Shabbat Shirah Concert 2013
Mar 3, 2013 - 3:00 pm
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
30 West 68th Street
Jonathan Sheffer & Friends
Join CBST as we honor Jonathan Sheffer with the 2013 Shabbat Shirah Award! Our wonderful program includes Broadway star Christine Ebersole , Cantorial Soloist Re'ut Ben-Ze'ev , John Berno , cellist Adrian Daurov , baritone Jonathan Estabrooks , Mary Feminear , violinist David Han Marks , pianist Spencer Myer , Tom Gold Dancers , CBST Music Director Joyce Rosenzweig , and the CBST Community Chorus , in a program featuring music by the recipient of CBST's 2013 Shabbat Shirah Award and Board member Composer/Conductor Jonathan Sheffer . The program will feature Sheffer's theater songs, a 10-minute opera about the challenges of communication and technology, a new piano trio, as well as the premiere of a new setting of the prayer, Oseh Shalom, written especially for the CBST Chorus. Sheffer's music is accessible, deeply emotional, thought-provoking, and fun. The program will also feature music by some of the great classical and theatre composers that have influenced Sheffer's creative expression. You won't want to miss this unique afternoon of music!
If you have any questions or need further information please contact Evan Davidoff at edavidoff@cbst.org or at (212) 929-9498 ext. 31.
About the Honoree
Jonathan Sheffer is a composer and conductor who was the Artistic Director of two iconoclastic chamber orchestras: The Eos Orchestra, which he founded in NYC in 1995, and Red {an orchestra}, which he led for six seasons in Cleveland, OH. In addition he has conducted opera and festivals throughout the world, including The New York City Opera, American Ballet Theatre and numerous dance companies. He has composed numerous film scores, two musicals, and an opera Blood On The Dining Room Floor, which won the Richard Rogers Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was revived recently at UCLA. He has had residencies at Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the American Academy in Rome. Active in charitable and political causes, he was appointed to the Board of the New York State Council on the Arts, and remains the appointee of the Speaker of the NY City Council to the board of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
About the Artists
For over 30 years, two-time Tony Award winning actress, Christine Ebersole has captivated audiences on the Broadway stage, television series and specials, films, concert appearances, and recordings. In 2001 she appeared in the Broadway revival of 42nd Street as Dorothy Brock, for which she won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical . In 2006, Christine took the dual roles of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") in Grey Gardens , a musical based upon the film of the same name . After a sold-out off-Broadway run, Ebersole remained with the roles when the production moved to Broadway in November 2006, and remained with the show through its closing in July 2007. For this role, she won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical . We are so thrilled to have Christine join Jonathan Sheffer for our 18th Annual Shabbat Shirah Concert!
A native of St.Petersburg, Russia, cellist Adrian Daurov is one of the most dazzling artists of his generation. The New York-based and Juilliard-trained, this Award-winning cellist, who has performed on major concert stages, like Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Hall, St.Petersburg Philharmonic as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, Adrian is a versatile player, who ilkes to step out of his main genre, and often performs with Pop and Rock artists, such as Alicia Keys, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, The Roots, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the Icelandic
post-rock band Sigur Ros. His cello playing was heard on Good Morning America Show, Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon and Regis & Kelly Live on ABC, as well as numerous radio appearances on WNYC and WQXR radio stations.
Canadian baritone Jonathan Estabrooks recently made his Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut with maestro Steven Reineke in a program of Rodgers and Hammerstein and as Le mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias in Montreal. He appeared as Schaunard in the motion picture The Bohemians premiering this Spring, and in the world premiere of Andy Tierstein’s opera, A Blessing on the Moon . Other season highlights included his Opera Lyra Ottawa debut as Silvio in I Pagliacci , debuts with the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of New York City and the Greenwich Choral Society performing In terra pax , the world premiere of Always and Forevermore by Rob Mathes, the Chelsea Opera world premiere of The Mark of Cain , and holiday concerts at Caramoor. Upcoming engagements include Baron in La Traviata with Opera Lyra Ottawa, Alan Turing in the World premiere of The Turing Project with American Lyric Theatre and his debut with Opera New Brunswick.
Mr. Estabrooks has performed for President Clinton and UN delegates, has appeared three times with New York Festival of Song in Weill Hall, and has sung with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and maestro Pinchas Zuckerman. He is currently shooting and editing a YouTube series called A Singer’s Life . Mr. Estabrooks will make his Carnegie Hall debut on March 5, performing Paul Moravec's Blizzard Voices with the Oratorio Society of New York on the Stern stage.
Violinist David Han Marks is a native of Chicago, IL. David collaborates with many musicians and is an active performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire. His collaborations have taken him across the globe from Disney Hall in Los Angeles, California to Grosse Hall in Salzburg, Austria, to Moscow, Russia. Performances in New York City have been in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Bargemusic. David received both his Bachelor’s and Master's degree in music from the Juilliard School. David currently resides in New York City.
Mary Feminear , soprano, is an Artist Diploma student in Opera Studies at the Juilliard School. She is originally from Auburn, Alabama and is a student of Marlena Malas. In August of 2012 she performed as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Chautauqua Music Festival. Other opera credits include Abigail Williams in The Crucible , Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro , Constance Fletcher in The Mother of Us All , and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She has performed in recitals and concerts in affiliation with Juilliard 415, Wednesdays at One in Alice Tully Hall, The Leschetiszky Foundation, and Teachers College at Columbia University. She received an M.A. in 2012 from Teachers College, Columbia University with an academic focus on music education, vocal pedagogy, and voice disorders. In 2009, she recieved a B.M. from The Juilliard School. She is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene scholarship and the Hardesty & Beverley Peck Johnson Fund. She can next be seen as the Hen in A Cunning Little Vixen at the Juilliard School in April 2013.
Joyce Rosenzweig is a frequent recitalist in concerts throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Israel. She has collaborated in chamber music recitals with ensembles from the New York Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and appeared as soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic and Texas Festival Orchestra. She has been featured at the International Jewish Music Festival (Amsterdam), the Jewish Cultural Festival (Berlin), the Ashkenaz Festival (Toronto), the Chicago and Charlotte Yiddish Institutes, Klezkamp, and the North American Jewish Choral Festival. She was the featured conductor at the URJ Biennial in San Diego, and was the Scholar-in-Residence at the American Conference of Cantors’ Annual Convention in 2009. Ms. Rosenzweig is a dedicated educator of cantors and synagogue musicians, having served for over twenty-five years on the faculty of Hebrew Union College-School of Sacred Music in New York, where she holds the title of Artist-in-Residence. She has also been a faculty member at the Jewish Theological Seminary since 2004, and has served as Music Director of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan since 1994.
Israeli mezzo soprano Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev won critical acclaim for her “impassioned…” “…bold, committed account…” (The New York Times), “intense expression and pure voice” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ), “emotionally and vocally masterful performance” (New Music Connoisseur ) and “outstandingly beautiful voice and performance” (YIVO News.) Passionate about music of many genres, she has performed operatic and concert repertoire as well as cutting-edge collaborations and is an avid promoter of a wide range of Jewish music. Re’ut appeared throughout Canada, Europe, Israel, and the United States in venues such as Lincoln Center, Jerusalem Music Centre, Spoleto Festival, USA, Center for Jewish History-YIVO, Der arbiter Ring (Workmen’s Circle), Lucille Lortel Theater, The American Academy in Berlin, the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, on Robert Sherman’s Young Artists Showcase on WQXR and on Kol Hamusika. She collaborated with and/or premiered works by composers such as Pulitzer Prize winning composers David Del Tredici and Yehudi Wyner, Samuel Adler, Matthew Greenbaum, Gil Shohat and Dalit H. Warshaw among many others.
The CBST Community Chorus is recognized as one of the leading synagogue choirs in the United States. The Chorus plays an integral part in the spiritual life of CBST with its participation in High Holy Day, Shabbat, and life-cycle services, in addition to special services for Chanukah, Kristallnacht, Sephardic Shabbat, World Aids Day, Yom Ha’atzma’ut, GLBT Pride, etc. In addition, it represents CBST at community-wide Yom Hashoah and Martin Luther King commemorations, GLBT Pride events, interfaith choral festivals, and at nursing homes and other synagogues, in addition to being featured multiple times at the North American Jewish Choral Festival to great acclaim. The Chorus has recorded two CDs: Psalms and B’chol L’vavcha (based on the new CBST siddur for Shabbat), which are available through the CBST office or website.
John Berno has appeared in many shows and festivals in New York, toured the the country and much of the world as an actor, singer, and dancer. He's always grateful for what life brings his way.
