardashti for three hours each day on Tuesday, December 24 and Wednesday, December 25, 2019 at Hadar's Rising Song Intensive.  We spent as much time in discussion as we did learning Mizrachi music, because we had no choice--we couldn't ignore the "elephant in the room," which was cultural appropriation.  How could a room of mostly-Ashkenazi students be teachers and/or singers of Sephardi/Mizrachi music when that music wasn't "ours" by birth?  The standing-on-one-foot version of Galeet's advice was (1) to learn the music very well and (2) to be sure to give credit to the songwriter/paitan (writer of religious poetry).  She assured us that we shouldn't worry about the likelihood that we wouldn't be able to match the Hebrew pronunciation of the original version, or the distinct possibility that we wouldn't be able to sing quarter-tone notes.

I learned from Galeet that most Mizrachi music is sung without harmony, but with more call-and-response singing than is typical of Ashkenazi music.  (Galeet assured us that she, herself, uses harmony frequently.)  I also learned that many piyyutim (religious poems, usually written to be sung) were composed for the precise purpose of being sung to popular melodies, most of which are no longer known, since most piyyutim are literally centuries old.  In addition, I learned that there are no niggunim (wordless songs) in Sephardi/Mizrachi music.

Galeet seemed to me to have a different singing style than (most of?) the other singers at the Rising Song Intensive.  After hearing her sing both in class and after the communal lighting of the Chanukah candles, I joked with her that, when she sang, she just belted it out like a Mizrachi Ethel Merman.  She cracked up laughing. 

Rising Song Intensive: Harmony heaven

If memory serves me correctly, there were 630 people (my husband says 250) registered for the Rising Song Intensive, and of those, I'm guessing that at least 100 of us were singing harmony.  I don't think I've ever in my life been anywhere with that many harmony singers in one place at one time.  Even in the chapel, when maybe 30 people were davvening (praying), when we got to the end of Aleinu, we broke into four-part harmony.  I told my husband that this was one of the best vacations I've ever had.

I just spent an hour in a chat with Google trying to figure out how to get the few videos that I shot--I was too busy singing!--from my new-ish phone onto my computer--I'll try to post them when I'm awake.  I'll also try to write some more about Hadar's Rising Song Intensive, which was an amazing experience!

In the meantime, I hope this link to last night's concert with Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble, four of whose regular members and one guest led, or taught at, the Intensive, will work.

Friday, Dec. 27, 2019 update:
I can see, when I go to the "write/edit" screen, that my video has been uploaded, but it simply refuses to appear in the published/visible post.  It occurs to me that I've had this problem in the past--back in the good old days when I still remembered my YouTube password, I used to upload my videos to YouTube and link to them in my posts.  For lack of a current alternative, I'm linking to the Facebook post where I uploaded this video last night--if you click here, you can listen to Basya Schechter leading her Maoz Tzur.  Enjoy!

See my next post, which is also about the Rising Song Intensive.

Deborah Sacks Mintz leads her "Nigun Gevurah/Barchi Nafshi" at USCJ Convention

Video here.

I spent several minutes trying to figure how I could be singing along when I couldn't figure where in the siddur (prayer book) the words were from.  Naturally, my husband listened for about 10 seconds and pegged the words as coming from right before Shochen Ad.  That makes sense, since he almost always leads P'sukei D'Zimra, and these words are, except on a Yom Tov/holiday, the last ones that he leads.

Enjoy!

Links to new music videos from Rabbi Josh Warshawsky & Rabbi Yosef Goldman

Here's Josh's "HaPoteach" (from the Shabbat/Sabbath Morning Service).

And here's Yosef's "Open My Heart," from his just-released album of the same name.

Music link-fest:

~  "Ein Od, " "Eliyahu HaNavi," and "Gam Ki Elech" (two versions)

~ "Ya'aleh Koleinu"

~ "Shir HaMa'alot"

~ And my previous music link-fest


Enjoy!

Video links: Ein Od and Eliyahu HaNavi

As an Ashkenazit, I've never heard this line from the Aleinu prayer, quoting Deuteronomy 4:35-38 (and Zechariah 14:9) sung quite the way that Rabbi Yosef Goldman wrote it.  (If the audio doesn't play right away, click on the video screen again.)

Here's a very nice version of Eliyah HaNavi, by Rabbi Yosef Goldman and Annie Lewis.  (The video doesn't seem to start at the beginning of the song--just hit "replay.")

And, in case you missed these, here are two different versions of "Gam Ki Elech."

Enjoy!

"Gam Ki Elech," by Rabbi Josh Warshawsky & Coleen Dieker (video)

Here's a gorgeous song that we heard at last Saturday night's concert--it's the "full" version, with more singers and instumentalists. Enjoy!

No, it's not your imagination--I did post a video of "Gam Ki Elech" before, but that's the Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble version.

So now you get two videos with the same name (and lyrics) for the price of one.  :)

Oh my gosh, what a sing-along with Josh (Warshawsky)!

See here.

Last night's concert was billed as "Rabbi Josh Warshawsky and Friends." The friends turned out to be Brian Gelfand (whom we'd met a few years ago when he led an instant-choir session at a Limmud weekend) on keyboards and voice, Coleen Dieker (Rav Josh's long-time music collaborator--they co-wrote Hame'irah) on violin and voice, and singer/songwriter Deborah Sacks Mintz (whom we'd last seen here, here, and here), along with Cantor Elizabeth Stevens, who joined the group for several songs.

The audience was about three-quarters campers (and their parents) from Ramah in the Berkshires.  And the kids, whom Rav Josh called up to join him for two songs, were having a grand time singing along and kibitzing--every time the name Malka came up in a song, there were shouts of glee from the left side of the room, since, apparently, there was a girl named Malka among the campers sitting there. :)

As for this particular grown-up, there were so many audience members not only singing along, but also, like me, singing harmony that I felt as if I were back in the alto row of the choir at my former synagogue.

My husband and I are so glad that we made the long trek to Riverdale to sing along with Rav Josh and Friends.

What fun!

Kumzits followed by kibitzing: End-of-holidays round-up

First, we went to an Erev Hoshana Rabbah kumzitz/sing-along in the Sukkah at Beloved Brooklyn, with singer/songwriter Deborah Sacks Mintz and percussionist Sam Weisenberg, and had a delightful evening (not to mention an opportunity to make a b'rachah in the sukkah)!


Then, there were shenanigans in shul on Simchat Torah.


In the evening, we were happy, indeed, to see some of our younger members and friends--folks in roughly their thirties--show up to make a minyan for hakafot despite the fact that they had all worked that day.  Since they were enthusiastic singers, I had fun leading them in some new tunes that I've just recently learned from YouTube, namely, Nava Tehila's "Oseh Shalom" and Elana Arian's "Hinei Ma Tov."  I can't remember the last time I had so much fun on Erev Simchat Torah!


In the morning, my husband, with much "assistance" from me, alternated between goofing off and singing just about every song we knew for the psalms and other texts in P'sukei D'Zimrah, including all of Salamone Rossi's "Halleli Nafshi," but only the alto part, 'cause that's the only part I know.  :)


Then my husband started singing the High Holiday tune for the Avot section (first paragraph) of the Amidah, and drove the cantor crazy.  :)


During the Musaf service, I did my usual shtick of spraying water in people's faces when we said "Mashiv ha-ruach u'morid ha-gashem (God makes the wind blow and the rain fall)."


But probably the best part of the morning was putting a smile on the face of one of our congregation's favorite 90-something-year-olds.


A simchah was had by all!

Ya'aleh Koleinu / "Let Our Voices Rise" (Piyut for Yom Kippur)

Sing-along in a Sukkah, Sat., Oct. 19, 2019, 8:30 PM

My husband and I are looking forward to participating in this sing-along in a Sukkah!  Note that, since this concert will take place in a sukkah built in the yard of the Beloved Brooklyn house (or in the living room, if the weather is too inclement), the seating is probably limited to about 30 people, so make your reservations soon!  Here's what the Beloved Brooklyn living-room looks like, and what Deborah sounds like in it!  It's too bad that Elana and Chava won't be there, this time, so we'll have to sing our own harmonies  :).

For the curious, here's the website of the song-leader, Deborah Sacks Mintz.

“Shir Hama’alot” (2019) by Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble, featu...

“Gam Ki Eilech” (2019) by Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble

Lost--& found--in the wilds of Westchester--Hadar Ensemble concert & Selichot

Naturally, since we had to make a 50-yard dash--or, rather, take an eight-block speed-walk--to our rental car as soon as we could get our gear together after making havdalah last night--we were already running late.  Then we messed up the GPS, so it messed us up--it sent us to White Plains instead of New Rochelle.  (Both towns are in Westchester County, New York State).  But we did, eventually, make it to Beth El Synagogue Center.

And this is what we saw and heard.


Shir HaMaalot (music by Joey Weisenberg, with Deborah Sacks Mintz singing lead and Anat Hoffman singing harmony).  Many thanks to Hadar's Rabbi Elie Kaunfer for recording and sharing this video.

You'll have to go to Deborah's Facebook page to see more videos from the concert and a snippet of Avinu Malkeinu (from the Selichot service following the concert)--I'm, apparently, too tech-challenged to figure out how to find workable links to these videos on Facebook.

We got two pleasant surprises at and after the Selichot service.  Neither of us had any idea that one of the local Israeli-folk-dance teachers with whom we dance frequently is a cantor--he was one of the leaders of the Selichot service.  The other surprise was that one of the former cantors of our former synagogue, who was another one of the Selichot leaders, still recognized us even though we probably haven't seen her for about 20 years--what a delight to be greeted with a hug!  She actually grew up in our former synagogue--we've known her since she was a child.

All told, and even though we got there ridiculously late, it was worth the trip to see old friends in new places, enjoy part of a wonderful concert, and participate in a musical Selichot service with over 200 people instead of probably fewer than 15.  It's hard to feel that one has an actual viable congregation when, practically every other Shabbat (Sabbath) morning, we have to stop the service and wait because we "lose" our minyan every time someone leaves the sanctuary.  So it was a real pleasure to davven ba-rabbim, to pray among a multitude.

Music!

Here are some delightful recordings from Nava Tehila:


~ Sham'ah Va-tismach (Psalm 97: 8)  As befits the lyrics (which are all in the feminine in Hebrew), all of the singers of this particular song are women.  (Audio only.)


~  Oseh Shalom (live-performance video).  My husband and I first heard this at a recent Kabbalat Shabbat/Maariv service at my old "kaddish minyan."


~ Halleluyah (audio only)




Want to jazz things up a bit?  Here's a good song from Noah Aronson:  Eileh Chamdah Libi


I like Elana Arian's L'cha Dodi so much that I've borrowed the melody for use as Adon Olam at our shul.


And here's Chava Mirel's Achat Sha'alti, from the special psalm recited at the end of every Shacharit (Morning) and Maariv/Arvit (Evening) Service during the month of Elul.  In this version, she sings in three-part harmony all by herself.  (Would that I had the tech skills to create a split-screen video.)  And here, for people like me who get so distracted by lovely harmonies that we have trouble learning the melody :), is the melody-only version, so that we can learn it.  :)

An oldie but goodie: Gershon Veroba & Takana, Live! - "Tzur Misgabeinu" (by E. Gerstner)

Somebody posted this on a blog years ago.  Unfortunately, that blog no longer exists, but I remembered this song, and hunted for it on Youtube.  Enjoy!

"Harimi"--A quote from Haftarat Vaetchanan ("Nachamu"), set to music

Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 9

ט  עַל הַר-גָּבֹהַּ עֲלִי-לָךְ, מְבַשֶּׂרֶת צִיּוֹן, הָרִימִי בַכֹּחַ קוֹלֵךְ, מְבַשֶּׂרֶת יְרוּשָׁלִָם; הָרִימִי, אַל-תִּירָאִי, אִמְרִי לְעָרֵי יְהוּדָה, הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. 9 O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God!'

Music by Gershon Veroba.

"Nachamu/Comfort Us" by Elana Arian

In honor of Shabbat Nachamu.

"It's All Good," by Cantor Robbi Sherwin (music video)

My husband and I were in the audience at this performance.  What fun!  If you're looking for more of Cantor Sherwin's music, see here and here (which is where you can hear the original version of this song).