Saturday, November 1, 2008, 8 pm at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn)

To open its 27th season, the premier choral ensemble of Chicago’s western suburbs will present another in a series of concerts of Jewish music. The music will celebrate Jewish music of worship, of concert and of the people.

The centerpiece of the concert will be Sheeru Ladonye Sheer Chadash (Sing Unto the Lord a New Song) by Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick, for chorus and harp. Guest artist Marguerite Lynn Williams will accompany the singers in this work.

Psalm and liturgical settings by Elaine Broad Ginsberg, Andrew Bleckner and Robert Applebaum will show the sacred side of the Jewish choral tradition. Composer Kurt Weill, the son of a cantor, will be represented by his setting of Kiddush. NCS will also perform popular contemporary songwriter Debbie Friedman’s Mi Shebeirach and T’filat Haderech.

A portion of the program will provide a special remembrance of the Holocaust, with director Lee Kesselman’s setting of the Yiddish song Tsvey Taybelekh and Mi y’maleil by Stanley Hoffman.

The program will close with a joyful assortment of Yiddish, Klezmer, and Sephardic music, accompanied by the NCS Klezmer Band.

PROGRAM

I

Hariu L’Adonai (in Hebrew) — Elaine Broad Ginsburg

II  From the Liturgy

Kiddush (in Hebrew) — Kurt Weill

Avinu Malkeinu (in Hebrew) — Srul Irving Glick

Mi Shebeirach (in Hebrew and English) — Debbie Friedman, arr. Mary Feinsinger

Oseh Shalom (in Hebrew) — Robert Applebaum

III

Sing Unto the Lord a New Song (in Hebrew and English) — Srul Irving Glick

INTERMISSION

IV  In Dark Times

Tsvey Taybelekh (Yiddish Folksong) — arr. Lee R. Kesselman

Mi y’maleil (in Hebrew) — Stanley M. Hoffman

V  Of the people

Der rebe Elimelekh (Yiddish Folksong) — arr. Robert DeCormier

Hamisha Asar (in Ladino) — Flory Jagoda, arr. Nick Page

Ale Brider (Yiddish Folksong) — arr. Joshua Jacobson

Yedid Nefesh (in Hebrew) — Andrew Bleckner

Simona MiDimona (in Hebrew) — Shelomo Weissfish, arr. Joshua Jacobson

Adijo, Kerida (Sephardic Folksong, in Ladino) — arr. Joshua Jacobson

Dance the Horah! — Emanuel Amiran, arr. Joshua Jacobson

1. Hey Harmonika
2. Mayim, Mayim

Guest Artist Marguerite Lynn Williams

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Roosevelt University harpist Marguerite Lynn Williams has played throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra member in such venues as Carnegie Hall (New York), Shostakovich Hall (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Symphony Center (Chicago).

Ms. Williams has been featured as soloist with the International Chamber Artists, New World Symphony and Roosevelt University Chamber Orchestra, among others. Recent performances have included collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, Maxim Vengerov, Kanye West and appearances as royal entertainment for H.I.H. Princess Thi-Nga of Vietnam.

Ms. Williams had had extensive work as an orchestra musician and is currently substitute principal harpist with the Chicago Symphony and principal harpist of the Colorado Music Festival (Boulder, CO).

Ms. Williams is currently on faculty at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami and maintains a private harp studio.

Guest Artist Shelly Yoelin

Shelley Yoelin recently retired as Chair of the Fine Arts Department and Director of Bands at Triton College, River Grove, Illinois.  Previously, he was Chair of the Music Program at Amso Alonzo Stagg  High School in Palso Hill, Illinois. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Music Education degree from VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, Illinois. In addition to his teaching at Triton College, he is a long time instructor with the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Clinics and the International Federation of Jazz (London, England).

Mr. Yoelin plays the saxophone and clarinet and performs constantly with Jazz and Commercial music groups in the Chicago area. He has recorded four albums with the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, and two albums with his own group, The Modern Klezmer Quartet. Both groups perform nationally and internationally.

Press/Publicity

Trib Local for Glen Ellyn published a write-up before this concert (local copy as PDF).