Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

President Rivlin sings with Arab Hebrew teacher who went viral

President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nehama hosted at the Presidential residence on Wednesday a teacher named Jeehan Jaber from the Ibn Sina school in Taibe. The president and Jaber called on Arab citizens of Israel to study Hebrew and for Jewish citizens to study Arabic. Jaber was accompanied by Taibe mayor Shuea Masrawa Mantzur, […]

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Pat Boone and the story of ‘Exodus’

  By Jerry Klinger LOS ANGELES — Pat Boone, world famous singer, movie actor and writer has been a lifelong friend of Israel. His active continuing career has spanned over 62 years, selling more than 46 million albums, 38 Platinum top forty singles, starring in 12 movies and a hit T.V. show. Yet, he will modestly

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Jerry Klinger, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Newly Found Songs from the Holocaust Still Haunt

The history of music is rich with sounds spurred by suffering. During the Holocaust, songs of defiance and belief helped captive Jews confront and temporarily alleviate their misery. Now, a long-lost recording from 1946 is providing a poignant new soundtrack for understanding life in the Nazi concentration camps and Jewish ghettos. Just after World War

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

The ‘Body and Soul’ of American jazz

“There’s no bum like a ‘pretty good artist’ and I think you’re ‘pretty good.’” –Johnny Green’s father By Eric George Tauber LA JOLLA, California –The 2017 San Diego Jewish Film Festival has come and gone. With eighty different screenings at five venues –with filmmakers traveling from as far as Hungary and Israel- and selling more

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

‘Refugee’ violinist blends Russian-Jewish roots with modern tones

Yevgeny Kutik’s family fled the USSR’s institutionalized anti-Semitism with a suitcase of sheet music when he was 5. Now he tours the free world with a century-old violin By Matt Lebovic BOSTON — As a 5-year old refugee from the former Soviet Union, Yevgeny Kutik came to the United States with music in his veins.

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International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Newly Found Songs from the Holocaust Still Haunt

The history of music is rich with sounds spurred by suffering. During the Holocaust, songs of defiance and belief helped captive Jews confront and temporarily alleviate their misery. Now, a long-lost recording from 1946 is providing a poignant new soundtrack for understanding life in the Nazi concentration camps and Jewish ghettos. Just after World War

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Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Theme Song for ‘The Last Laugh’

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−While Michael Flynn frantically tried to destroy his DVD of From Russia with Love, the San Diego Jewish Film Festival is entertaining audiences day and night at a variety of venues in the city through February 19th.  I had the honor to introduce The Last Laugh, a documentary about comedians and

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Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Beethoven, Liszt were two TICO audience favorites

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — A large audience welcomed the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO), under the direction of David Amos, for the January 31 concert at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. The program featured two audience favorites, Beethoven’s Symphony #5 and the Liszt’s Piano Concerto #2, with Pianist Peter Vinograde. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, with its

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Orchestra from Prague delights San Diegans

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO– The soft, rippling notes of the flute, entwined with the clarinet, sang forth with ease and authenticity as the PKF-Prague Philharmonia, under the direction of its French conductor, Emmanuel Villaume, began Smetena’s The Moldau at the La Jolla Music Society-sponsored concert January 25. Shimmering strings entered, overlaying the flow of notes

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Culture and weather in London, Paris, Jerusalem

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — ‘He who tires of London has tired of life,’ wrote Samuel Johnson, and I dare say he had a point. Even in the dead of winter, when the bone-chilling cold really does chill every inch of bone in your body, the place has its pleasures provided you are suitably

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

Artists, writers may have different sleep patterns

HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — Do you ever dream of becoming the next Picasso? A new study at the University of Haifa comparing art and social science students has found that visually creative students evaluate their sleep as of lower quality. “Visually creative people reported disturbed sleep leading to difficulties in daytime functioning,” explains doctorate

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education

The music world mourns the death of one of the men who made the Allman Brothers Band legendary

Butch Trucks, the longtime drummer for the Allman Brothers Band, has died at age 69. Rolling Stone confirmed the news with Trucks’ booking manager after reports of his death began to circulate on Facebook and Twitter. Trucks was one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band and played with the group since its

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials

Closeted composer suffered in Czarist Russia

“Nothing is perfect in Nature. Nature is perfect imperfection.” -PI Tchaikovsky By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO–When Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky listened to birdsong, he noticed that they were just a little less than perfect, but these imperfections made them more beautiful. And so he threw some “wrong” notes into his arpeggios, making them more natural

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast