An online discussion with Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein and Hazzan Jeremy Stein 

In winter 2019, members and affiliates of the Cantors Assembly traveled to Uganda on a mission of solidarity, learning, and peoplehood with the Abayudaya Jewish community. This trip was in recognition of the centennial celebration of leader Semei Kakungulu鈥檚 declaration that he and his people would align themselves with the Jewish people.

Trip participants Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein and Hazzan Jeremy Stein discuss the experiences by the CA mission鈥檚 participants including the gifting of a sefer Torah to the central synagogue at Nabugoye Hill and musical learning in the various communities of the region. The singing of the Jews of Uganda both unites them and allows each of the different synagogues to express their own unique voices. Psalm singing in Luganda, the Bantu language spoken in the African Great Lakes region, is the core repertoire of the Abayudaya liturgy. Hazzan Stein and Dr. Stein share studio and field recordings and offer attendees a glimpse of the importance of music in ritual and daily life for this flourishing part of klal Yisrael.

Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播, served as moderator.

This series was co-sponsored by The 91快播 Library and the .

About Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein

Musicologist Amanda Ruppenthal Stein, Ph.D. is lecturer in music at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. A recent graduate of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, she specializes in Jewish identity in art music of 19th century German-speaking Europe.  In 2019, Amanda traveled twice to Uganda to conduct fieldwork in collaboration with a solidarity mission and recording project of the Cantors Assembly, celebrating 100 Years of the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda.

About Hazzan Jeremy Stein

Hazzan Jeremy Stein serves Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid in Milwaukee, WI. He is currently working on a Haggadah supplement to tell the 100-year history of the Abayudaya through the lens of the Passover Seder. In the spring, he is releasing an album of new original music for Havdalah as a benefit for Jewish summer camps.

Hazzan David F. Tilman examines the works of Leonard Bernstein using a rich variety of musical recordings and archival photographs.

Maestro Leonard Bernstein was an incredibly versatile musician, known for his major contributions as world class composer in a multiplicity of styles, virtuoso pianist, and orchestra conductor of the highest caliber. 

Born into an orthodox Jewish home, Maestro Bernstein was raised in a Conservative synagogue in the Boston area. He was educated at Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Boston Latin School, Harvard University, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Maestro Bernstein put his Jewish identity in many of his compositions. At least 20 Bernstein works contain Jewish musical elements, motifs, themes, contents, and theology, reflecting his upbringing, education, and identity. This lecture examines several of these works, Hashkiveinu, Yigdal, Simchu Na, and even West Side Story, Candide, and MASS.

Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播, served as moderator.

This series was co-sponsored by The 91快播 Library and the .

About Hazzan David F. Tilman

Hazzan David F. Tilman has earned degrees from Columbia College, the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, and the Juilliard School, majoring in Choral Conducting. At Juilliard, he was a conducting student of Abraham Kaplan, conductor of the choruses on the premiere recordings of Leonard Bernstein鈥檚 choral/orchestral compositions. In May 2016, Hazzan Tilman was awarded the Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree, honoris causa, from Gratz College, and in 2008, the Doctor of Music degree, honoris causa, from 91快播. He is Hazzan Emeritus of Beth Sholom Congregation of Elkins Park, retiring in 2011 after 36 years. His Beth Sholom choirs toured Israel, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw, and Havana. Hazzan Tilman served as Music Director/Rosh Musica at three Camps Ramah and at the Brandeis Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, California. He has completed a five-year tenure as Associate Professor at the H. L. Miller Cantorial School.

Since August 2011, Hazzan Tilman is choral director of Shir KI, the adult choir of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, Pa, and also serves as pastoral outreach professional. He has conducted, lectured, and sung throughout the USA, in Santiago, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Warsaw, and Havana. He is conductor of the Delaware Valley Cantors Assembly Ensemble. In 2015, he lectured on the stage of Verizon Hall on the Bernstein Mass, prior to the Philadelphia Orchestra performances. In May 2017, Hazzan Tilman presented the pre-concert lecture on the Verizon Hall stage introducing the Philadelphia Orchestra鈥檚 performances of the Bernstein Jeremiah Symphony., and he has lectured on the Bernstein Kaddish Symphony before the Philadelphia Orchestra鈥檚 presentation of the composer鈥檚 Third Symphony.

Hazzan Tilman has been speaking about the Leonard Bernstein Centennial, specifically the Jewish content of Bernstein鈥檚 compositions, for three years. Hazzan Tilman served as creative consultant for the Bernstein Centennial Exhibit mounted by the National Museum of American Jewish His-tory. In May 2018 he conducted a performance of the Bernstein Chichester Psalms, featuring a chorus of 175 singers on the Verizon Hall stage. He returned to Verizon Hall in February 2019, conducting a large 175 voice chorus and Cantorial soloists. He is now Music Director of the Sing Hallelujah Concert Series at Verizon Hall, bringing together 175 singers reaching out to the Jewish community of the Delaware Valley.

What are the spiritual possibilities of music? Five-hundred years ago, rabbis, cantors and Jewish musicians began to explore this question in dramatic new ways. Extended niggunim, orchestras to welcome the Sabbath bride, meshorerim (musical assistants to the cantor), new Hebrew treatises on music, and the borrowing of European musical technique and style contributed to this experimental climate in the synagogues of early modern Europe. But these changes also incited concern and anger from traditionalists, who worried that musical complexity would compromise the halachic and spiritual integrity of authentic prayer.

Cantor Matthew Austerklein (CS ’11) discusses these early Jewish worship wars. He examines the fiery critics of cantorial practice, emerging music theologians, and experimental cantors alike, as well as uncovers illustrations, manuscripts, and musical notation from this momentous era of cantorial innovation. Many of these sources are held in the Rare Book Room of The 91快播 Library.

Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播, served as moderator.

This series is co-sponsored by The 91快播 Library and the .

An online discussion with Cantor Gerald Cohen and performance by Cassatt String Quartet

Cantor Gerald Cohen, composer and assistant professor in the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, will speak about his composition, Playing for Our Lives, written as a tribute to the music and musicians of the Terezin concentration camp. The acclaimed Cassatt String Quartet, for whom Playing for our lives was composed, perform the composition.

The music contained in the texture of Cohen鈥檚 quartet includes the Yiddish folk song Beryozkele; an excerpt from the children鈥檚 opera Brundibar; and the “Dies Irae” from Verdi鈥檚 Requiem. Brundibar was performed more than 50 times at Terezin by the children there, while Verdi’s Requiem鈥攚hich was probably performed both as speaking to their own danger of death, and as an act of subtle defiance to the Nazis鈥攚as sung by a determined group of prisoners led by the dynamic conductor Rafael Schachter. Cohen discusses how these pieces鈥攁nd his wish to commemorate those who bravely continued to make art while imprisoned and in danger of death鈥攊nspired him and are woven together to create this musical memorial.

Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播, served as moderator.

This concert and discussion were made possible by the support of The Phyllis and Stanley Sanders Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Collection fund.

This series was co-sponsored by The 91快播 Library and the .

About Cantor Gerald Cohen

Composer  has been praised by Gramophone Magazine for his “linguistic fluidity and melodic gift,” creating music that “reveals a very personal modernism that鈥ffers great emotional rewards.” His opera, Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true concentration camp love story, had its world premiere production by Opera Colorado in January 2018. Cohen鈥檚 operas Sarah and Hagar, based on the story from the book of Genesis, and Seed, a one-act opera about love and choices for a post-apocalyptic couple, have been performed in concert form. Cohen is a noted synagogue cantor and baritone; his experience as a singer informs his dramatic, lyrical compositions. Recent instrumental compositions include Voyagers, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager spacecraft, which had its premiere at New York鈥檚 Hayden Planetarium; and Playing for our lives, a tribute to the music and musicians of the WWII Terezin concentration camp near Prague.

Recognition of Cohen鈥檚 body of work includes the Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award and Hoff-Barthelson/Copland House commission, Westchester Prize for New Work, American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency, Zamir Choral Foundation鈥檚 Hallel V鈥橺imrah award, and Cantors Assembly鈥檚 Max Wohlberg Award for distinguished achievement in the field of Jewish composition. Cohen received the Yale University鈥檚 Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts, and has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Westchester Arts Council. He received a BA in music from Yale University and a DMA in composition from Columbia University. He is cantor at Shaarei Tikvah, Scarsdale, NY, and is on the faculties of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of 91快播 and of Hebrew Union College. Cohen鈥檚 compositions are available by contacting him through his ; he also has works published by Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP and Transcontinental Music Publications.

About the Cassatt String Quartet

Acclaimed as one of America’s outstanding ensembles, the Manhattan-based Cassatt String Quartet has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. The Cassatt鈥檚 numerous awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the USArtists International, Chamber Music America, CMA/ASCAP, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet the Composer, and the Amphion, Copland, Fromm and Alice M. Ditson Music Foundations. Since 1995, the ensemble has been on the performing artist roster for the New York State Council on the Arts.

With a deep commitment to nurturing young musicians, the Cassatt has offered classes for composers and performers at the American Academy, Rome; the Toho School, Tokyo; Bowdoin International Music Festival; Columbia; Cornell; Princeton; Syracuse Universities, and the University of Pennsylvania. The quartet is in residence annually at Maine’s Seal Bay Festival of American Contemporary Chamber Music and Cassatt in the Basin! in Texas.

Named for the celebrated impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, the quartet consists of Muneko Otani, violin; Jennifer Leshnower, violin; Ah Ling Neu, viola; and Elizabeth Anderson, cello.