The "Odessa Mama" concert, brought to you here exclusively, celebrates the music of the synagogue and the Jewish street in Odessa at the beginning of the 20th century.
The concert took place on Sunday, 25 March 2018, at The Wise Auditorium, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram.
With the participation of:
Cantor Azi Schwartz (Park Avenue Synagogue, New York)
The singer Vira Lozinski
The Chamber Choir of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Conductor: Stanley Sperber
Piano and organ: Raymond Goldstein
Artistic director: Anat Rubinstein
Co-producers: Prof. Edwin Seroussi and Prof. Eliyahu Schleifer
Video: Dima Noff
Recording: Avi Elbaz
The idea of this concert was put forward by Da'at Hamakom – Center for the Study of Cultures of Place in the Modern Jewish World, and the Jewish Music Research Centre of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its point of departure was research conducted by Anat Rubinstein, which studied the music of Odessa and the Brodsky synagogue, and the work of Cantor Pinchas Minkowsky. Her research was expanded to include Odessa's Jewish musical culture, and this prompted the idea of presenting some of the research findings in a concert.
For program notes with the full details (20 pages) and the background story of Odessa that gave birth to this special concert, click here.