About Golden Chants in America
Cantor Rebecca Garfein Celebrates 350
Years of Jewish Music in America with "Golden Chants in America"
NEW YORK - Bari Productions announces the debut of "Golden Chants in
America...Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004," an historic CD
featuring mezzo-soprano Cantor Rebecca Garfein, senior cantor of Congregation
Rodeph Sholom, New York City. Including music from the Spanish-Portuguese Jews,
the synagogue and the Yiddish and Broadway theater, the compilation is the first
U.S. recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America on
one CD. Cantor Garfein recently debuted the album during a sold-out Nov. 10
concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The CD is available at CD music
outlets and
Amazon.com.
Cantor Garfein, a mezzo-soprano who made history in 1997 as the first female
cantor to sing in Berlin, Germany, explains, "'Golden Chants' represents three
and a half centuries of significant Jewish music brought to the U.S. by Jewish
immigrants or written by Jewish composers on American soil." She adds the CD
release is timely since this fall marks the end of a year-long celebration of
350 years of Jewish life in America.
The links below will take you to www.pbs.org/religion web sites that highlight the Golden Chants in America CD.
Click here to read the full interview with Cantor Rebecca Garfein.
Click here to see the feature, including a video clip of her performance at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
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.
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.
Also, 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.
First Female Cantor to Sing in Germany
In 1997, Cantor Garfein became the first female cantor to give a solo concert at
the Jewish Cultural Festival in Berlin Germany, from where her grandfather fled
during the Holocaust. At the 1998 Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival, Cantor
Garfein became the first female cantor to preside in a German synagogue and
released a CD, "Sacred Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue," a live recording
of her historic 1997 Berlin concert.
Cantor Garfein made her Carnegie Hall debut in June, 2005 in a benefit concert
for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater featuring Mandy Patinkin. A native of
Tallahassee, Florida, 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). She 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.
While completing her studies at HUC-JIR, Cantor Garfein was the Director of
Children's Music at Riverdale Temple, Riverdale, the Bronx, New York. Upon
graduation from HUC-JIR, she subsequently became the first Cantor of Riverdale
Temple and served in that capacity until 1999, when she was the first woman
appointed as Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.
Accompanying Cantor Garfein on the CD is "Golden Chants" musical director and
pianist Jonathan Faiman and the "Golden Chants" combo and choir. Mr. Faiman, a
multiple ASCAP award winner, has received critical acclaim for his solo CD, "Hie
Up The Mountain." 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. In New York City, Mr. Faiman has performed extensively
in most major halls, including Avery Fisher, Merkin, Symphony Space and Weill
Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has taught at Concordia College and is on the
faculty of Bloomingdale School of Music and the Preparatory Divison of Manhattan
School of Music, from where he holds a Doctorate.