A British Israeli Composer Creates Music for the Queen

How does a Jewish British immigrant to Israel, Loretta Kay Feld, come to be the composer of music being played in honor of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II?

Her latest compositions have gained attention throughout the world. One work is a deeply moving personal song called “The Queen’s Soliloquy”; the other is “70 Years a Queen,” a majestic piece which is music over film clips and photographs that span the Queen’s 70-year reign. There is a third tribute song that will be premiered at the Platinum Jubilee; they are preparing the video now.

“I’m beyond thrilled, I’m delighted, I’m ecstatic, I gave it my very, very best,” says Kay Feld.

How did it all begin?

Kay Feld was born in Stoke Newington, a “very Jewish area in London,” she says. She attended Avigdor Jewish Grammar School, studied voice, and later, she continued to train 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. Kay Feld is also the founder of The Chimes Organization which creates harmony in a multi ethnic society.

Kay Feld has written about herself that she was entranced by Mozart’s 40th Symphony in G minor that she heard in a store, and didn’t leave till the store closed. She was given a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets to learn and returned to school, having set them to music. She studied Russian ballet, and stuck with it “though it tortured my feet” just so she could listen to Tchaikovsky’s music. Verdi’s music also haunted her and she would sneak into the Royal Festival Hall during intermission until a kindly usher began saving her a seat. She continued to follow her dream of studying and writing music and songs, and one of her greatest supporters was her deaf mother, to whom she described her work.

Kay Feld went on to become a prolific, award-winning composer, lyricist and author.

And Israel?

“I wanted to come here [Israel] since I was a child in Hebrew school but life has a way of changing your plans.”

“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 on Long Island. I used to give concerts all over Long Island and New York, from 1973 into the ‘80s; then I wrote for a children’s television network and composed all kinds of music — for ballet, classical music, country songs, many kinds of genre.” Kay Feld says she’s written about 900 songs and musical compositions. She composed “A Symphony of Synchronicity” for Uri Geller, which is on permanent display at his museum in Jaffa, Israel. She used to sing her works. “My voice has gone from soprano to alto. I now need a microphone when I used to smash lights,” she says with a smile.

She wrote a song, “Hymn for Israel,” which is on YouTube, that was sung by Cantor Stephen Stein of New York and was performed in a synagogue in Raanana the first time. “Thousands of people have seen it. 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, one of her favorites, “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. And here I sit, next to my piano.”

Eleven years ago, after traveling back and forth, her dream came true and she made aliya to Israel, to Raanana.

And then this other dream came true.

Kay Feld has always loved and been enamored by the British royal family. When she 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.

Will she be meeting the queen again?

“I would love to. I hope she stays well enough so I can meet her. The Queen has dedicated her life — 70 years – of service to her people and to the Commonwealth; it’s unbelievable.”

Kay Feld says her works were commissioned by one of the other royals, who prefers to remain anonymous.

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.”

Kay Feld says that the number 70 is written in the Bible. “God created the world in seven days, this is ten times that, and if we can 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.”

She points out 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.

She points out 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.

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 who has performed in concerts, and who is also a well-known actress on the Jerusalem theater scene. Kovalski is currently in her final year of MA studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance as a classical vocal performance student and is completing a semester in Würzburg, Germany where she studied in their Hochschule Für Musik school.

Kay Feld says, “I have a studio I work with in Jerusalem — SoundSuite — they do post production of my music. They are a wonderful team. 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.”

Kay Feld has a daughter, Dorothy Eisdorfer, a choreographer and dancer, and “I have two very musical grandsons.” She also has three children living in Los Angeles. Her son David James is a magician and filmmaker, son Adam Weinberger is a rare book dealer and her daughter, Claire Weinberger, is an artist.

I mention to Kay Feld that for someone whose music has been performed for presidents and queens, her humility is admirable. She replied, “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 do not compose at a piano; 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, that’s the only way I can explain it, I write all the music in my head and the lyrics usually come at the same time and if they’re worth keeping I go home and write out the manuscript.”

As a lyricist, I mentioned to her that I sometimes feel songs come not from me, but “through me.”

She said, “That’s exactly it, as if someone else is writing them. You can’t explain it to other people unless they’ve experienced it.”

Some compositions she does “just because I love them,” but usually she is approached and asked to compose for a specific project, for example, she has worked on documentaries.

A New Victorian Musical

Kay Feld is especially excited about a new project she has been working on for a number of years called “Upstairs Downstairs 1897, the Musical.” It’s about Victorian England. There are 26 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. It’s filled with memorable songs. 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 were amazed; they didn’t want to leave the show and they all went out singing the songs.

“I was working on it with professionals from the Israel Opera before COVID happened. I’ve written the book, the lyrics and the music and now I’m going to go forth and put it all together because this is what Israel needs right now. My plan is to hire and to showcase all the wonderful talent we have here in Israel; there is enormous talent. Israelis suffered so much during COVID, I want to give all Israelis a lot more work now — an all Israeli cast, musicians, etc. What I’d like to do is find enough sponsorship and funding so I can pay all the performers fairly. I am 100% committed to doing it, and to filming and live-streaming it globally for all the world to see, so the world can know what talent Israel has. It will be a most splendid performance. This will be just glorious, about what Israel can produce.”

The Queen’s Singer

Shlomit Leah Kovalski, who sings “The Queen’s Soliloquy” so enchantingly, was born in Jerusalem to parents who made aliya – her father from Montreal and her mother from New York. She responded to a Facebook post by Loretta’s daughter, Dorothy, that they were looking for people for a preliminary reading for the “Upstairs Downstairs 1897” musical, that they were preparing to do in concert.  “I sent my material to Dorothy and they liked me,” says Kovalski, who also sang in the Raanana concert.  “And then, about half a year ago, Loretta said, ‘I’m sending you a song that I was asked to do as a commission to the Queen of England. Would you like to sing it?’ And I said, ‘Sure!’”

Shlomit sang in a choir in elementary school but seeing a teen performance of ‘Cinderella’ was the life-changer for her. “I was very socially awkward and was very shy and never wanted to show myself and that was the first time I thought, ‘This is what I want to do.’” A few years later she performed on stage. “It was a musical, and I remember the spark of pride in my father’s eyes.

“I love musical theater and opera, for the drama, the storytelling. I always love being a character in an opera or a play; I love the collaboration and ensemble work and working with everyone involved in theater – the backstage people, being involved in the creative thinking, and how we can work as a team.

“I love all of Loretta’s visions, and I’m so excited to see this new project happening. She is such an amazing person to learn from; she can actually help you make your dreams come true.”

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 and I’m so appreciative of all the support. A lot of people are so excited that Israel can be involved in something big like this. I feel blessed to have taken part in it. I thank God that He introduced me to Loretta and I hope I’ll be able to take part in her other amazing productions.”

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 soliloquy is sung – by two Jewish Zionist Israelis living free in the State of Israel.

Post-production of Kay Feld’s compositions for the Queen were done by Jamie Clarkston Collins and Eli Schurder of the SoundSuiteMusic Studio in Jerusalem. The films are directed and edited by Jason Figgis.

Google “The Queen’s Soliloquy” and “70 Years A Queen.”

And kvell.

Anyone interested in supporting “Upstairs Downstairs 1897” can write to Loretta at: lorettakayfeld@gmail.com.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist, artistic director of Raise Your Spirits Theatre and editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com.