Toronto Jewish Folk Choir's
84th Annual Spring Concert
A Salute to Emil Gartner
Sunday May 30, 2010
3:00 p.m.
Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building
80 Queens Park Crescent
Canada's oldest continuing Jewish choral group The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir, and conductor Alexander Veprinsky, celebrate the memory of Emil Gartner, the Choir's revered and longest-serving conductor, 50 years after his tragic death.
Special guest is cellist Esther Gartner, daughter of Emil and the choir's long-time pianist, the late Fagel Gartner. Under the direction of Alexander Veprinsky, and with Lina Zemelman on piano, the 30-voice Choir performs music that Emil Gartner brought to the choir and the kinds of pieces performed in his time. Among these are such classical works on Jewish themes as Miriam's Song of Triumph by Schubert, Va Pensiero (the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Verdi's opera Nabucco; and the Market Scene from Benyomin der Dritter (Benjamin the Third), a utopian work based on Yiddish folk melodies by Gartner's cousin, composer Max Helfman. There are also songs in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish.
Cellist Esther Gartner, a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, joins the Choir in Yiddish Suite No. 1 by Srul Irving Glick, composed to poems by Canadian Yiddish poets. She also premieres a new work by Raymond Luedeke, which she has commissioned for the concert, and performs with a chamber ensemble in one of her father's favorite works, Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes.
Tickets are $25.00; Seniors/Students: $20.00; Children 12 and under: free. For information and ticket reservations, e-mail tjfolkchoir@sympatico.ca or call 416-789-5502.
Presented with the assistance of the Toronto Arts Council.