VBS presents

Cantors Phil Baron, Paul Dorman & Rita Glassman Guests, Composers and Fellows

of the Newly-Inaugurated Max Helfman Institute of Jewish Music

Valley Beth Shalom Choir and Instrumental Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Noreen Green

and Rabbi Ed Feinstein officiates

Friday January 21, 2011

8:00 p.m.15739 Ventura BlVd., encino, ca 91436(818) 788-6000 | WeBsite: www.vbs.org

NEW PERSPECTIVES

ON JEWISH MUSIC

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AM YISRAEL CHAI ...................................................MAX HELFMANARR. BY CHRIS HARDIN

Instrumental Ensemble

KABBALAT SHABBAT SHALOM ALEICHEM ..................................................JAMES FUCHS Kara Carrier, sop; Liza Baron Ginsburg, alto Jeremy Eichberg, tenor; Marc Baron Ginsburg, bass

*SHABBAT HAMALKAH .........................................STEVE BERNSTEIN Cantor Baron

Y’DID NEFESH .....................................................MICHAEL MOGLEYCantor Dorman

L’CHU N’RAN’NA .................................................... COREEN DUFFY Cantors Baron and Dorman

ADONAI AL MAYIM RABIM .................................KARMIT BAR-LEV Cantor Baron; Marc Lowenstein, clarinet

L’CHA DODI ........................................ MICHELLE GREEN WILLNER Cantor Baron; Marc Baron Ginsburg

MIZMOR SHIR ...................................................... SHELDON SANDS Cantor Glassman

MA’ARIVBAR’CHU ..................................................................... PHIL BARON Cantor Baron

AHAVAT OLAM ....................................................... CHRIS HARDINJennifer Rea Hardin, soprano; Elaine Rosen, alto

MI CHAMOCHA ..........................................MICHAEL ISAACSON Cantor Baron

HASHKIVEINU ...........................................................BOB REMSTEINRebecca Varon

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V’SHAMRU................................................................ MICHAEL GILL Cantor Baron

CHATSI KADDISH ......................................... MICHAEL SILVERSHERCantor Glassman

TIFTACH ..................................................................MIRIAM CUTLER Cantor Dorman

YIGDAL ........................................................ BERNARDO FELDMANCantor Glassman

OSEH SHALOM .....................................................RITA GLASSMAN Cantor Glassman

*SHALOM RAV ......................................................JULIE BERNSTEIN Lenore Rukasin

PROGRAM PIECES*MODEH ANI ..................................................RICHARD FRIEDMAN

Cantor Baron; David Bloom

*PSALM 13 .................................................... AARON FRUCHTMANMarc Baron Ginsburg

ELOHAI N’SHAMA .................................................. CHRIS HARDINJennifer Rea Hardin, narrator

COMPLETION OF THE MA’ARIV SERVICE*ADORATION .............................................. .AARON FRUCHTMAN

ADON OLAM .......................................MICHELLE GREEN WILLNER

* Small Group

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VBS Choir memBerS [For membership call Noreen at (818) 530-4036]

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Soprano FayAbramovitch-Wernick*KaraCarrier*JaneFredgant AdiFlatt HeleneGersuk JulieMadorsky*RoseanneMoscoe*RachelPayne*LenoreRukasin JackieShapiro DianeSweet

Alto*SandyBerman**KarmitBar-lev*NancyCampeau**CoreenDuffy*LizaBaronGinsburg SharenJacobs FlorenceMesker MarciaPollak*MarcyRainey EllieSimon JoyceSindel AndreaTuberman-Jadda

Tenor *JeremyEichberg**JamesFuchs*MarcLowenstein JulesMandel MikeNeuwirth DavidPardess LexingtonSherbin*RichardShoff ElliottSigman

Bass*RichardBraun StephenFleschler*PerryFredgant**AaronFruchtman*MarcBaronGinsburg**ChrisHardin**MichaelMogley**BobRemstein DonRosen RobbRosenbaum*RickWilkinson JerryWythe

INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLEMartin Glicklick,flute/piccolo Zinovy Goro,clarinetBob Remstein,keyboard Johana Krejci,violinKevan Torfeh,cello MB Gordy,percussion

Chris Hardin,piano

* Small Group ** Composers

Upcoming Choir EventsFri., Feb 18, 8:00 p.m.

SHABBAT FARBRENGEN – VBS Choir joins Cantor Fox celebrating the music of IsraelFri., April 29, 8:00 p.m.

CHOIR SHABBAT – The Music of Julius Chajes, 100 year celebration

Interested in joining the choir, e-mail Dr. Noreen Green at ngreen@vbs.org

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James Fuchs has been a professional pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger and composer for over twenty-five years. James comes from a very musical family and is the son of a semi-operatic theatre vocalist Veronica Fuchs and Maestro Peter Fuchs. James has written numerous original songs and compositions for concert and theatrical productions and has toured with such acts as Macy Gray, Jerry Cantrell and German artist Teri Nunn. Along with writing two original musicals, “Figaro’s Divorce” and (co-writer) for “Freedom Song,” James has begun composing Jewish liturgical music for temples, choirs and cantorial soloists. His newest venture is writing children’s music, and he is currently working on a series of new albums.

��Classically trained composer Steven Bernstein has received multiple Emmy awards for his extensive work in television animation. His orchestrations can be heard in many motion pictures including “The Spiderwick Chronicles”, “Millions”, “Windtalkers”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, “The Perfect Storm”, “L.A. Story” and many others. An active choral composer, he has had several large-scale commissions. He is thrilled to be a Helfman Institute fellow, along with his wife, composer Julie Bernstein.

��Michael Mogley was born in Riga, Latvia, and came to Los Angeles as a child, where he was raised by his mother and grandparents. He began piano lessons at five and first attempts at composing at 12. In addition to a recent choral work for the Los Angeles Zimriyah choral, he has written and arranged works for Shir Ba’Ir, a Jewish a capella group - in which he sang baritone for almost five years.

��Coreen Duffy is a composer-conductor whose publication credits include Jewish choral compositions published by ECS Publishing. Coreen’s compositions have been performed by choirs across the United States, and have been featured on recommended repertoire lists at choral conventions as well as in music journals. Coreen serves as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Zimriyah

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Chorale in Los Angeles and as Conductor of the Temple Ramat Zion Choir in Northridge. She has founded two other Jewish choral ensembles in Los Angeles and Miami. In addition, she conducts the University of Southern California Oriana Choir and teaches conducting at USC.

��Karmit Bar-Lev is a singer songwriter, and a composer of original music for Jewish choirs and theatrical productions. She is an assistant Music Director of Shir Ba’ Ir, a Jewish a capella group based in LA, and a member of the Los Angeles Zimriyah Choral, both of which have featured her work in multiple concerts. She is a music teacher at Sinai Akiba Academy.

��Michelle Green Willner received her B.M. degree from the University of Toronto and her M.A. and D.M.A. degrees from Columbia University, New York. Dr. Green Willner has received numerous composition awards including four ASCAP Special Awards, two ASCAP Foundation Grants to Young Composers, a Community Relations Council Grant, and The Brian M. Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, and the Serge Garant Award from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).

Her works have been commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, NACUSA Concert Series, Synergy, Shechina, the UCI Women’s Chorus, Speculum Musicae, New Millennium, the New Calliope Singers, Premier, the Society for New Music, the CSULB New Music Ensemble, and by Earplay at the Center for the Arts Forum in San Francisco.

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Composer, pianist, teacher and producer Sheldon Sands’ creative work is fueled by his passion for world music and his awareness of music’s ability to build bridges between diverse peoples. His acclaimed CD’s, Across Many Oceans and Dead Sea Strolls have brought to many a new exposure and appreciation for global

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music. He is the music director for Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. His performances with Jewish and Middle Eastern ensembles continue to delight and enrich audiences throughout the mountain states.

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Cantor Phil Baron began his career and a songwriter, composing some 300 original, nearly 200 of these for the Walt Disney Company. Since coming to Valley Beth Shalom in 2005 he has turned his attention to writing for the synagogue and to creating innovative services with our dynamic clergy.

The creation of the Max Helfman Institute, a project devoted to the creation of new synagogue music, was a natural evolution of his role here at VBS. Thanks to the invaluable encouragement of Dr. Richard Braun and the tutelage of legendary composer Dr. Michael Isaacson, the Helfman Institute is establishing itself as an important creative laboratory for Jewish musical composition.

Many thanks for the tireless efforts of Dr. Noreen Green and members of the VBS choir as well the creativity and friendship of the Helfman Fellows.

��Chris Hardin is a composer, orchestrator, musical director, conductor, jazz pianist and vocalist. His film scores include Not Again, Two Paths and On Growing Older for which he won an award for Best Original Score. He has arranged and orchestrated over 100 symphonic pieces, some of which are being played in different countries throughout the world, and his vocal arrangements have gained notoriety at vocal jazz festivals. Currently, Chris is the Musical Director for Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show which is playing in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel and Casino as well as a touring company performing in cities throughout the United States. Most recently, The Chris Hardin Jazz Quartet was one of the featured bands at the 2010 Governor’s Ball for the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

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Dr. Michael Isaacson is the founding Music Director of The Israel Pops Orchestra, and the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. He enjoys a distinguished career as a composer, conductor, producer, and educator with over 500 Jewish and secular musical compositions published, including instrumental, vocal, sacred and secular arrangements, editions and educational works, the two volume, five hundred page Michael Isaacson Songbook, and over 40 produced CDs and album recordings. His book and double CD entitled Jewish Music as Midrash: What makes Music Jewish? is now in its second printing. Dr. Isaacson has conducted, toured and produced new recordings of symphonic music with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tel Aviv Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Vermont Symphony and Chorus, the Bulgarian National Symphony, and the Czech Chamber Orchestra. His recordings with The Hollywood Pops, which he also musically directs, may be heard on the Sony label.

Now serving on the faculty of the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Max Helfman Institute in Los Angeles, he was honored by Hebrew Union College and The Jewish Theological Seminary as one of the ten most distinguished Jewish sacred music composers in America.

��Bob Remstein has composed over twenty-five Jewish liturgical works, many of them commissioned, including a complete Sacred Service he wrote in 2002 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara. In secular music, he has scored numerous video games for SceneIt, arranged and produced music for the hit film, “Little Miss Sunshine,” and, as co-leader of the lounge/electronica group Supercasanova, has written and produced tracks used on TV shows such as “Without a Trace,” “Chuck,” “The Guiding Light,” and on Animal Planet, E!, Style Network, MSNBC, and others.

��A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, pianist and composer Michael Gill has performed in a variety of bands over the years and

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is the leader for the award-winning Bay Area wedding band, “The Shtetlblasters.” Michael has composed music for industrial films, television commercials, planetarium shows, and the documentary “Kyimolung – A Hidden Valley in the Himalayas.” He recently inked a record deal with ProgRock Records and released an exciting solo album, “Blues for Lazarus,” featuring performances by Dave Weckl, Dave Koz, Tom Valdez, Rick Ellis, and Rob Fordyce. Michael grew up here in Encino and studied keyboards at the Grove School of Music.

��Miriam Cutler has been writing, producing, and performing music for over 25 years and has an extensive background in scoring for independent film & TV projects, as well as two circuses. Her documentary film credits include HBO, PBS, Oprah Winfrey Network, and award winning documentaries like: One Lucky Elephant, Poster Girl, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Thin, China Blue, Absolute Wilson, Lost In La Mancha, Heart of the Sea, Scout’s Honor, Pandemic: Facing AIDS, Licensed to Kill and many more. Additionally, Cutler has served as a lab advisor for the Sundance Institute Documentary Composers Lab, as well as on documentary juries for the Sundance Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, International Documentary Association Awards, and American Film Institute’s Film Festival Awards.

��Born in Mexico City in 1955, Dr. Bernardo Feldman began his musical studies under the guidance of piano professor Joaquin Amparan. Between 1970 and 1978 he attended the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica. In 1982, he obtained scholarships from the Ahmanson Foundation and D.A.F.C.A. to attend the California Institute of the Arts where he would earn, in 1985, a Masters of Fine Arts degree and his Ph.D. from UCLA. His catalog of works includes music for chamber and symphonic groups as well as compositions involving the use of computers to combine and process electronic and acoustic sounds. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Brazil, several European countries, and Israel.

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Dr. Feldman is currently Director of the Music Department at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.

��Rita Glassman is a Bay area Cantor/Composer/Recording artist originally from New York City. Rita is known for her heart-opening secular songs with a following in North America, Argentina and Brazil. Her one woman show at the Marin JCC in San Rafael, California included 16 original songs and stories describing Rita’s journey as a Cantor and an artist. She has recorded her original material on four CDs including “Coming Into Light”, “Walk With Me”, “Love Songs” and most recently “All The Way Home”-a collaborative CD/DVD project with a highly acclaimed pop/rock band in Bangkok, Thailand (Jetsetter). Rita attended and received her Cantorial investiture from the Hebrew Union College-School of Sacred Music. She has served congregations in Long Island, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Marin County and is currently the Cantor of the historical reform Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.

��Julie Bernstein’s work in television and film is multi-faceted. She has worked as composer, orchestrator, arranger, lyricist, music director, conductor and singer, and has earned multiple Emmy awards for her music for television animation. A classically trained musician, her orchestral and choral works have been performed on stage and in the concert hall. She is thrilled to be a Helfman Institute fellow, along with her husband, composer Steven Bernstein.

��Michael Silversher won a Grammy for Elmo in Grouchland and has three Emmy nominations. He co-wrote the theme songs for Disney’s television series, Tale Spin and Gummi Bears and over one hundred songs for Disney. He’s worked extensively with Jim Henson Productions, MGM, Sony, Warner Bros., The Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Opera, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and was Sundance Institute’s Children’s Theater musical director,

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and resident composer for their Playwright’s Lab. His current projects include the Henson/PBS Sprout series Pajanimals and the score for Dinosaur Train on PBS , and Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, now on national tour after premiering @ The Kennedy Center.

��Aaron Fruchtman was born and raised in Los Angeles. Last year Aaron was commissioned by the New York City Master Chorale to compose a large-scale choral composition. On May 31st at Lincoln Center, The Journey, a 25-minute work for orchestra, chorus and narrator was premiered with the chorale and narrated by Academy Award-Nominated actor Bruce Dern. Previously, Aaron has composed scores for Amber Benson’s directorial efforts; Lovers, Liars and Lunatics and Chance.

��Richard Friedman is a film and television composer working in Los Angeles. He has composed over a thousand pieces of music for use in all media worldwide. This January 2011 Sony will be releasing the film Ticking Clock, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. for which Richard composed the musical score. He is beginning work on a PBS Miniseries The Route to Christianity. Friedman holds a Doctorate in Musicology from Boston University.

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Our Sponsors

Established in 1954, The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles is the largest manager of charitable assets and the leader in planned giving solutions for Greater Los Angeles Jewish philanthropists. The Foundation currently manages assets of $690 million (as of 12/31/08) and ranks among the ten largest Los Angeles foundations. In 2008, The Foundation and its nearly 1,200 donors distributed $65-plus million in grants to hundreds of organizations with programs that span the range of philanthropic giving. For more information, please visit www.jewishfoundationla.org.

The International Archive of Jewish Music, Burton A. Zipser, Director, is located in Southfield, Michigan. The mission of the IAJM is to discover, collect, preserve, and disseminate information about choral works of Jewish music.

The VBS Choir - Donations to the choir fund are greatly appreciated, mail to VBS Choir Fund attention Dr. Noreen Green at VBS.

Founded in 1982, The Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles creates new opportunities for the performance of Jewish music, encouraging and educating composers to write new Jewish music, and bringing Jewish music to new audiences. Since

2002, we have sponsored annual interfaith symposia and concerts highlighting sacred texts shared by the Jewish and Christian communities.

Establishing the Max Helfman Institute for Jewish Music in 2010 has been an important initiative to create new music for the synagogue www.jewishmusicla.org.

Richard A. Braun, MD, Chairman/Founder | Elaine Gill, Vice Chairman

Governors: Scott Howard | Pat Kater | Paula Meichtry | Fred Warner Fay Abramovitch Wernick

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Graphic Designer: Janet DJalilmanD

15739 Ventura Boulevard, Encino, California 91436 (818) 788-6000 | www.vbs.org