By Toby Klein Greenwald
EFRAT, Israel — How does a Jewish British immigrant to Israel come to be the composer of music being played in honor of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II?
Loretta Kay Feld was born in London and trained in music composition and drama at The Royal College and Guildhall School of Music. She toured with plays and musicals in The West End of London and has published several books. She became a prolific, award-winning composer, lyricist and author.
Kay Feld was asked by a person close to the Queen to compose three tributes that, she says, “Were gifted to Her Majesty to honor her seven years of the throne, a life filled with grace, fortitude and dedication to her Country.” One work is a deeply moving personal song called “The Queen’s Soliloquy” that premiered in February. The second is “A Symphonic Medley of Music for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee” that includes four instrumental segments over photographs – one from the Soliloquy piece, two pieces called “We Never Felt So Glorious” and “The Lord Chamberlain’s Processional March and Song,” and the that premiered on June 1 — “70 Years a Queen” — is a majestic piece over visuals that span the Queen’s 70-year reign.
She says, “I always admired and had great affection for Her Majesty and the Royal Family. It was a great honor and a privilege for me to compose these tributes and I am now receiving messages from all over the world where people have asked for the music to sing these songs.”
And Israel?
“I wanted to come here since I was a child in Hebrew school but life has a way of changing your plans. I got married and lived in America. I gave concerts all over New York, from 1973 into the ’80s.” She wrote for a children’s television network and composed music in many genres. Kay Feld has written about 900 songs and musical compositions. She composed “A Symphony of Synchronicity” for Uri Geller and wrote a song, “Hymn for Israel,” which is on YouTube, that was sung by Cantor Stephen Stein of New York. “I wrote it after the Yom Kippur War [in 1973] and I received letters from Moshe Dayan and Menachem Begin thanking me. The ’Shabbat Song’ I wrote is also on YouTube and is sung in communities all over the world. ‘I’m Going to Keep America Singing’” she says, “was performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Obama and Biden, played by the Marine band. I received a beautiful letter from President Obama about it.”
Eleven years ago, her dream came true and she made Aliyah to Israel, to Raanana. And then another dream came true — composing for the Queen.
When Kay Feld was nineteen, she performed for the Royal Family at the Variety Club for Great Britain at Victoria Palace and, after the show, was escorted to the box where the royals were seated. She remembers speaking with Princess Margaret and shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II.
The opening lyrics of the Soliloquy:
“You may ask me what I’m thinking on my Platinum Jubilee
And of all these celebrations, what they really mean to me
Well, my mind keeps drifting backwards, to a life yet unforeseen
Trembling at my coronation, unprepared to become a queen.”
She mentions that Prince Phillip came to Israel to visit the grave of his mother, Princess Alice, who was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem for hiding Jews in Greece during the Shoah, and that Prince Charles and Prince William have also visited Israel. “If we make it to threescore and ten, we’re considered by Judaism to be filled with wisdom, and the Queen is definitely filled with wisdom. They say the Queen learned five languages when she was young, and one of them was Hebrew.”
Kay Feld says she was offered a singer from the Royal National Opera House for “The Queen’s Soliloquy” but she chose instead a Jerusalem woman, Shlomit Leah Kovalski, a classical and contemporary singer. Kovalski is in her final year of MA studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. “I was approached by the Royal National Opera House to do it there but I wanted someone to do it in Israel. And I loved working with Shlomit. She’s so modest. I wanted to give an opportunity to someone here and she did such a beautiful, perfect job.”
Jamie Clarkston Collins and Eli Schurder of SoundSuiteStudio in Jerusalem do post production of Kay Feld’s music and the films are directed and edited by Jason Figgis. “They are a wonderful team.”
Kay Feld’s daughter, Dorothy Eisdorfer, is a choreographer and dancer. Her son David James is a magician and filmmaker and her daughter, Claire Weinberger, is an artist; both of them live in Los Angeles. Her son Adam Weinberger is a rare book dealer who lives in San Diego.
For someone whose music has been performed for presidents and queens, Kay Feld’s humility is admirable. She says, “I just believe everyone has a gift and if one can use the gift to make the world a better place, that’s what matters.”
The Creative Process
“I compose when I’m out walking along the sea, or in nature, and I think about what I’m composing and usually it just comes to me as if from the air. I write all the music in my head and the lyrics usually come at the same time and I go home and write out the manuscript.
“I believe that songwriting as well as composing all kinds of music comes from an inner desire to express oneself either with a purpose to move people emotionally or to create music for historical purposes, for reasons of spirituality and a deep longing to create an original piece that was never thought of and hopefully will long be remembered and sung or played.”
’70 Years a Queen’
Regarding this third musical tribute, she says, “I tried to write a song that I felt everybody throughout the world would be able to sing if they desired to. The melody is simple and the lyrics memorable with a tinge of humor…. Creating a simple melody is not as simple as it sounds, usually, complex melodies are far easier to compose. Having said that, I wrote the lyrics first and then proceeded to sing them and wrote what felt natural.
“I am more than thrilled to have been given this wonderful opportunity to express my true feelings in the musical tributes I composed for her. The Queen has dedicated her life — 70 years — of service to her people and to the Commonwealth. I cannot imagine any politician serving more than twelve years and yet the Queen has served for seventy years with grace, dignity and offered hope to the whole world despite many difficult personal experiences within her own family. She has been a shining light and an inspiration in an often-troubled world.”
Some lyrics from “70 Years a Queen:”
…70 years a queen
Four children in between
The Grandmama of future kinds
Elizabeth, our Queen.
Long may she reign, Elizabeth, Elizabeth
When will there be again
Such a gracious Sovereign…
The music is accompanied by the singing of a renowned baritone, Noah Brieger, who, Kay Feld says, “Really did an excellent job. He has an outstanding voice with a great tone and is also very professional and a pleasure to work with. He sang the lyrics with meaning and emotion.”
Brieger, like Kovalski, was born in Israel. He graduated from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and continued his training in the U.S. He sang in dozens of productions at the Israeli Opera including the roles of: Malatesta in “Don Pasquale” (Donizetti), Bercore in “L’elisir D’amore” (Donizetti), Sulpce in “La Fille du Regiment” (Donizetti), Alidoro in “La Cenerentola” (Rossini), Sharpless in “Madama Butterfly” (Puccini), Schaunard in “La Boheme” (Puccini), Capulet in “Romeo et Juliette” (Gounod), Fefechts in “Schitz” (Rechter), and more. He sang works such as “Messiah” by Handel, “Requiem” by Mozart, “The Creation” by Haydn, “The Ninth” by Beethoven, and more.
Brieger has regularly sung with the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta and also under Gustavo Dudamel. He also sang under Daniel Oren and Alberto Zedda. He performed in Germany, the U.S., France and Italy. He sang in China with the Shanghai Symphonic Orchestra, as well as the Sudju Symphonic Orchestra. He also sang at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and at the Wiesbaden Opera House. Noah received the Silverman Award, and scholarships from the IVAI, Sharet and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
A New Victorian Musical
Kay Feld is excited about a new project she has been working on for a number of years called “1897 The Musical.” There are 27 original songs and the choreography is by her daughter Dorothy.
“The story is about the degrading things they did, in Victorian times, but I want to tell the story with dignity. It expresses the desires of two women, one in the lower and one in the higher class. We put it on in Raanana a year and a half ago, as a concert, to an audience filled with Anglos, but Israelis also came and people didn’t want to leave the show. They all went out singing the songs.
“I was working on it with professionals from the Israel Opera before COVID happened.” Her plan is to hire an all-Israeli cast and crew, “to showcase all the wonderful talent we have here in Israel. Israelis suffered so much during COVID. I’d like to find enough funding so I can pay all the performers fairly.” She plans to film and live-streaming it globally “for all the world to see. It will be a most splendid performance.”
The Queen’s Soliloquy Singer
Shlomit Leah Kovalski was born in Jerusalem to parents who made Aliyah — her father from Montreal and her mother from New York. She responded to a Facebook post by Loretta’s daughter, Dorothy, when they were looking for people for a preliminary reading for the “1897 The Musical.” They liked her material and invited her to sing in the Raanana concert. “And then, more than half a year ago, Loretta said, ‘I’m sending you a song that I was asked to do for the Queen of England. Would you like to sing it?’ And I said, ‘Sure!’”
How does she feel about all the attention she’s getting now “The Queen’s Soliloquy”? “I’m very humbled and so honored by the opportunity. I feel blessed to have taken part in it. I thank God that He introduced me to Loretta.”
Anyone familiar with Israel’s difficult history with the British, leading up to the War for Independence, a number of years before the current queen ascended to the throne, has to be touched by the fact that the music for her Platinum Jubilee has been composed — and her songs sung — by Jewish Israelis living free in the State of Israel.
Google Loretta Kay Feld’s “The Queen’s Soliloquy” and “70 Years A Queen.”
And kvell.
Anyone interested in supporting “1897 The Musical” can write to Loretta at: lorettakayfeld@gmail.com.
*
Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist, an educational theater director and the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com. She and her husband live in Efrat and have children and grandchildren who live throughout the land of Israel.