Efim alexandrov biography samples

He then worked as letters department manager in the neighborhood papers of Pidvolochysk Raion and, later, Volochysk of Khmelnytskyi Oblast. Lubov Efimovna graduated from secondary medical school, then worked for 40 years as a nurse in the infectious disease ward at Pidvolochysk regional hospital. His family moved to Volochysk inwhere he actively participated in amateur talent groups.

Under his leadership, the choir quickly achieved the kind of artistic reputation normally associated with classical ensembles. A few months later, the choir was invited to perform in the United States, where half of the members remained, together with Turetsky, after they were hired by the Temple EmanuEl Synagogue in Miami, Florida where they worked untilwhen the group returned to Moscow.

While Turetsky was in Florida, efim alexandrov biography samples members of the choir, led by Alexander Tsaliuk, remained in Moscow, where they were affiliated with the Moscow Choral Synagogue. Inthis group formed a new collective, which concentrated its efforts on developing Jewish music. Lazar later agreed to provide accommodation for the choir in the newly built Moscow Jewish Community Center.

Hasidic Cappella performs both at Jewish venues, such as Jewish Community Center stages, and at non-Jewish, classical ones, including the Moscow Conservatory. In fact, the group started as a liturgical choir, only later becoming a source of popular entertainment. The liturgical performances of the choir were partly inspired by the cantorial arts and partly by the classical training of its musicians; performers also rearrange Yiddish music into classical-sounding opuses.

The members of the choir see themselves as classical musicians, and they see the Yiddish songs that they perform as the basis for classical arrangements. Such sacred pieces should, they think, only be performed as classical music. Why turn a liturgical choir into a group that performs in Yiddish? Tsaliuk, the director, explains: [] We want to elevate the level of Yiddish music.

Whatever happens today, low-cost performances of Yiddish music produce a vulgarized version of it. We think it is a disgrace to the memory of our ancestors, many of whom suffered for their beliefs during Soviet times. It is our task to make the performance of Yiddish music a classical event. At first glance, the connection is not readily apparent.

Hasidic Cappella is an all-male group with classical training; they usually perform a cappella. It was first performed in and has captivated Yiddish audiences ever since. In the video by Hasidic Cappella, the musicians wear tuxedos and are standing in rows in front of the Moscow Choral Synagogue. As the video progresses, mothers both old and young console their children and take care of them until the children reach middle age.

Tsaliuk himself is depicted being taught by his elderly mother. The mothers are constantly educating their children, such as teaching them how to play piano and helping them with their homework. Notably, we do not see them observing any Jewish religious rituals, such as lighting Sabbath candles or preparing a Passover seder meal. In fact, they are not cooking or cleaning at all.

The video does not incorporate Jewish religion or tradition into its portrait of Jewish culture. These mothers are instead creatures of spirit, almost divine. They are representations not of the traditional European Jewish mother but of the ideal mother of a Russian Jew, as imagined by the Jewish Russian middle class of the twenty-first century. She is a beautiful, smart, and educated person with a Jewish last name.

However, the creators of the video chose to present it as a kind of sacred anthem to the self-sacrificing Jewish mother. This strategy is similar to the one employed by the restaurant Chagall: they transform the values of the post-Soviet urban middle class, adding Jewish flavor, in order to appeal to a secular Russian Jewish audience.

Though Tsaliuk is possibly unaware of it, his desire to elevate Jewish music follows the tradition of early-twentieth-century Jewish intellectuals, in Russia and beyond, who fought fiercely against shund kitsch in Yiddish theater and music and advocated professional, rather than amateur, crowd-pleasing numbers. They are not interested in the lyrics of Yiddish songs.

Rather, they appreciate the references to their ethnic background, or the background of the artists, only if that reference is wrapped in the appropriate professional, classical-music package. Later that year, his friend Ian Ashkenazi wanted to give a special present to his aging mother and commissioned Alexandrov to create a grandiose show of Yiddish music.

Like Tsaliuk, Alexandrov feels that Yiddish music needs to be elevated to a new level in order to be properly appreciated by a Russian audience.

Efim alexandrov biography samples

Alexandrov involves Russian pop stars as well as Jewish businessmen to support and promote his work. Rather, he produces long-time crowd pleasers, often once again borrowed from the repertoire of the Barry Sisters. Yet, unlike Hasidic Cappella, which turns these pieces into semi-sacred liturgy, Alexandrov transforms them into pop entertainment, albeit with sentimental overtones.

Unlike his other pieces, however, this one is performed without dancers, as it is perhaps his most serious piece. In his presentations of other songs, Alexandrov creates much more dramatic, multivoiced, and multicolored performances. He then worked as letters department manager in the neighborhood papers of Pidvolochysk Raion and, later, Volochysk of Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

Lubov Efimovna graduated from secondary medical school, then worked for 40 years as a nurse in the infectious disease ward at Pidvolochysk regional hospital. His family moved to Volochysk inwhere he actively participated in amateur talent groups. Lyublinsky, lyrics by S. Kemelmakher, B. Zitserman, M.