Exploration of "Conversations": A Compilation of Verbal Exchanges and Melodies Rooted in the Jewish Culture from America
The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Music at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is set to launch a new weekly series titled "Conversations". This series aims to delve into the rich linguistic, musical, and liturgical traditions of Jewish communities, with a particular emphasis on Jewish languages and their musical expressions as practiced in various diasporas.
One of the key areas of focus within "Conversations" is the history, preservation, and performance of diverse Jewish languages and their liturgical texts. The series will also explore the musical settings and traditions associated with these languages, particularly those related to the Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jewish diasporas.
Simone Salmon's research on Sephardi music and the post-Ottoman diaspora will be presented in "Conversations", along with the Kwartin Project, which focuses on the translation and analysis of Cantor Zawel Kwartin's Yiddish language autobiography, Mayn Lebn (My Life).
The Malavsky Family Choir's work will be used to discuss how changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality in the early 20th century informed the sound and culture of cantorial music. The choir's work straddled the line between liturgy and borscht-belt entertainment and challenged normative gender ideologies that regulated who could claim authority as a ritual leader.
"Conversations" will feature guest posts from young scholarly voices in the fields of musicology and Jewish Studies, and will offer opportunities for audience interaction through social media threads, Zoom meetings, and potentially in-person conversations.
Daniela Smolov Levy, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, will give a five-part lecture series at UCLA this year on the role of Jews in opera. Other guest authors, including scholars, will be announced for the series.
The series will run for a year and will feature stories, sounds, and ideas, including dispatches from Brooklyn that will offer regular updates from the multiple worlds of Jewish music in Brooklyn, NY, focusing on sites of research such as cantorial lessons with elder cantors, the klezmer scene, and the world of Chassidic music.
"Conversations" seeks to stimulate conversation, new listening, and debate about the life and meaning of American Jewish music. By exploring the intersection of Jewish language, culture, and music, the series aims to illuminate lineages and help imagine the futures of American Jewish music.
References: [1] Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.musicofjewishamerica.org/conversations/ [1] HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jewishlanguages.huc.edu/ [1] Sephardic and Cantorial organizations. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sephardicmusic.org/ [1] Ethnomusicology, Jewish linguistics, liturgical studies, and cultural preservation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/ [1] Cantorial lessons with elder cantors, the klezmer scene, and the world of Chassidic music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.klezmerproject.org/
- The Kwartin Project, which focuses on the translation and analysis of Cantor Zawel Kwartin's Yiddish language autobiography, will share insights on the musical expressions of Jewish communities in the series "Conversations".
- The Malavsky Family Choir's work, straddling the line between liturgy and borscht-belt entertainment, will be discussed during the series, shedding light on how changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality influenced the sound and culture of cantorial music.
