ISRAELI ART SONG: BETWEEN FANTASIES AND REALITIES
Join us for a Sunday afternoon of Israeli art songs, bagels and sweets with Iris Malkin, Israeli-born mezzo-soprano and UCLA lecturer, and special guest Ido Ariel, Israeli pianist and past dean of the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. A concert/lecture exploring the beauties and complexities of Israeli art song. Featured composers include Moses Milner, Paul Ben-Haim, Zvi Avni, Aharon Harlap, Ofer Ben-Amots and Menachem Weissenberg.
Songs for voice and piano setting Hebrew poems have been composed since the early 20th century, reflecting Israel's rich and complicated culture. Malkin and Ariel present this fascinating genre's contrasting trends over 100 years of tensions between West and East, Zionism and Post-Zionism, Classical, and Popular music. The program will include songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino and a discussion moderated by Ariel. This concert is one of four events in the 2024-2025 Milke Center Chamber Music Series. Complimentary bagels, sweets and coffee.
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About Iris Malkin
Israeli born Mezzo-Soprano, Pianist, and Vocal Coach Iris Malkin has performed widely both as a singer and as a pianist in concerts and festivals in Israel, Europe, and the United States, and her performances have been broadcast worldwide. In addition to the mainstream operatic repertoire, Iris has distinguished herself in the world of Hebrew and Jewish works as well as the highly nuanced Spanish song repertoire. She is an in-demand vocalist in recordings for films, movie trailers and video games. She is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of the film Kill Zone, which was nominated for Best Original Score at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2009. Iris is on the faculty of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a vocal coach – continuing lecturer in the voice department.
About Ido Ariel
Dr. Ido Ariel is a pianist and accompanist, vocal coach, lecturer and translator, one of the leading figures in the field of the art song in Israel. He is the founder and director of 'Lieder in Pita-bread' - an Israeli home for the art song. He chaired the Vocal Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he later also served as Dean of Students. He also founded and directed the "Shira-Shir" concert series, which presented classical as well as Israeli art songs performed by prominent Israeli singers. Ido is an award-winning graduate of the Beer-Sheva Conservatory, The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and The Royal College of Music, London.
This event is made possible by the Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music with additional support from the David Vickter Foundation.
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MILKEN CENTER CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES 2024-2025
4 PM Sunday, January 12, 2025 — COMPOSER PORTRAIT: THE MUSIC OF PAUL SCHOENFIELD
From Milken Center Artistic Director Neal Stulberg:
Paul Schoenfield (1947-2024) was a unique and brilliant musician of decidedly American Jewish Experience. A virtuoso concert pianist and hugely gifted composer who wrote for first-class performers and ensembles, Paul was a devoutly orthodox Jew and a remarkable person. Retiring as professor of composition at the University of Michigan in 2021, he split his time between the U.S. and Israel. His music — a fascinating mashup of klezmer/Hasidic, liturgical, jazz, bluegrass, blues and Americana — is well represented in the Milken Archive. Paul and I both grew up in Detroit, and I intersected with him professionally through the years. One chamber concert is hardly enough to do justice to his range and brilliance, but we’re going to try.
Program:
Four Motets for eight-voice chorus from Psalm 86 (1995)
Tales from Chelm for string quartet (1991)
Carolina Réveille for violin, viola, cello, piano (1996)
Camp Songs for mezzo-soprano, baritone, violin, cello, double bass, clarinet and piano (2001)
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ON THE ROAD - Dates and venues to be announced
COMPOSER PORTRAIT: THE MUSIC OF STANLEY WALDEN
From Neal Stulberg:
The Milken Center follows its May 2024 residency with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner (b. 1929) with Spring 2025 concerts in Palm Springs and Ventura surveying the chamber music of another 90-something wunderkind, Stanley Walden.