The 2009 edition of the Jewish Music Festival comes in shades of red, white and blue.
In addition to generous helpings of old school, Old Country Yiddishkeit, the lineup this year also features some gospel, some hip-hop and a little jazz.
“This year above all is a year to celebrate renewal in America,” says festival director Ellie Shapiro, who settled on the theme during last year’s presidential election. “I decided it would either be a celebration of the new administration or it would be our consolation.”
With that in mind, Shapiro booked Jewish gospel singer Joshua Nelson for opening night, March 21. The festival, which is a presentation of the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay and runs through April 2, will stage events throughout the Bay Area.
“I had seen Joshua twice before,” Shapiro says, “and each time I thought he was just amazing. Here’s an African American Jewish singer who puts together gospel musical energy with Jewish liturgy. It’s a very fiery mix.”
Other performers headlining festival concerts include clarinetist Andy Statman, NEA award–winning Ladino songstress Flory Jagoda, female vocal ensemble the Sisters of Sheynville, the Yiddish swing duo Lenka Lichtenberg and Kinneret Sagee, and klezmer punk band Daniel Kahn and Painted Bird (with Jewish beatboxer Yuri Lane).
“We’re very excited about Daniel Kahn,” says Shapiro. “He’s from Detroit and now living in Berlin. He writes amazing songs in Yiddish.”
One more guest of honor at the 2009 Jewish Music Festival has actually been dead for 50 years: Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch. His life and work will be celebrated at what Shapiro dubbed the “Bloch party,” a concert by the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and special guest soloists.
Bloch lived in the Bay Area many decades ago, teaching at the San Francisco Con-servatory of Music and U.C. Berkeley, as well as composing some of his most important works.
On the festival program is Bloch’s famous “Schelomo,” based on Jewish themes, as well as his Cuban overture.
The YPSO is California’s oldest youth orchestra, and includes more than 100 young musicians from around the Bay Area. At least two of them also happen to be Jewish.
Rebecca and Joshua Herman of Walnut Creek are brother and sister. Both grew up in a musical household. They, their parents and two younger siblings all play piano. Rebecca and Joshua have added violin and cello, respectively, to their musical résumés, and both play in the orchestra’s string section.
“Our music background started around the Shabbat table, just singing,” recalls 14-year-old Joshua. “Now we’re able to play Jewish music in a world-class orchestra.”
“The symphony has made me more comfortable with violin,” says Rebecca, 15, who considers piano her primary instrument.
The two also sing with the Contra Costa Children’s Chorus, and had their bar and bat mitzvah at Walnut Creek’s Congregation B’nai Shalom. “Our b’nai mitzvahs were special,” says Joshua, “and we can lead services if the cantor needs help.”
“Or even when he doesn’t,” adds Rebecca.
Unlike the last two or three music festivals, this year’s will not feature a commissioned piece. This will leave more stage time for established acts and classic pieces. This year the event features workshops in beatbox, hip-hop, songwriting and klezmer, and Shapiro is bringing back the instrument petting zoo at Family Music Day.
“Part of what our festival is about is introducing audiences to heritage as well as innovation,” she says.
Despite the economic downturn, Shapiro says the Jewish Music Festival is in good shape as it hits its 24th year, both artistically and financially. But she takes nothing for granted.
“I hope people will come out and support the music,” she says, “because it keeps you going when times get hard. We try to keep the prices affordable, but we feel lucky. We feel supported by the community.”
The Jewish Music Festival runs from March 21 to April 2 at venues throughout the Bay Area. For a complete schedule, ticket prices and other information, call (800) 838-3006 or go to www.jewishmusicfestival.org.