STAR & STRIPES

Synagogue music by Jewish
composers from Germany,
who emigrated to the USA

Louis Lewandowski Festival 2014

Synagogue music and the Jewish tradition

Synagogue music plays a central role in the religious life of Jewish communities.
This form of music has developed over centuries and reflects the spiritual and cultural values of Judaism.

Emigration to the United States

Many Jewish composers were forced to leave Germany due to persecution by the Nazi regime.
They found a new home in the United States, where they were able to further develop their musical traditions.

Influence on the music

In the USA, they combined their traditional synagogal music with American musical styles.
This synthesis led to a unique development of the Jewish musical tradition that both respects its roots and integrates new, modern elements.

The experiences of the composers

The works of this year’s composers reflect their experiences of flight, adaptation and creative renewal.
Their contribution to synagogal music remains significant today, both in the US and around the world

The artists 2014

In the 14th year of the Louis Lewandowski Festival, for the first time only music by Oriental Jews will be heard, whose melodies, keys and choice of instruments are very much influenced by the musical culture of their Arab countries of origin in the Middle East and North Africa.
Founded in 2006 by Hector Sabo and composed by the male soloists of the mixed choir Les Polyphonies Hébraïques de Strasbourg (participants in LLF 2011), the Ensemble Vocal Hébraïca performs as a vocal quartet until 2011. Then, the group had grown into a quintette to become a mixed voices octet in 2012 already.
The Amakim Choir was founded in 1980 and consists of around 45 singers from the north of Israel. Most of the choir members live in a kibbutz or moshav, some in neighboring towns.
Founded in 1969, the Zamir Chorale of Boston is a musical and educational institution dedicated to raising awareness of the diversity and beauty of Jewish culture through performances, recordings, symposia, publications and commissions. The artistic director and founder is Joshua Jacobson.
The Voices of Israel Ensemble was founded thirty years ago in Netanya. The ensemble now consists of up to seventy cantorial singers from all over Israel, who pursue very different professions in their private lives: Professors, physicists, engineers, lawyers, farmers, ...
Coro Ha-Kol ("The Voice") was founded in December 1993, largely on the initiative of singers from the Great Synagogue in Rome. They recognized the need to rediscover and perform Jewish music in all its beauty - inside and outside the synagogue.

Impressions 2014