Toronto Jewish Folk Choir

Last updated
Toronto Jewish Folk Choir
Choir
Origin Toronto
Founded 1925
Affiliation United Jewish Peoples' Order
Website http://winchevskycentre.org/about-us/toronto-jewish-folk-choir/

The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir is Canada's oldest Jewish choral group. It consists of approximately 30 singers and is conducted by Alexander Veprinsky. Its repertoire, sung in four-part harmony, encompasses a wide range of secular Jewish music, classical works on Jewish themes and songs of many countries. The group specializes in Yiddish folk songs and songs of a working class character. [1] The Choir is based at Toronto's Winchevsky Centre and is affiliated with the United Jewish Peoples' Order.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a High German-based vernacular fused with elements taken from Hebrew and Aramaic as well as from Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized version of the Hebrew alphabet.

Contents

History

The amateur choral group was founded in 1925 by Jewish immigrant laborers, [2] [3] and was originally called the Freiheith Gezangs Farein (Freedom Singing Society). [4] Its first conductor was Hyman Riegelhaupt. In the late 1930s it was given its English name in an attempt to reach out to a broader audience in order to promote opposition to Nazism. The choir continues to give an annual spring concert in Toronto and performs at various Jewish festivals and events.

The choir's early repertoire consisted largely of Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs, [5] operettas, and reflected a working class sentiment. Under the leadership of Emil Gartner, it increased in size to 130 singers by the late 1940s, and its repertoire expanded to include Canadian folk songs as well as works by Handel, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and others. [6] [7] During this time period the choir was often accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and performed at large venues in Toronto, including Massey Hall. [8] Among the well-known composers who have written works for the Choir are John Weinzweig, Louis Applebaum, Milton Barnes, Srul Irving Glick, Ben Steinberg and Leon Zuckert.

Felix Mendelssohn 19th-century German composer, pianist and organist

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.

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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1922, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982, and since then has performed at Roy Thomson Hall. The TSO also manages the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (TSYO). The TSO's most recent music director was Peter Oundjian, from 2004 to 2018. Sir Andrew Davis is currently the TSO's interim artistic director. Gustavo Gimeno was announced as Oundjian's successor on September 17, 2018, with a tenure beginning in the 2020-21 season.

Massey Hall concert hall in Toronto, Canada

Massey Hall is a performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The theatre was designed to seat 3,500 patrons, but after extensive renovations in the 1940s it now seats up to 2,765.

In the 1990s the choir's history was recorded in a documentary, Keeping the Flame Alive. In 2005, the choir was the subject of a PhD dissertation, We Shall Go Forward With Our Songs Into a Better Life, by Beneta Walters-Fredland. [4]

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References

  1. ↑ Gerald Tulchinsky (2008). Canada's Jews: A People's Journey. University of Toronto Press. pp. 272–. ISBN   978-0-8020-9386-8.
  2. ↑ Robert Vipond (28 March 2017). Making a Global City : How One Toronto School Embraced Diversity. University of Toronto Press. pp. 89–. ISBN   978-1-4426-2443-6.
  3. ↑ "Traditional Yiddish music lives on ; Choir celebrates Jewish heritage through song". Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont. Apr 14, 2001 p. M.04
  4. 1 2 Kathleen A. Abromeit (2015). Spirituals: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography for Research and Performance. A-R Editions, Inc. pp. 165–. ISBN   978-0-89579-799-5.
  5. ↑ "Jean Shek, 'guiding light' of Jewish choir; Joined group in 1953, was chair or co-chair 20 years Firebrand social worker, she fought for seniors, poor". Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont. Dunphy, Catherine. Jun 12, 2006 Page: B.07
  6. ↑ Paul Helmer (1 November 2009). Growing with Canada: The ƒmigrŽ Tradition in Canadian Music. MQUP. p. 197. ISBN   978-0-7735-8241-5.
  7. ↑ Matthew B. Hoffman; Henry F. Srebrnik (16 June 2016). Vanished Ideology, A: Essays on the Jewish Communist Movement in the English-Speaking World in the Twentieth Century. SUNY Press. pp. 116, 157. ISBN   978-1-4384-6220-2.
  8. ↑ Henry Srebrnik (2008). Jerusalem on the Amur: Birobidzhan and the Canadian Jewish Communist Movement, 1924-1951. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 192–. ISBN   978-0-7735-7501-1.
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