Eileen Wingard

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — The opening evening of the 2012 poetry reading series in the Astor Judaica Library featured three women, Frieda Levinsky, Elizabeth Schwartz and Sue Marder. Levinsky, a native of Poland and a Holocaust survivor with famous Talmudic scholars among her ancestry, is an award-winning published poet. One of […]

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — Two remarkable young men will be the next featured soloists on the January 29, Musicians in the Making program at 2 p.m. at the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. Pianist and bass-baritone Elliott Wulff, 17, is a senior at Rancho Bernardo High School

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO–The greatest violinist of the 20th century is brought to life in an excellent documentary, G-d’s Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz by Peter Rosen. Heifetz’s biography is outlined through photos, video clips, testimonials by famous violinists Itzhak Perlman, Ivry Gitlis and Ida Haendel, former students Andre Granat, Sherry Kloss and Ayke Agus and two

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Wunderkinder is a German film filled with wonder, beauty and brutality. It takes place in Poltava, Ukraine. It is in German with English titles. The story unfolds as flashbacks from the recollections of an elderly woman, the violin pedegogue, Hanna Reich. An unexpected visit from a strange man jogs

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO–Conductor David Amos chose, for the opening concert of the season, Nov. 17, familiar and beloved repertoire which both the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) members and the audience could thoroughly enjoy.The concert opened with Tchaikowsky’s Little Russian Symphony. From the opening notes of the solo French horn intoning a melancholy

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO —Musicians in the Making presented two outstanding young instrumentalists last Sunday afternoon in the Lawrence Family JCC’s Astor Judaica Library, Sara Kornfeld Simpson, flute, a student of Jill Coady, and Sonya Jacobs, clarinet, a student of Robert Zelickman. They were accompanied on the piano by Irina Bendetsky, former music faculty

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — Israeli creativity is not only relegated to start-up technology. One young Israeli musician, pianist Eliran Avni, has come up with a new creative concept in concert programming. He calls it a Shuffle Concert and, instead of a fixed program, the listeners are handed a large menu with musical

By Eileen Wingard Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — In February, 2002, Neal Brastoff brought the Los Angeles instrumental ensemble, Zimro, to participate in the Celebrating Jewish Music Series at the the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla, programming Yehudi Wyner’s Tants un Maysele for violin, clarinet, cello and piano. It was a highlight of that

By Eileen Wingard Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO —  Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the greatest exponent of the Yiddish Art Song, Lazar Weiner (1897-1982). His settings of folk songs, and his original music for the work of contemporary Yiddish poets, followed in the tradition of lieder composers such as Schubert, Schumann

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO–Last Sunday afternoon, at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, TICO presented a cleverly conceived concert inspired by celestial bodies in space. The music was accompanied by fascinating screen projections assembled by George Varga, astronomy volunteer at Mission Trails Regional Park. I sat next to the editor of sdjewishworld.com and his ten-year-old grandson, who

By Eileen Wingard WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hightlight of the 2011 Lipinsky Jewish Arts Festival at the Lyceum Theatre, The Witches of Lublin, an original audio drama by Ellen Kushner, Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom, directed by Elizabeth Schwartz, proved to be a gripping story, beautifully portrayed by some of the Southland’s most talented actors.

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The J Company’s presentation of Children of Eden, a delightful musical by Stephen Schwartz, served as a fitting vehicle for the Company’s talented students–over 100 in two casts. The J Company Director, Joey Landwehr, participated in the performance of the biblical saga as the off-stage voice of the

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — Some remarkable treasures of poetic talent were unearthed during this year’s Jewish Poets —Jewish Voices evenings! This third year of the poetry series in the Astor Judaica Library at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center included local song writers as well as local poets. On February 22, Mexican-born