The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir has 32 members, mostly students or graduates of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. The choir, founded in 1969 by Avner Itai, was immediately recognized as one of the best choirs in the country. Music Director is Stanley Sperber.
These days it is known as the leading professional a cappella choir in Israel. The choir won gold and silver medals in competitions in the USA and in Germany, it has sung under the direction of world renowned conductors, among them Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Gary Bertini, Kurt Masur and Daniel Barenboim. The choir specializes in a cappella singing, and premieres many Israeli works.
Beginning with 2014 the choir has had concert tours in Hungary, Germany and Poland where it performed in different festivals, and in Jewish and local communities, in a cappella programs as well as with orchestral players from all over Europe. In 2016, the choir sang in front of an audience of 100,000 spectators on the banks of the Oder River in Wroclaw, Poland.
The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir is a unique mix of young talented musicians representing the diversity of Israel and Jerusalem and includes Jews, Arabs, recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union and others. The Choir provides young musicians in Jerusalem an opportunity for professional growth and self-fulfillment. It encourages them to remain in Jerusalem and pursue their careers while contributing to the city’s cultural and artistic life.
The Choir’s repertoire is equally unique and includes original classical pieces, arrangements of Jewish and modern Israeli works, as well as culturally diverse pieces in Arabic, Latin, Hindu and Esperanto.
The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir is also known for its social engagement and educational activities in Jerusalem such as performances for asylum seekers and partnerships with Jerusalem school orchestras and choirs.
Many graduates of the choir continue in the path of director Stanley Sperber, by teaching music and establishing choirs in communities throughout Israel from north to south and, in this way, influencing a new generation of youth and children by bringing them into contact with high level musical and choral activities to which they would not otherwise be exposed
Stanley Sperber, Music Director
Born in NY, he graduated with a degree in musicology from Columbia University and completed his MA in conducting at the Juilliard School. He founded the Zamir Chorale, with whom he appeared in Israel at the Zimriyah in 1967. He came on Aliyah in 1972 and the following year made his conducting debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Thereafter he conducted all the leading orchestras in Israel.
Maestro Sperber has conducted orchestras in Europe, Asia and the United States and appeared behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War Era. For the past 20 years he has conducted annually “Messiah” by Handel at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with a choir of 1.500 singers.
Facebook: facebook.com/JAMDChoir
Webseite: www.jamd.ac.il