Curator's Pick: Celestial Dialogues by Ofer Ben-Amots
Conceived as a "stylistic confrontation" between Eastern European cantorial and klezmer traditions, Ofer Ben-Amots’ 1994 composition plays with dualities such as sacred/secular, song/dance, heaven/earth, and piety/celebration—juxtaposing the two primary musical figures of Eastern European Jewish culture. The Milken Archive recording of Celestial Dialogues features two of these traditions’ most prominent contemporary practitioners: Cantor Alberto Mizrahi and clarinetist David Krakauer.