Eliana KissnerJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

Akira Ishiguro, guitarSenior Cantorial School Class and H. L. Miller Cantorial School Chorus

Hazzan Natasha Hirschhorn, conductor

MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2021, 7:00 P.M.

H. L. MILLER CANTORIAL SCHOOL AND COLLEGE OF JEWISH MUSIC

THE JOHN LEOPOLD and

MARTHA DELLHEIMSENIOR RECITAL

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THE JOHN LEOPOLD AND MARTHA DELLHEIMSENIOR RECITAL

H. L. MILLER CANTORIAL SCHOOL AND COLLEGE OF JEWISH MUSIC

Eliana Kissner, sopranoJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

Akira Ishiguro, guitar

RECITAL OF ELIANA KISSNER

Harbstlid Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (Arr. Rosenzweig)

Joyce Rosenzweig, piano

HaSimla HaSegula Alexander (Sasha) ArgovJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

Ahavat Olam Morris BarashJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

Rachem Na Yossele RosenblattJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

How to Die: Songs of Midrash Mishlei Eliana Kissnera. Her Beloved Soulb. Blessed c. You Are Forgiven

Akira Ishiguro, guitarAharon “Wheels” Bolsta, percussion

Ay Sinyora Novia Ladino Folk SongAkira Ishiguro, guitar

Me Kemi y Me Enflami Nick Doneff Akira Ishiguro, guitar

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Senior Cantorial School Class and H. L. Miller Cantorial School Chorus Hazzan Natasha Hirschhorn, conductor

Senior soloists: Mira Davis, Eliana Kissner, Daniella Risman, Jacob Sandler, Eryka Velazquez

Modim Anachnu Lach Natasha HirschhornNatasha Hirschhorn, piano

Ya Ribon Olam Robbie SolomonJoyce Rosenzweig, piano

CHORUS: Ingrid Barnett, Roseanne Benjamin, Rachel Black, David Childs, Josh Ehrlich, Marilyn Okoshi,

Noah Rachels, Gedalia Penner Robinson, Max Silverstone, Neal Taibel

Concert produced by Cantor Nancy Abramson and Cantor Gerald Cohen

Videography and editing by JTS New Media, filmed at Women’s League Seminary Synagogue, JTS

Final mastering and post-production by Arts Laureate

For Eliana Kissner recital: Audio mixing by Akira Ishiguro (pieces with guitar)

Production design by April M. Bartlett

Photography direction by Dan Henry

Mira Davis Eliana Kissner Daniella Risman Jacob Sandler Eryka Velazquez

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ELIANA KISSNER

Eliana is so grateful to be pursuing and completing her master of sacred music and cantorial investiture at the H. L. Miller Cantorial School this spring 2021. For more than a decade, her experience working as a performing artist and educator has been

rich and varied. She was an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York and lead singer of Safra, a Jewish Middle Eastern ensemble in Berkeley, California. In 2015–2016, while participating in the Dorot Fellowship, she studied at the Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music in Jerusalem, and collaborated on an original song project called “Painted Wood” with musician Israel Mizrachi. She has worked as a ritual leader and educator at Lab/Shul, New Shul, B’nai Jeshurun, and Temple Emanu-El (San Francisco). As part of her JTS studies, she found purpose and meaning working as a chaplain at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and as the student clergy intern at Fort Tryon Jewish Center in Washington Heights for the 2019–2020 year. She currently serves as the student cantor at Oheb Shalom in South Orange, New Jersey. She is married to Noah Ginsburg, who works in solar energy, and they have two children, Maayan and Raz.

JOYCE ROSENZWEIG

Joyce Rosenzweig is an internationally recognized pianist, conductor, master class presenter, lecturer, coach, arranger, and authority on Jewish art and synagogue music. She has performed in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and

Israel, and is a dedicated educator of cantors and synagogue musicians, having served for over 25 years on the faculty of Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where she holds the title of Faculty Artist in Jewish Music and Performance. She has been a faculty member at H. L. Miller Cantorial School since 2004 and has served as music director of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan since 1994. Ms. Rosenzweig studied piano performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Manhattan School of Music; choral conducting at Westminster Choir College; Yiddish at Oxford University and JTS; and art song and chamber music at the Banff Centre of the Arts (Canada), Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Music Festival, and Franz Schubert Institute (Vienna), where she was awarded first prize in lieder accompaniment. She has collaborated in chamber music recitals with ensembles from the New York Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and appeared as soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic and Texas Festival Orchestra under the baton of Leon Fleisher. Her new CD with Cantor David Berger, Refuge, a collection of art songs by Jewish-American refugee composers, is due to be released in the coming months.

HAZZAN NATASHA HIRSCHHORN

Natasha J. Hirschhorn is the music director and conductor of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School choir at JTS. Hazzan Hirschhorn is the author of numerous liturgical and secular compositions. She is also an accomplished performer and recording artist, and has been

featured as a singer, pianist, conductor, and composer at congregations, music festivals, and in concert halls throughout the country, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Toronto Jewish Music Festival, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among others. She has served as the music director of Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York City since 2004. She is also the founding conductor of the AC Jewish Community Chorus, Shirei Chesed, and the Brooklyn Jewish Community Chorus, Shir Chadash. Ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion in 1999, Hazzan Hirschhorn has served on the faculty of both the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary and at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

AKIRA ISHIGURO

Guitarist Akira Ishiguro studied jazz performance and composition at Berklee College of Music. Since graduating in 2006, he has been entrenched in the New York City jazz scene. He has six albums as a leader or co-leader and has appeared on over twenty

records. He has shared the stage with Myron Walden, Nate Smith, Ari Hoenig, Mark Guiliana, Maria Schneider, Jason Lindner, Henry Hey, Will Vinson, John Zorn, George Garzone, Christian McBride, Joe Martin, Matt Penman, Seamus Blake, and many more.

Tour life has taken him to Japan, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, and much of Europe. Ishiguro’s accolades include grand prize in the 2013 Wilson Center Guitar Festival and Competition, and first prize “Public’s Choice” as well as overall second place in the 2009 Gibson guitar competition as part of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES

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PROGRAM NOTES AND TRANSLATIONS FOR ELIANA KISSNER RECITALHarbstlid(Music and Lyrics: Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, arr. Joyce Rosenzweig)

Born in Vienna and eventually settling in the Bronx, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was an icon of Yiddish folk music and Yiddish culture in New York. Linda Lipitsky describes this selection as “a plaintive yet uplifting meditation on deferred dreams.”

See, it’s fall —And all that greened has yellowed, withered.See, it’s fall —And all that bloomed is gone . . . And I who thought that spring would last forever,And in my hand I holdEternity. Oho, falling leaves! Oho, flying days! Oho, how will I wander now, When thick fog settles on my way . . . Sadly cawing birdsSay: “Good-bye!”At the windowThe moaning, wailing wind:“I wish that I could get away from hereTo a shoreWhere there is still a green spring . . . .” Oho, falling . . . Driving rainGallops on a wild horse,Whispers secret love into my ear:“Why do you need to wait for springtimeWhen autumn offers baskets full of gold?”

HaSimla HaSegula (Music: Alexander [Sasha] Argov; Lyrics: Haim Hefer)

In this year where many of us find ourselves daydreaming about plans unrealized and trips not taken, I wanted to include this Israeli song, “The Purple Dress,” which describes a hypothetical dream-like sequence of a couple in love and going about the city. Israeli singer Ilana Rovina popularized this song with her rendition of it in 1959. She passed away in October 2020 at the age of 86.

The morning will come, the morning will comeWe won’t sleep the whole night beforeWe’ll sit beside the street on the edge of the canalWe’ll ride on a truck in the evening airWe’ll see the hills waking up in purple lightYour house will be laughing and summer in the window

When we go out together

You’ll wear the purple dressAnd your eyes will again be flooded in faint lightYou’ll send a smile to everyone who passes byAnd a violet will suddenly bloom in your hairYou’ll sing a song who’s words you’ve forgottenYou’ll laugh suddenly and won’t know whyWhen we go out together

Ahavat Olam (Music: Morris Barash; Lyrics: Siddur)

Composed by Morris Barash (1903–1977), this “Ahavat Olam” fuses a traditional Ashkenazi cantorial style with European art song and congregational singing. This seamless melding of several styles into one piece is a testament to the role of the cantor as a clergy person who simultaneously holds space for tradition, innovation, high art, and communal singing. Barash was a fixture in the New York Jewish music scene as a composer and conductor. He joined the faculty of the School of Sacred Music at HUC-JIR in 1955.

With timeless love,You have loved Your people, the house of Israel:You have taught us Torah and mitzvot,statutes and laws.Therefore, Adonai, our God, as we lie down and as we rise up, we shall speak of Your laws,rejoicing in the words of Your Torahand in Your mitzvot forever and ever.For they are our life and the fullness of our days,and on them we shall meditate day and night.

Rachem Na (Music: Yossele Rosenblatt; Lyrics: Siddur)

Yossele Rosenblatt (1882–1933) is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, cantor of his generation. He spent much of his international career in the United States doing pulpit work and concertizing. I dedicate my rendition of Rossenblatt’s “Rachem Na” to Perele Feig, a khazzante (female cantor) who had a career of concerts, recordings, and radio shows before women could be pulpit cantors. Her legacy, along with other great khazzantes, has allowed me to access and find my own way into the beautiful art of the cantorial music we call khazzanus.

Have mercy, Lord our God, upon Israel Your people, upon Jerusalem Your city, upon Zion the abode of Your glory, upon the kingship of the house of David Your anointed, and upon the great and holy House over which Your Name was proclaimed. Our God, our Father, nourish us, sustain us, feed us, and provide us with plenty; and speedily, Lord our God, grant us relief from all our afflictions. Lord our God, please do not make us dependent upon the gifts of mortal men nor upon their loans, but only upon Your full, open, holy, and generous hand, that we may never be shamed or disgraced. And rebuild Jerusalem the holy city speedily in our days. Blessed are You, Lord, Who in His mercy rebuilds Jerusalem.

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How to Die: Songs of Midrash Mishlei (Music: Eliana Kissner; Lyrics: Midrash Mishlei)

a. Her Beloved Soulb. Blessed c. You Are Forgiven

“Dear goddess! Face-up again against the renewal of vows. Do not let me die a coward, mother. Nor forget how to sing.

Nor forget song is a part of mourning as light is a part of sun.” —Audre Lorde

Dedication:This project is dedicated to all those who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. May the fullness of their lives never be forgotten, may their families be comforted, and may their memories bring continuous light into the world. The text: The text of these songs comes from Midrash Mishlei, a commentary on the book of Proverbs that includes several death stories of Jewish historical/cultural figures. Each song represents a different death: Elisha ben Abuya, Rabbi Akiva, and Moses. Though these are stories of individuals, their narratives, be they real or imagined, speak to universal human experiences of death. In setting them to music, I attempted to draw a musical picture of what these stories mean to me and the different aspects of the death experience that they capture. I find them beautiful, inspiring, terrifying, and affirming. Whether you have been close to someone who passed away, have had a near-death experience yourself, or feel that death is near for you or for a loved one, I invite you to read and listen to the following excerpts from Midrash Mishlei, translated by Rabbi Burton Visotsky. I hope you find as much meaning in them as I have.

Her Beloved SoulThe last loaf of bread will go for a harlot; A married woman will snare a person of honorWhy won’t you repent?My decree is sealed from AboveMy teacher! Atone in this world and I will stand in this decree before your executioner in the world to come.Despite this [offer], Elisha did repent.For the sake of a prostitute . . . she is a valuable soul!And a married woman is a precious soulA free woman is a precious soulAn adulterous woman is a valuable soul

Blessed They laid Rabbi Akiva on the bed. Immediately, they lit a lamp and set the table. In the same hour, they said: Blessed are the bearers of the Torah Blessed are those in awe of the Universe Blessed are you Rabbi Akiva That the good resting place was found for you At the hour of your death

You Are Forgiven They [Israel] came to him and said:The time has come for you to leave this world.

He said to them: Israel, my children, forgive me for all the trouble I’ve made for you.They said to him: Moses, our teacher, You are forgiven. You are forgiven.And then they said to him: Moses, forgive us for all the anger we’ve incited in you.He said to them: My children, You are forgiven, You are forgiven.They came to him and said:Just half a moment remains from when you will leave this world.He took both his hands, put them on his heart, and crying, he said:Indeed, my two hands who received the Torah from the mouth of theAll Powerful now fall into the grave.

Ay Sinyora Novia (Music and lyrics: Ladino folk song)

The following two songs are in Ladino; the first is a traditional wedding song with an unknown composer/lyricist. The text of the second song, “Me Kemi y Me Enflami,” is by the singer Victoria Hazan, and the melody was written by her collaborator, Nick Doneff. Coming from a family of cantors, Hazan was born in Turkey and came to New York in 1920. She lived in the Bronx, gave concerts, recorded Turkish-Jewish music, and was the president of the United Sisterhood Benevolent Society. She contributed to the vibrance of New York Jewish musical culture and her music continues to be performed, reinterpreted, and studied today.

Oh my bride come down oh my bride come down, I can’t, I can’t because I am getting dressed, dressed in my gown for my groom.Oh my bride come downoh my bride come down,I can’t, I can’t because I’m brushing,brushing my hair for my groom. Bride, when you see your belovedbride, when you see your beloved,take him by the hand, bring him beside you He wants servitude.

Me Kemi y Me Enflami (Music: Nick Doneff; Lyrics: Victoria Hazzan)

I was burned and began to blaze when I saw you.When I hear you sing,you sound to me like a nightingale.Come to my side, come I beg you.Come faster, you jewel, for I shall go mad. Your eyes that look into my heart are burning me.How many souls will be burned by your glances?Come to my side, come I beg you.Come faster, you jewel, for I shall go mad.

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TRANSLATIONS FOR CHORAL PIECES Modim Anachnu Lach(Music: Natasha Hirschhorn; Lyrics: Siddur)

We thank You, for You are ever our God and the God of our ancestors; You are the bedrock of our lives, the shield that protects us in every generation. We thank You and sing Your praises— for our lives that are in Your hands, for our souls that are under Your care, for Your miracles that accompany us each day, and for Your wonders and Your gifts that are with us each moment—evening, morning, and noon. You are the one who is good, whose mercy is never-ending; the one who is compassionate, whose love is unceasing. We have always placed our hope in You. For all these blessings may Your name be praised and exalted, our sovereign, always and forever. May all that lives thank You always, and faithfully praise Your name forever, God of our deliverance and help. Blessed are You, Adonai, Your name is goodness and praise of You is fitting. Yah Ribon Olam(Music: Robbie Solomon; Lyrics: Israel Najara)

God of this and all worlds, You are Supreme, the Sovereign God, Your mighty, wondrous work moves my heart to praise You. Evening and morning I praise You, holy God who forms all beings: angels and mortals, beasts and birds. Great are Your works, and mighty, You humble the proud, and lift up those who are bowed down. Were we to live a thousand years, there would not be time enough to tell of Your might!

John Dellheim (z”l) was a Holocaust survivor who became a pioneer computer programmer at IBM. He deeply loved Judaism and Jewish music and endowed the John Leopold and Martha Dellheim Internship Program and Concert Series to bring Western cantorial music around the United States via the mentors, alumni, and students of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, thereby perpetuating the performance and transmission of Jewish sacred music to future generations.

The John Leopold and Martha Dellheim Endowment Fund initiative includes an internship program that pairs students with mentors in the field, and expands the school’s opportunities to teach concert planning, enhance repertoire coaching, and present student performances.