If you want a full on Jewish music pageant, it's hard to beat the Russians. The following video, from the Turetsky Choir, is a great example but only one of many I run across. It's an incongruous (to me) mix of some seriously good male vocalists, Jewish folk and liturgical music, and a high production value stage and pop instrumentation.The Michael Turetsky Choir has its own official website.
Michael Turetsky has been, since 1990, the organizer, conductor and choirmaster of the male choir of the Moscow Synagogue--now known as the Choir of Michael Turetsky (Turetsky's Choir). In 1993 the American Music Art Association awarded Michael Turetsky with the "Golden Crown" order as the best cantor.
According to Passport Magazine, the nature of the Turetsky Choir has changed--a lot--over the years:
In its formative stages, Turetsky’s Choir was very different from what it is now. It began as a choir at the Moscow Choral Synagogue in the late 1980s and reflected Turetsky’s interest in Judaic spiritual music. “Very few people were interested in that kind of music at the time, and no one at all in the post-Soviet countries,” Turetsky says. “So when I got an opportunity, I did some research in libraries in New York and Jeruslaem and discovered this profound, diverse, and very stylish kind of music that was accessible at a basic human level.”Here is what they sound like:
Originally, Turetsky’s group saw its mission as reviving Judaic religious music, but, according to the group’s head, after a few years the collective’s ambitions became bigger than that rather narrow area. “We understood that we had to have a broader scope and began to include secular material in our programs,” Turetsky says.
Turetsky Choir performing a medley:
Here is the Turetsky Choir performing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Sim Shalom
An interesting rendition of Hava Negilah from 1999
The Choir as it appeared in its beginnings--performing Areshes S'foseynu at the Conservatory
Hat tip: Lenny
Technorati Tag: Jewish Music.
1 comment:
In the Soviet Union, Jewish culture was heavily repressed and the state discouraged religion.
Now things are very different and while one can question the extent to which Russia is a democracy by Western standards, today freedom of religion is not in doubt with the rebuilding of churches and the return of synagogue property from the state.
The first condition for true freedom is faith in G-d. If one is allowed to manifest it, one is already free. All the rest is secondary.
Russia's Turetsky Choir is proof of it!
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