Press Releases
Spirits Unconquered
June 23, 2015Musical memorials to the Holocaust tread on sensitive ground. On one hand, they perform a crucial function for humanity’s collective memory. On the other hand, there is significant risk of belittling the topic in the name of artistic expression. Two composers who have successfully navigated the risky waters of this endeavor to produce musically significant works with dignity and veneration are Charles Davidson and Sheila Silver. A newly released album from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music’...
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Woe to Jerusalem, Praise to God
June 09, 2015For composers, Jewish history and the bible are gifts that keep on giving. Case in point: two very different but equally engaging recordings recently added to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience in Volume 17, Odes and Epics: Dramatic Music of Jewish Experience.
Leading off is Robert Starer’s six-movement dramatic cantata, Ariel: Visions of Isaiah. Comprising settings of selected verses from the Book of Isaiah, the piece presents a condensed narrative of Isaiah’s visio...
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Music for the Sabbath
May 12, 2015As with most religions, Jewish life is punctuated by events that mark important transitions and regulate the overlapping cycles of time that make up the polyrhythm of life. Celebrations mark significant life turning points. Major holidays occur at transitional times of year. For the deeply observant, prayers help regulate the flow of time throughout each day.
Two new albums out this month from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience focus on music for the Sabbath—the occasi...
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Music for the High Holy Days
April 14, 2015Musical Prayer Settings Illustrate Continuum of Tradition and Innovation in the American Diaspora
In the annual cycle of events marking the Jewish calendar, few loom as large as the High Holy Days. Known in Hebrew as the Yamim Nora’im (Days of Awe), the High Holy Days consume a 10-day period, commencing on the Sabbath before Rosh Hashana with S’lihot and concluding on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
A new album featuring High Holy Day liturgical settings from the Milken Archive of Jewish M...
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Liturgical Music of Yehudi Wyner
April 14, 2015Two commissions from the 1960s stand as giants in composer’s diverse oeuvre
Yehudi Wyner is among the most decorated and celebrated contemporary American composers. With more than 100 works to his credit, he has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts to name a few, has won a Pulitzer Prize (2006), and in 2014 was named President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Wyner’s career has also been marked by consistent engagem...
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Roots of the Jewish Folk-Rock Phenomenon
March 10, 2015When most people hear the words “folk rock service for the Sabbath eve,” one name will come to mind. That is name is typically not Raymond Smolover. Yet, before there was Debbie Friedman, before Craig Taubman or Rick Recht or any of the myriad folk-rock oriented singer-songwriters of Jewish liturgical music, there was Raymond Smolover. In the 1960s, Smolover composed and produced two folk-rock synagogue services—Edge of Freedom and Gates of Freedom—that (unbeknownst to him at the time) f...
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New Recording Features Organ Music for the Synagogue
February 03, 2015Album of Organ Music Features Synagogue Pieces by Bloch and Milhaud
There is a commonly held assumption that the adoption of the organ into American synagogue worship was an act of assimilation. That is, that in order to appear more American, synagogues aimed to make their music sound more like that of their Christian compatriots. Two 2012 releases by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music featured Jewish liturgical music of American Reform congregation from the mid–late 19th century through the b...
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Two New Albums Showcase Liturgical Masterpieces and Pay Homage to Victims of Holocaust
January 06, 2015Given the fact that the history of Jewish music in America spans centuries and includes a broad range of artistic approaches, it seems only fitting that the two new albums released this month by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience span decades and include a sacred service, a cantata, and two secular classical works that commemorate the Holocaust.
While the collective repertoire of American Jewish sacred music contains dozens of synagogue services composed for large orch...
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Volume 4, Part 4: Sacred Services for the Sabbath Eve
October 07, 2014Prayer in Judaism is perhaps best understood as both a natural and a highly developed mode of communication with God—both an act of faith and an expression of one’s inner spirituality. Thus, it should come as no surprise that virtually every period and community in the recorded history of Judaism has offered fresh contributions to the forms, types, and styles of prayer, as well as to its musical counterparts. With the latest installment to the Cycle of Life in Synagogue and Home(Volume 4 of...
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Volume 11: Symphonic Visions, Part 2
August 04, 2014When the Editorial Board of the Milken Archive began deliberations about a volume on orchestral music of Jewish spirit, they had no idea how “voluminous” it would turn out to be. Later, when recording sessions began, musicians and conductors were equally surprised at the number of high-quality, Jewish-themed orchestral works—many by major American composers—that had been created. Looking back with the 20/20 vision that hindsight allows, it’s equally surprising that many of them fell mo...
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