Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Mozart and Figaro in Vienna’ is Hershey Felder’s Latest Hit

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — Hershey Felder created another hit with Mozart and Figaro in Vienna, streamed January 9 from Florence, Italy. In this musical film, Felder portrayed Mozart’s librettist, the remarkable Emmanuele Conegliano, better known as Lorenzo Da Ponte, the name given him when his father converted the family from Judaism to […]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

North Coast Rep Hosts ‘Tuesday Night Comics’ on February 1

SOLANA BEACH, California (Press Release) — The North Coast Repertory Theatre’s “Tuesday Night Comics” — arguably the funniest night of comedy in San Diego — takes place on February 1, 2022, at 7:30 p.m.  Mark Christopher Lawrence taps into his extensive list of talented comedian friends and shares the North Coast Rep stage with them.

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Philip Guston and Musa McKim at the Currier Museum

By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — Currently on view at the Currier Museum, Philip Guston’s mural “Pulpwood Logging” (1941) is right beside its original partner, Musa McKim’s “Wildlife in the White Mountains” (1941). Both 14-foot murals were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) — a federal program created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Turns 85, Fetes Intertwined History With the State

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) created a marvelous 85th anniversary celebration gala via Zoom on the last Sunday of 2021; the recording of the event remains on YoutTube. A spectacular opening, with various members of the orchestra playing at famous locations in Tel Aviv, introduced the program.

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Eileen Wingard, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Brava Cello Performance by a 15-year-old Prodigy

July Galper, America-Israel Cultural Foundation member, introduced the 15-year-old Israeli cellist, Nahar Eliaz for her second appearance in San Diego.  In spite of the rain and the upsurge of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, some 100 plus people ventured out to hear this brilliant talent. Lawrence Family JCC CEO, Betzy Lynch, fully masked, warmly welcomed the attendees. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Poems in Paint: Titian at the Gardner Museum

Titian: Women, Myth & Power at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum consists of only six paintings, yet this one-room exhibition feels more like a six-course banquet. So overwhelming, immense and entrancing are the monumental canvases that upon entering the room one must literally catch one’s breath. Titian, greatest of the Venetian Renaissance masters, referred to these paintings, commissioned by King Philip II of Spain, as poesie (poems) and each depicts a different scene from stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Beatles Fan Turns His Hobby into a Museum

When he’s not Robert J. Entel, MD, MPH, FACR, practicing radiology at Mease hospitals in Dunedin and Countryside and Morton Plant hospitals in Clearwater and New Port Richey, he can often be found in Penny Lane at 730 Broadway in Dunedin, surrounded by an astonishing collection of Beatles memorabilia. [Bruce Lowitt]

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Bruce F. Lowitt, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Artist Frieda Salvendy Commemorated in British Town of Her Retirement

Frieda Salvendy moved to Malvern sometime after the end of the Second World War, and died here, in obscurity, in 1965.  A short notice of her death was placed in the local paper and probate details gave her address in Alexandra Road.  Beyond that, it would appear that very few, if any, knew of her existence, or that she had been an eminent European artist. [JASHP}

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International, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Israeli Cellist Nahar Eliaz Set for San Diego Encore

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The last live classical music I heard before COVID isolation set in was the cello recital of 13-year old Israeli cellist Nahar Eliaz on March 4, 2020, at Congregation Beth Am. In my review for San Diego Jewish World, I wrote: “Her’s was meaningful music-making of the highest

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Israel Radio’s Assault on Classical Music

The much-loved Israel Broadcasting Association was disbanded (some say this was politically-motivated). Many of the familiar names and individuals vanished and a general shake-up of the tried and tested programming was introduced. Many new programs were introduced, but it was a relief to find that the classical music program could continue, albeit with set hours devoted to jazz and oriental music [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Yale Strom’s Search for Jewish Music throughout Eastern Europe

In retrospect, ethnomusicologist Yale Strom probably owes a thank you to the local klezmer band members who turned down his request to play violin with them.  That rejection prompted him to decide to form his own band.  However, he resolved that before doing that, he ought to search for material that other klezmer musicians weren’t playing. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Travel and Food

A Feel-Good Black Family Christmas Story

With Chanukah just in the rearview mirror and Christmas and Kwanzaa on the horizon, New Village Arts has gifted us with one beautiful story about family, connection, and love. 1222 Oceanfront  A Black Family Christmas proves that regardless of ethnicity or faith we are all part of a family and all of the plusses and minuses that attend that structure. This sensitively written and supremely acted show is one of New Village Arts finest offerings to date.  [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

String Quartet of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Impressive at the Prebys

Celebrating the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s 85th anniversary, the IPO String Quartet gave an impressive concert last Wednesday evening in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall of the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla.  The four outstanding IPO musicians, David Radzynski, Polina Yehudi, violins, Yoni Gertner, viola, Haran Meltzer, cello, were on their next-to-last leg of a six-city tour, which included performances in New York, Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Sunday, they will conclude their tour in San Francisco. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

A YouTube Channel featuring Jewish Women Performers

The ATARA organization and Spotlight on Women have joined forces to create the Jewish Women’s Chanukah Playlist 2021 Channel on YouTube, featuring music videos exclusively from Torah-observant (Orthodox) female artists from around the world. [Toby Klein Greenwald]

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International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA