It’s fun to have an excuse to travel, and this trip to
Romania was sparked by a piece of music.
On April 20, 2023, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra played a
concert in honor of Israel’s 75th birthday. In anticipation of that concert, I was
invited to chair a committee at the Jewish Federation to develop the musical
program, working with Maestro Andreas Delfs and James Barry, the Vice President
of Artistic Planning and Operations at the RPO.
James arranged the commission of a new work by Avner Dorman, an Israeli
composer currently Professor on the faculty of the Sunderman Conservatory of
Music at Gettysburg College, and about a year before the concert, Joyce and I
agreed to fund the commission. Joyce
died in February 2023, and never got to hear it, but the piece is amazing, and
she would have loved it.
The title, Tanyaderas, refers to “Sephardic Jewish
women who led song and dance for life celebrations…” (see https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/tanyaderas
) and the piece is high energy, dancy, and quite wonderful. It was very well received at the concert.
This past spring, Avner notified me that Tanyaderas
has been recorded by a German Orchestra, the Berlin Academy of American Music,
and it’s on YouTube as well as on one of their CDs. You can see and hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEhiK_F40m0 Avner told me that the conductor, Garrett
Keast, was going to be in the Adirondacks, and asked if I would like to meet
him. Of course, I said yes, and Garrett
came to Rochester, stayed with me, and we went to a Rochester Philharmonic
concert together.
With that as a long introduction, now the Romania
connection. Garrett told me that he and
his orchestra will be part of the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania, and
they will be performing Tanyaderas in Bucharest on September 14. Well, I’ve never been to Romania, and I’ve
only heard the piece I commissioned once live, so I said I’d come! I asked my partner Kathy Sinclaire if
she’d like to join me and she said yes, so on September 6 we’ll leave for
Romania.
We’ll spend the time between the 6th and the
14th touring the part of Romania called Transylvania, and will end
up in Bucharest for the concert. We’ll
fly home on the 15th. A
highlight of the trip will be Bran Castle, the reputed home of Vlad the
Impaler, thought to be the inspiration for Dracula.
More when I can.
How exciting! Wow…travel safe, you two, and have fun. We’ll be watching for your blogs.
ReplyDeleteCan’t wait to see the pictures and hear all about it.
ReplyDeleteOther than the delayed flight, you are off to a wonderful start of this very interesting trip. Love the photos and explanations.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interesting background about what has led you (both of you now) to visit Romania. I was glad to help Avner Dorman with his program notes about the piece--he said my tweaks helped him get his thoughts across. I love the piece, and I hope it's as exciting (and the ensemble is as "tight") as in performances elsewhere. People seem to love it--for good reason!
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