Although he is not widely known in the United States, the French-Jewish composer, lyricist, musician and singer Serge Gainsbourg is a legend in his native country.
The Israel Chamber Orchestra plans to perform a composition by Richard Wagner in Germany, breaking an Israel taboo against playing the anti-Semitic composer’s music.
Josh Dolgin didn’t set out to kick Yiddish music into the 21st century.
Surrounded by dancing bodies, a 20-something took off his shirt and waved it around his head, bare-chested, simply following the instructions of hip-hop artist Nelly, the performer on stage. “It’s getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes,” Nelly sang, the lyrics from his 2002 hit song, “Hot in Herre.”
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Casey Abrams was the one for Jews to watch during the 10th season of “American Idol.” His reddish-brown beard was the constant butt of jokes on the show and the most talked-about “Idol” hair growth since Sanjaya Malakar. (Remember Malakar from the sixth season? His frizzy up-dos put Jew-fros to shame). For a pre-performance sketch about Abrams, fellow finalists donned a fake beard piece and blew into a red melodica while klezmer music played in the background.
For the fifth straight year, Tel Aviv native Anat Cohen received the clarinetist of the year award from the Jazz Journalists Association. The awards were presented Saturday in New York City.
Coldplay removed a message posted on its Facebook page urging the British rock band\’s fans to check out the \”Freedom for Palestine\” music video. The link to the song and video, which features musicians from around the world, was discovered removed from the Coldplay page on Monday, less than a week after it was posted. It presents depictions of Israeli army checkpoints and the security fence.
The British rock band Coldplay in a message posted on its Facebook page urged fans to check out the \”Freedom for Palestine\” music video. The song, performed by music artists from around the world and British artists including Maxi Jazz and Dave Randall of the group Faithless and Jamie Catto of 1 Giant Leap, features depictions of Israeli army checkpoints and the security fence. The artists were performing under the auspices of Freedom OneWorld.
It may seem a sign of overconfidence for someone to tell you he’s rewriting a major work by Beethoven, but for David Lang, who reconceived Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” for his Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning 2008 opera, “The Little Match Girl Passion,” it’s just business as usual.
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