October 23, 2019
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Conductor Zubin Mehta conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for the final time as its musical director.
Mehta, 83, performed with the Orchestra on Sunday evening in Tel Aviv and was honored with an extended standing ovation. Members of the orchestra threw flowers on the conductor and his wife at the end of the concert.
The final performance included Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mahler’s Symphony No....
October 03, 2019
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Demi Lovato had gushed about her “magical” visit to Israel, saying she felt a “sense of spirituality” there.
Now the 27-year-old pop star and actress is apologizing to those who may have been offended by her trip.
In Israel, Lovato made three posts earlier this week on Instagram, where she has 74 million followers, speaking glowingly of the country.
“Entertainment Tonight” reported that reactions to those posts...
July 16, 2019
(JTA) — Pink defended a photo she posted of her children running at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial. The Jewish pop singer, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore, shared photos on Instagram Sunday from her trip to the German capital. One of the images in a post captured “Berlin, I love you” showed her two young children running among the large stone blocks that make up the vast memorial.
Some commenters...
June 14, 2019
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
Two years ago the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (MAC) organized an exhibit on Canada’s favorite son writer, composer, singer and cultural icon, Leonard Cohen. Titled “A Crack in Everything,” the immersive and interactive exhibit included a collection of commissioned works from artists who cite Cohen as a major influence on their own artistic endeavors.
Two months ago in mid-April, the Jewish Museum...
May 20, 2019
(JNS.org) — Most Americans, unless they’re Jewish or into Israeli geopolitics, probably don’t know or care that the Eurovision just took place in Tel Aviv. For those who don’t cross American cultural borders, Eurovision could best be explained as “European Idol,” the “Super Bowl” of song contests in which European and honorary European countries send their pseudo-best to represent their country. The winner is chosen by a point system combining...
March 07, 2019
By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN
NEW YORK (JTA) — Neshama Carlebach says she is figuring out how “to both love and not love” her father.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a spiritual leader and musician whose soulful melodies penetrated the hearts of people across the religious spectrum, is the man who made her into who she is today. A singer and composer in her own right, Neshama, 44, first shared a stage with him at...
March 01, 2019
André Previn, the jazz and classical artist and conductor and award-winning film composer, died at his home in Manhattan on Thursday, February 28. He was 89.
Previn, whose Jewish parents fled the Nazis from his birthplace of Berlin, first lived in Paris for a year in 1938 before emigrating to the United States. His great uncle was the music director of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, where the family settled.
...
February 17, 2019
By STEPHEN SILVER
(JTA) — Since the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, there have been quite a few rock stars with Jewish heritage. To name a few: Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Gene Simmons, Lenny Kravitz, Geddy Lee and — depending on the decade — Bob Dylan.
But how many have openly gushed about their synagogue, their sons’ bar mitzvahs and their favorite rabbis?
In 2013, Jeff Tweedy — the longtime...
January 20, 2019
Noted musicolgist and lecturer George Dansker will be presenting his annual lecture on Jewish composers next Friday evening, January 25, at Touro Synaogogue and this year it’s on Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, the composer-lyricist team responsible for Broadway box office winners “Brigadoon,” “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.”
Titled “The Night They Invented Champagne,” a song written for the film “Gigi” (later reworked as a Broadway musical), Dansker will...
December 26, 2018
Musician, singer and composer Gary Negbaur, who hails from New York, but has found affinity with New Orleans rhythm and blues, jazz and blues, returns to New Orleans over the course of the next week with a series of solo gigs.
The Columns Hotel, 3811 St. Charles Avenue, is the setting for his first two nights of performances, beginning on Thursday and Friday, December 27-28, from 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.
He...
