Tickets still available for the Cantor’s annual outdoor concert-
This Sunday evening, 8-28-11 at 6pm. singingoutsidethebox@gmail.com
I believe in the power of music to heal, to pray, to hear God's voice and to have God hear my voice. From childhood, music has affected me in ways that speaking or other art forms do not.
There is music that literally gives me the chills, and every now and then I’ve been known to pull my car over to the side of the road because I find myself too emotional to drive while listening to something emanating from my car radio or CD player.
Many years ago my sniffling during the final moments of Barbers’ Adagio for Strings, was the only thing audible in the pin-drop silence of the Disney Hall. When I’m feeling down, I love to blast Stevie Wonder. And when I get home from work after a long day, the kids and I love to dance to the big-band sounds of Big Bad VoodooDaddy.
When I decided be a cantor, it was because I really believe in the power of the music of Jewish prayer. Music and Judaism have always been in my bones and my essence, and I learned quickly that liturgical and biblical texts are the foundation for all Jewish prayer music.
But prayer music isn’t the only music I’ve got in my bones. Many of you know that I have a deep love of performing all kinds of music—especially Broadway, pop, and jazz. And at this time of year, (this Sunday evening to be exact) just before I am getting ready to start preparing in earnest for the High Holy Days, I am thrilled to have an opportunity to gather with some of my musical friends to present an evening that I call “Singing out of the Box.” The ‘Box’ represents what people typically think of when they think of the kind of music that a cantor sings. So, there will be no Hashkivenu’s or V’Shamru’s on Sunday night. Instead, together with my friends, Cantor Ilan Davidson Lizzie Weiss (of Temple Emanuel Fame), Rachel Goldman Neubauer from Beit T’shuvah and Randi Kearney, who teaches in our ECC, we’ll be singing songs from the great Broadway Songbook as well as some pop and jazz favorites.
The event will take place in the sprawling backyard of one of our congregants. We’ll begin the evening at 6 pm-as people will picnic a la Hollywood Bowl or Tanglewood. The show itself will start at 7. Tickets are still available by emailing singingoutsidethebox@gmail.com or by calling Katie, our new Programming Assistant at 310-409-4644.
I really hope to see you there.
Cantor Yonah Kliger
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