Jewish Composers: A German Connection
In collaboration with the Leo Baeck Institute
This concert series is devoted to rarely heard masterworks from the Sidney Krum Jewish Music and Yiddish Theater Memorial Collections at YIVO, performed by gifted young artists from the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and other premier conservatories in the metropolitan New York area.
The Spring 2013 program, "Jewish Composers: A German Connection," presents masterpieces by Jewish composers who were influenced by German musical culture. Works by Mendelssohn, Mahler, Kurt Weill and Schoenberg will be explored as well as music by German Jewish synagogue composer Louis Lewandowski, Russian Jewish composers Anton Rubinstein and Joel Engel, and Israeli composers Paul Ben Haim and Tzvi Avni. Music from the YIVO and LBI collections will be included.
About Sidney Krum
The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series and the Sidney Krum Jewish Music and Yiddish Theater Collections at YIVO are made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Mr. Krum, who came to the United States as a child from the Polish town of Anatolia and learned Yiddish folk songs from his mother. He was a lawyer but spent the bulk of his career as a teacher in the New York City public schools. Throughout his life, he remained dedicated to his Jewish heritage, particularly its music, and to the education of the young people of New York.
Concert Program
Introductory remarks by Carol Strauss, International Director of the Leo Baeck Institute, and Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
String Quartet no. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13. 3rd Movement: Intermezzo : Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto
Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894)
Kol Nidre for violin and piano, Op. 6.
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Piano Quartet (1876)
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)
El Dachtarawan: Marche orientale, Op. 93 for piano solo (1873)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Suite for piano, Op. 25. Gavotte
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Polly's Song from The Threepenny Opera: Ballade of Immoral Earnings arranged for violin and piano by Stefan Frenkel (1930)
Joel Engel (1868-1927)
Freylekhs for violin and piano, Op. 2, no.2
Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984)
Sephardic Lullaby for violin and piano
Tzvi Avni (b.1927)
Prayer for String Quartet
About the Performers
Yuval Waldman, Music Director
Born in Russia and educated in Israel, the United States and Europe, Yuval Waldman has enjoyed great success as a violinist, conductor, and educator. Waldman has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel and given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall in London, and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 2005 Maestro Waldman founded Music Bridges International, to foster cross-cultural music exchange programs that feature the music of different countries. Under the Music Bridges banner, he organized the successful Young Artsist Strings Competition at the “Tchaikovsky’s Homeland” Center in Izhevsk/Votkinsk, Russia.
Artur Kaganovskiy, violin
Artur Kaganovskiy, Russian-born violinist, came to the U.S.A. with the help legendary violinist, Isaac Stern, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School (B.M., M.M.). He is the winner of the Waldo de Mayo International Violin Competition, prize winner of the Brahms International Competition, and a recepient of the Fritz Kreisler Scholarship. Mr. Kaganovskiy made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2007 and performed in Russia, China, Romania, and Moldova.
Alla Milchtein, piano
Born in Moscow, Cantor Maria Dubinsky immigrated to Israel in 1990, where she graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem with a degree in Vocal Performance. Ms. Dubinsky performed with the New Israeli Opera, as a guest artist in music festivals in Israel and Europe, and gave concerts in Israel and the USA. In 2010 Maria was invested as a Cantor by the Hebrew Union College with a Master in Sacred Music. After working as a Cantor at North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, Maria Dubinsky joined Temple Sha'arei Tefilah in Manhattan in July 2011.
Sabina Torosjan, violin
Sabina Torosjan was awarded her B.M. degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Sally Thomas and Lewis Kaplan. She was a winner of the Estonian National Competition and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Award. Sabina has performed in all of the major halls in New York City, and was a guest at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and Bowdoin Festival in Maine.
Valeriya Sholokhova, cello
Valeriya Sholokhova, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Prof. Bonnie Hampton. She will continue her studies at Manhattan School of Music, where she will be pursuing her Master’s Degree under the guidance of Prof. David Geber. In 2001, Valeriya’s family immigrated to New York, where she enrolled in the Special Music School for gifted children at the Kaufman Center, studying on a full scholarship. During her school years, she was a laureate in a number of international competitions, including the Liezen International Cello Competition in Austria and the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition for Juniors in Croatia. She has recorded with Albany Records, and was admitted into the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she will be an associate cellist during the 2013-2014 season. Ms. Sholokhova plays on a cello loaned to her by the Carlsen Cello Foundation.
Eszter Szilveszter, viola
Eszter Szilveszter is a current member of the Neos String Quartet and Forte Duo. She received her M.M. degree from Western Illinois University and played with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Eszter performed under the baton of Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haiting, and Seiji Ozawa, and played chamber misic with Robert Levin, Mark Peskanov, and Alexander Fiterstein. She also participated at Bowdoin Festival in Maine, the Young Artists Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and the Bachacademie in Stuttgart, Germany.