Jewish Music Forum opens at Tulane, continues today
The Jewish Music Forum (JMF) opened its two-day scholarly conference, “From Europe to New Orleans: Jewish Music Past and Present” at Tulane University last night with a free concert of Jewish liturgical music at the Dixon Hall recital hall. Professor John Baron and Tulane Provost Michael Bernstein welcomed guests to the JMF conference sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music.
Local cantors joined with the Tulane University Choir last night to kick off a two-day Jewish Music Forum. (Photo by Alan Smason)
Cantors Joel Colman of Temple Sinai and Jamie Marx of Touro Synagogue and cantorial soloist Victoria Cohen May of Gates of Prayer Synagogue took turns singing solo pieces accompanied by piano or with each other. They were joined in the second half of the concert by the Tulane University Choir conducted by C. Leonard Raybon.
A reception of kosher and non-kosher desserts, soft drinks and coffee hosted by the Newcomb Department of Music followed in Dixon Room 118 immediately following the concert.
Founded in 2004, the JMF is now in its eighth season. This is the first conference it has held at Tulane.
The conference will feature three sessions throughout today with academic focus on history and musicology. Baron will join with Michael Leavitt, the president of the American Society for Jewish Music, in welcoming the public to the first session that begins at 9:00 a.m. at the Rogers Memorial Chapel on Broadway at Oak Street.
The first of three academic sessions will begin with a study of “European Roots of American Jewish Music.” Brian Horowitz, the department chair of Jewish Studies, will present “Recording on a Gravestone: the Jewish Ethnographic Expedition of 1912-1914 and Jewish Music.
Kligman
Horowitz will be joined by musicologist professor Mark Kligman of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York, the college from which both Cantors Marx and Colman were invested. Kligman’s talk will be on “The Developing Sound of the Synagogue in the 19th Century: Western and Eastern European Liturgical Music.” Baron will serve as moderator on the panel.
Kligman is keen on renewing his friendships with Colman and Marx. “When I started HUC (-JIR) 20 years ago, Joel Colman was there,” he admitted. “Jamie wrote his thesis with me.”
According to Kligman, Tulane was chosen to host the forum because of the increase in the Jewish presence there. In addition to provost Bernstein and the strong Rohr Chabad Student Center and the Tulane Hillel Center organizations, Kligman points out that both Tulane University president Scott Cowen and the dean of the Tulane Medical School, Dr. Benjamin Sachs, are Jewish.
Judah Cohen
Tulane historian professor Michael Cohen will lead the next session on “American Adaptations of the European Experience.” His talk titled “From Minhag America to American Jewish Movements: Unity and Fragmentation in Nineteenth-Century American Judaism” will focus on a historical perspective, while Indiana University ethnomusicologist Judah Cohen will talk on “A New Sound for a New Place: Zimrath Yah and the Formation of American Judaism, 1871-1886.” That session will be moderated by Temple Sinai Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn.
Following a lunch break at the Kosher Cafeteria at Hillel, the final session will be presented on “Jews and Music in New Orleans vis-à-vis European Roots and American Experiences” with Jewish Music Forum executive director Amanda Scherbenske moderating.
Brandeis University historian professor Stephen Whitfield will speak on “The Jewish Experience in New Orleans,” while local architectural and music historian Jack Stewart will speak on “The Jewish Music Experience in New Orleans.” Stewart will have several photos to display of local Jews who assimilated quite readily into the local Jewish musical and, especially, the jazz community. That session will be moderated by local Jewish community leader and Zionist Bill Hess.
All sessions are free and open to the public. A final reception will be held today from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. on Monday at the Department of Jewish Studies, 7301 Freret Street. For more information click here.
