The Zemel Choir’s Past Performances
Zemel Goes on Tour to France
THE ZEMEL CHOIR (LONDRES)
Le plus grand chœur juif mixte de Grande-Bretagne
Le cantor Robert Brody
Direction Benjamin Wolf
Chants liturgiques et traditionnels ashkénazes et sépharades : oeuvres de Salomon Sulzer, Louis Lewandowski, Itaï Daniel…
Fondé en 1955, le Zemel Choir est considéré comme l’une des chorales juives les plus expérimentées au monde.
Son répertoire embrasse toutes les cultures juives traditionnelles, ashkénaze, sépharade, yiddish et israélienne.
Le Zemel Choir s’est souvent produit à la BBC (radio et télévision) notamment pour la transmission en direct de Kaddish à Terezin de la cathédrale de Cantorbéry en 1986, ou dans le cadre de la commémoration de la Shoah en Janvier 2005, en participant sur BBC1 à Songs of Praise, the Holocaust Remembered.
Il a voyagé aux Etats-Unis, au Canada, en Israël, en Europe de l’ouest et de l’est.
En 1993, il a participé à la cérémonie commémorative polonaise de la Shoah à Varsovie et Treblinka, pour commémorer le 50e anniversaire du soulèvement du ghetto de Varsovie.
Au festival choral Zimriyah de 1996 à Jérusalem, il a été invité à chanter à la cérémonie d’ouverture, diffusée en direct sur Radio Israël, et en octobre 2001, il a effectué une tournée en République tchèque et en Hongrie. Le chœur a régulièrement commandé des œuvres nouvelles à des compositeurs contemporains et a enregistré de nombreux CD.
Le Zemel choir a déjà chanté en France, notamment avec les Polyphonies Hébraïques de Strasbourg.
Il doit sa réputation au professionnalisme de son équipe et à une implication forte des choristes.
Le chœur ne se réunit pas seulement pour chanter, mais aussi pour constituer un groupe chaleureux et amical.
Recent Concert at the Radlett Centre 20th February 2011
Zemel Choir-Flyer for Radlett Concert -20th February 2011
Concert at Belsize Sq. Synagogue on 14th Nov 2010.
Additional Photos are available to view here
Please e-mail here for more information
Recent 2010 Celebrate With Song Concert At JFS
Click here to enquire about Zemel’s next concert
The ever-popular Celebrate With Song event that took place on the 6th June was a sellout, bringing mixed-voice choral music with a Jewish connection to new singers and new audiences. In the past four years Zemel have sung plainchant, Baroque cantatas, swinging American tunes and some of the best in British Jewish music. This year-it was Showtime. We sang music by Jewish composers written for the stage – from opera to operetta, Yiddish theatre to musicals. We performed music by some of the classics – Gerhswin, Weill and friends – and Yiddish theatre numbers such as Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen. We were joined in concert by Celebrate With Song workshop attendees and by the Alyth Youth Choir. With nearly 400 people in the audience, we were delighted to be supported by Jacs and Bnei Brith who used this event to raise money for Charity
Concert at Harrow Arts Centre on the 31st January
Hallelujah – Songs of Praise and Joy
Attendance nearly 300 people
Click here for more photos from the Concert
promoted by Spiro Ark
What is in a word? In the case of one, famous word – Hallelujah– we can hear the expression of praise, joy and happiness, and it is no surprise that it has been used by composers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, for many centuries. Using this word as an inspiration, the Zemel Choir presents an eclectic concert focussed on the expression of joy in music. That one word – Hallelujah– appears in works by both Jewish and non-Jewish composers, including Lewandowski, Bruckner, Boyce and Monteverdi, while the choir will also perform settings of psalms of praise by Palestrina, Freed, Carlbach and Sulzer. Praise for the land of Israel is heard in works by Copland and others, while we will also perform some old favourites by Machtenberg, Zilberts and Kurt Weill. You can also hear boisterous settings of folk-songs and Yiddish theatre tunes, and a choral setting of a well known song by Leonard Cohen. An opportunity to savour music from different ages and environments, and to hear some uplifting music, Jewish-style.
Click here for more photos from the Concert
Concert at Belsize Square
The Zemel Choir had a “full house” on 8th November at a memorable concert called Shir L’Shabbat where we performed a selection of serious and light hearted liturgical music in celebration of Shabbat
Click here for photos of the concert
. There was also a superb performance of close harmony and quartet music by bOYbershop. You can read a very interesting review of this concert here, written by Malcolm Miller
The repertoire included a specially-compiled Sacred Service with music by
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bloch, Weill, Schalit and others…
and was conducted by Benjamin Wolf, with organist Michael Cayton
with soloists Marc Finer, Eliot Alderman and Benjamin Cahn
…and settings of Adon Olam spanning four hundred years
“Just a quick note to say thanks for a marvellous concert last night. I could listen to Adon Olam all night so I loved it - in fact I’d be happy to hear the whole thing again. And thanks for limiting the applause, which can slow it down, especially when there are so many pieces and ensuring that it ended reasonably early .I persuaded my husband to come for the first time in many years - and he enjoyed it so it looks like you’ve got another supporter”
Celebrate With Song 2009
Click here for more photos of our summer concert
Click here to read a review of the concert by Malcolm Miller
The Zemel Choir along with members of the City of London Choir performing the Chichester Psalms
Zemel Flyer for 2009 Celebrate With Song
Israel Concert Tour, 15th to 22nd March 2009 -Ra’anana, Karmiel, Rishon-le-Tzion
Under our Musical Director Benjamin Wolf and with cantor Robert Brody, we sang synagogue music by 19th century composers Lewandowski and Sulzer, works by Israeli composers such as Gil Aldema and Yehezkel Braun, American music by Copland and Tom Lehrer, liturgical and folk music by British composers, and lighter numbers by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach. To see the media coverage generated around the Tour click here.
Sunday 9 November, 2008 - ENTENTE CORDIALE with the Polyphonies Hébraïques de Strasbourg
Belsize Square Synagogue, London
Sunday 6 July 2008 Charity Concert in aid of the Gidon Posner Memorial Fund
West London Synagogue-Special performances by The Zemel Choir and the Galron choir from Kfar Saba, Israel.
Sunday 15th June 2008 ‘Celebrate With Song’-10 Centuries of Jewish Choral Music
St. John’s Smith Square-A mass celebration of mixed-voice Jewish choral music, For media coverage click here
Wednesday 7 May 2008-A Selection of Israeli and Liturgical Music’
Celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut at Edgware and District Reform Synagogue
25th November 2007-Concert in Bournemouth.
Sunday 11th November 2007 -‘Liturgy to Latkes, A Choral Extravaganza’
Belsize Square Synagogue
Sunday 21st October 2007-‘Jewish Songs of Harmony and Reflection’
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sunday, 17th June 2007’ Celebrate with Song’
St John’s, Smith Square-for media coverage click here
Tuesday 17th April Concert In Strasbourg, France
Sunday 18th March, 2007 ‘Celebrating Forty Fabulous Years by Ann Sadan’
Edgware and District Reform Synagogue
Sunday 26th November, 2006 ‘A concert featuring music for Chanukah, sung in Hebrew, Ladino and English’
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sunday 26 November 2006 ‘A new shofar fanfare to celebrate 350 years of British Jewish music’
Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room-Special performance of “King Ahaz” by Alman
Sunday 12th November, 2006 ‘Cantors and Choristers’
Belsize Square Synagogue
Sunday July 2, 2006 ‘An Evening of Jewish Music’
Belsize Square Synagogue
Sunday June 18, 2006, Sternberg Centre, Finchley
Sunday March 5, 2006
Kenton Synagogue
Sunday 27th November, 2005
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Sunday 20th November, 2005 ‘50th Anniversary Concert’
St John’s, Smith Square
Sunday 10th July, 2005 ‘Festival of Jewish Choirs’
South Bank Centre
Sunday 5th June, 7.30pm, 2005 ‘A concert for Yom Yerushalayim’
Wimbledon & District Synagogue
Sunday 27th February, 2005
Nottingham Hebrew Congregation
Sunday 23rd January, 2005 BBC Songs of Praise
Special broadcast as part of the annual Holocaust Day commemorations.
2004-Norma Roth Memorial Concert Sunday 13th June at EDRS
2004 Royal Festival Hall
2003 Brighton Jewish Festival.
2003 Limmud, Nottingham
2003 Brighton Jewish Festival
2001 “Sunday Worship” for Holocaust Memorial Day - BBC Radio 4
1996 Zimriyah Opening Concert broadcast - Israel National Radio
1993 East European Tour broadcast on BBC World Service
1990 “Expressions of Reconciliation & Hope” broadcast on TV from York Minster
1987 “Home on Sunday” with Yehudi Menuhin - BBC TV
1987 “Music of a People” with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black - BBC Radio 2
1986 Kaddish for Terezin (World premiere) broadcast on TV & radio from Canterbury Cathedral
1981 Canadian Radio broadcast
1980 “Come Sunday” - Southern Television
1969 “Let The People Sing” Songs of Praise - BBC TV
1965 International Llangollen Eisteddfod - BBC TV us 1965 Music for the film “Cast a Giant Shadow” starring Kirk Douglas
1965 “Hallelujah” - ABC Television 1962 International Llangollen Eisteddfod Celebration Concert br OVERSEAS TOURS 2007 15th-17th April, - Radio Judaica, Brussels, Aula Hall, Strasbourg University, The Great Synagogue, Luxembourg 2001 Prague, Decin, Uhrineves and Budapest 1996 Israel - Zimriyah in Jerusalem 1993 Eastern Europe - Warsaw, Cracow, Vilnius, Minsk 1988 Israel - Arad, Givat Brenner, G’derot, Zimriyah in Jerusalem 1987 North America - White Plains NY, Rochester NY, Toronto, New York, Springfield MA, Pittsfield MA 1984 Europe - Amsterdam, The Hague, Luxembourg, Geneva, Zurich 1981 North America - New York, Montreal, Toronto, Catskills 1977 Israel - Zimriyah in Jerusalem 1967 Israel - Zimriyah in Jerusalem 1961 Israel - Zimriyah in Jerusalem 1958 Israel - Zimriyah in Jerusalem