Synagogue Music > Reviews

First JMI Barry Weinberg Jewish Choral Festival:
Comments and Review
16—26 June 2003

What participants had to say:

It was thrilling.  I very much enjoyed being part of it - as did everyone else. Yes, Stephen is a remarkable young man.  Such extraordinary talent.  We were very lucky to experience him.  I can see now why Barry was so proud of him.  And yes, I hope Barry has been around in some other dimension - to witness how we were honouring him, too. Ruth Sontagg

Simply put for now... thank you and well done. It was brilliant! Simon Appleman, Head of Music, Jewish Free School

Review of the First JMI Barry Weinberg Jewish Choral Festival and concert
Reviewed by Malcolm Miller

Seldom does the UK experience Jewish choral singing of such excellence, tonal appeal and discipline as at the performance by massed mixed voice, male voice and children’s choirs in a refreshing programme of modern Jewish choral music at St John’s Smith Square on 26 June. The concert was the culmination of the first JMI Barry Weinberg Jewish Choral Festival, dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Jewish musician and scholar, who died suddenly last year aged fifty-three.

This exceptionally fine choral singing was the result of ten days of choir leaders’ masterclasses, schools workshops and massed choir rehearsals conducted by the acclaimed choral conductor and arranger Stephen Glass (Barry’s nephew) who was invited to be the Artistic Director. Stephen, who grew up in Wembley is now the Music Director of the large Share Hashomayim congregation in Canada.

The Choral Festival was presented under the auspices of the Jewish Music Institute and co-ordinated by Vivienne Bellos. It was supported by the Barry Weinberg Fund for Jewish Music and supported by the Jewish Chronicle.

It was hosted by London’s most important Jewish choirs, The Zemel Choir, Alyth Choral Society, the Neimah singers and the Shabbaton Choir, as well as the Jewish Youth Choir. This collaborative participation brought a warm sense of community and shared experience throughout the Festival, among so many people old and young, many singing together for the first time.

Each workshop and rehearsal was enthralling. It was so instructive to hear Stephen share his experience and expertise with choral conductors - and then watch him put those ideas into action as he dealt with all the situations a choir is heir to, in the massed choir rehearsals. He conducted these with such consummate confidence in his knowledge and in his preferences - with such skill in communicating to the choristers, using humour and amazing analogies that he had choristers eating out of his hands, (or hopefully watching his hands so that they sang what he wanted).

One of the highlights was the whole day of Jewish Choral Workshops at SOAS on 22 June. Amongst the presenters, Vivienne Bellos, spoke on vocal technique; the Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music at SOAS, Alexander Knapp, gave a talk on Lewandowski; Benjamin Wolf, the new Zemel Choir conductor, introduced the music of Rossi, and Mikki Grahame spoke about her new a capella vocal group Kol Rina. The star of the day however was Stephen Glass himself, working with all voices and chairing a discussion on how to improve and promote your choir.

The workshop day culminated in a concert by three participating choirs, that covered a wide range of Jewish musical styles, from traditional synagogue settings by a warm-toned London Jewish Male Choir conducted by Clive Hyman, to the modern drama of Julian Dawes’s cantata ‘The Death of Moses’ performed by the Alyth Choral Society under their conductor Vivienne Bellos. The evening was brought to a highnote by the Zemel Choir conducted by their new director Benjamin Wolf. From Renaissance Psalms by Rossi, to the premieres of Bialik settings by Chonon Lewis and the appealingly expressive ‘Three Shabbat Songs’ by Zemel chorister Daniel Tunkel, the Zemel displayed compelling qualities, with the audience joining in a stirring finale of ‘Yerushalayim’ and ‘Hava Nagila’.

And then there was the crowning glory of the final concert at St John’s Smith Square where individual choirs had a small showcase and the massed choirs were conducted and accompanied charismatically by Stephen Glass. The high standards Stephen expected and received in performance, spilled over into the very behaviour of the 40 children and 100 adults, and the way they took their turns on and off stage was so graceful and smooth. And Stephen’s management of the concert from the Microphone was just as skilled. No word was out of place or too little or too much. Everyone who participated was so grateful that he is so willing and eager to come and put his energy and expertise into Jewish Choral Singing in the UK.

Stephen’s strident Star Wars-style setting of ‘Baruch Haba’ launched the evening. Enthralling was the Pucciniesque lyricism and rhapsodic improvisatory style of the Canadian cantor soloist Gideon Zelermyer making his UK debut, supported by the sumptuous sonorities of the combined male voices of Shabbaton Choir and Ne’imah Singers, notably in works by the British composer Samuel Alman. Amongst the mixed choir’s fervent renditions Glass’s arrangement of the Israeli folksong ‘Eli, Eli’ was most poignant. Glass’s concluding ‘Prayer of thanks’ elicited enthusiastic audience participation. Yet the highlight was the incisive, pure toned singing by the choirs of the Jewish Free School, Neima Preparatory School and the Jewish Youth Choir, with Finkelstein’s tuneful ‘Prayer for Peace’ radiating touching optimism.

This glorious and memorable 10 days created a community singing together, brought musical values of the highest calibre and made the children and adults aspire to and achieve them all rejoicing in our most spiritual of pursuits – putting music to our sacred words. Audiences and performers went away enriched and hoping for more.

Stephen had the perfect partner in the Festival co-ordinator, Vivienne Bellos – someone who herself has a great reputation, personality, sense of standards and ability to enthuse and motivate people. And for Viv, who won a JMI Millennium Award to bring Stephen and mount the Festival, it was gratifying to have Stephen to recharge her batteries and help her continue to give the younger generation the skills they need for a rich future in Jewish choral music in this country.

Barry would be been very proud. The festival, which one hopes may become an annual event, exemplified those values for which he stood, creative Jewish music in all its forms for the enrichment of the wider community. Thanks go to Barry’s Sister Myrna Glass and Stephen and Viv and to all the friends and family of Barry Weinberg who contributed to the Barry Weinberg Fund for Jewish Music that made it possible to mount this Festival. Geraldine Auerbach Director of JMI remarked ‘We have all been taken on a journey together and came out at a better place. We look forward to a long and fruitful association with Stephen Glass for the benefit of choristers, the community and for Jewish music in this country’