The University at Albany Department of Music is pleased to present a concert
of works celebrating the “Father of Jewish Folk Music” entitled Joel Engel, Pioneer of Jewish Art Music
on Wednesday, September
19, 2007 at 7:30pm in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. Performers will include pianist M. Rahima
Hohlstein, soprano Gene Marie Callahan Kern, mezzo-soprano Frances Pallozzi
Wittmann, the Leonata Chamber Ensemble and the University Chamber Singers.
A musical critic,
composer and folklorist, Engel (1868-1927) studied composition and theory of
music at the Moscow Conservatory and became one of the most prominent Russian
musical writers. He arranged numerous folk songs for voice and piano, solo
piano, and for violin and piano although his compositional output is heavily
weighted in the area of vocal music. Often considered his most ambitious
composition is the incidental music to Shlomo Ansky's play, The Dybbuk. The original suite was
written for string quartet, double bass and clarinet. The score parts were
never published but Engel did publish his own arrangement of the suite for solo
piano. Melodies from the suite can be traced directly to popular folk songs,
which Engel collected in Jewish villages. Haddibuk
Suite will be performed as part of the concert program.
Engel was the
sustaining force of the Jewish Society for Folk Music in St. Petersburg from 1908 to 1918.
Along with colleagues Pesach Marek and Saul Ginsburg, he collected folksongs
from the Jewish population in the Pale of the Settlement, a small area of land
on the western Russian borders where 94 percent of the Jewish population was
required to live. After a successful presentation to the Moscow Polytechnic Museum and the Imperial
Ethnographical Society and at the encouragement of composers such as
Balakierev, Engel helped to establish the Jewish Society for Folk Music. The
society's purpose was, in part, to encourage musicians to use Jewish folk
material and liturgical material in their compositions, establish a library of
Jewish music, publish compositions, and organize concerts and lectures of
Jewish music. Despite the historical and ethnological importance of Engel, he
is generally unknown in the music world outside of Israel.
M. Rahima Hohlstein is the Bernard
D. Arbit research associate at UAlbany’s Center for Jewish Studies. She
obtained the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance with a minor in
music theory at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned her
Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from State University of New York
at Fredonia and her Master of Music degree in piano performance from The Boston
Conservatory. Hohlstein has lectured
nationally and regionally for the College Music Society.
Gene
Marie Callahan-Kern made her professional debut at Chicago Lyric Opera and sang
more than twenty leading and supporting roles while in Chicago. She has been heard throughout the United States
and in Austria
in leading operatic roles, recitals and oratorios. The award winning soprano has recorded with
Maestro James Levine and the Chicago Symphony and has been heard over Radio ORF
in Austria. Callahan Kern has taught voice at Castleton
State College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Currently she teaches voice at the Emma Willard School while maintaining a
private voice and piano studio.
Highlights of Frances
Pallozzi Wittmann’s career include four seasons with New York City Opera;
performances with Syracuse, Cincinnati, Lake George and Glimmerglass
opera companies; and Syracuse, Jacksonville and Monterey Symphony Orchestras. She made her NYC concert debut at Lincoln Center with the Little
Orchestra Society in the American premiere of Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus. Locally she
has appeared as soloist with Albany Pro Musica, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society,
Capitol Hill Choral Society, the Mendelssohn Club and the Albany and Schenectady
Symphony Orchestras. She currently
teaches voice privately and at UAlbany.
The
Leonata Chamber Ensemble was founded by Leo and
Natalya Milman, natives of Ukraine
and Russia,
respectively. They moved to the United States
in 1993 to dedicate their professional time to teaching and performing with
various musical groups. Performers in the ensemble along with Leon
and Natalya (both violinists) include violist Bill Shapiro, cellist Brittany
Tissiere, clarinetist Thomas Gerbino and percussionist Anna Sackett.
The UAlbany Chamber
Singers is a select group of dedicated students from a variety of majors and
backgrounds. Under the direction of
David M. Janower, their repertory spans a wide range of compositional styles
and musical periods. The group's strong interest in music around the world has
resulted in performances of compositions from six continents. The group has made six CDs, their most recent
being concert compilations -- one a CD of Hanukkah and Christmas music and one
titled “Around the World with the Chamber Singers.”
Prior to the
performance, M. Rahima Holstein will offer a pre-concert talk for audience
members starting at 6:45pm. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $4
for students and may be purchased through the Performing Arts Center Box
Office. For further information, contact
the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at
www.albany.edu/pac.
This concert is co-sponsored by the
Center for Jewish Studies
PAC
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