The Thomashefsky Project’s upcoming “Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theatre” is not the only Jewish-themed concert on the San Francisco Symphony schedule this season.
In fact, the symphony will close out 2004-2005 with a string of Jewish music concerts collectively titled “Of Thee I Sing: Yiddish Theater, Broadway, and the American Voice.” It is set to run June 23 to July 1 in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall.
The series will explore the spectrum of Jewish music in America, from Yiddish theater to Broadway, from Tin Pan Alley to the concert hall.
In addition to “Thomashefskys,” festival highlights include two Gershwin musicals, singer-pianist Michael Feinstein performing Jewish-penned classics from the American songbook, and programs devoted to the music of the two most influential Jewish American composers, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.
The festival opens June 23 with a double-bill of semi-staged productions of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing” and “Let ‘Em Eat Cake.” Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the orchestra, while Patricia Birch directs the cast.
Feinstein appears in concert July 1, singing all-time favorites by such Jewish American composers as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers.
The Bernstein-Copland program features Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story” and “Arias and Barcarolles” (orchestral version) with baritone Nathan Gunn. Tilson Thomas was the pianist when Bernstein’s “Arias and Barcarolles,” a suite of seven songs all on the topic of love, was premiered in its original chamber version.
Also featured are the music from Copland’s ballet “Billy the Kid” and from the film adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” The festival is presented by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation with support from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, the Koret Foundation, Anita and Ronald Wornick, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support is provided by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, Columbia Foundation, Gaia Fund, the David B. Gold Foundation, and the Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation.
The San Francisco Symphony’s Jewish concerts will take place in Davies Symphony Hall, Grove Street between Van Ness and Franklin, S.F. Information: (415) 864-6000 or www.sfsymphony.org.