Michael and I were talking about how to make the ending of “Shacharit” special, I said I hoped people, when hearing the end of “Oseh Shalom (Grant Peace)” would love the feeling of peace in the music so much that they would want to keep it always. I believe music, if deeply felt, can create such an experience within the listener. It may awaken a place in us that we truly desire; it may inspire us to make that desire a reality in the world.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
arrived today
I’m at the internet cafe near my hotel. It was a long trip, but got here safe and sound. Very exciting. Also tired. Kirk’s driver Peter met me at the airport in Vienna. Scenic drive to Bratislava.
Maria, Kirk’s wife, met me at the hotel and took me to the Reduta, the main concert hall, where the Phillharmonic Choir rehearses. I worked with the chorus for 2 hours this afternoon. The director is lovely and the singers have a beautiful sound, and they love the music. The most challenging part is the section in English in “Ahavah” that is like sing/speech–I see what Sam Adler meant when he said it is easier for a non-Engllish speaking chorus to pronounce English when singing than when speaking. Well, everything else is singing, and that sounds beautiful. We’ll work with the chorus again Monday afternoon when the soloists are all here.
Tomorrow morning I’ll meet with Timotea, my publicist for the concert Thursday. She has been contacting all kinds of press and radio. I’ll see if she was able to line up any interviews.
I’m hoping to get used to the time zone over the weekend. Jennifer arrives tomorrow morning, and Michael and Stephanie are due in Sunday morning. I’ll go to Rabbi Myers’ for Shabbat tomorrow night and again in Saturday. He is excited because there is a bar mitzvah this weekend–he called it a historic event! Timotea gave me a book Rabbi Myers wrote about the Chatam Sofer who was active in Bratislava in the 19th century.
Dobre, (I think that means hello, goodbye, and thank you–it seems to be said all the time–I’ll try to get a phrase book tomorrow!)
Meira
posted by Meira Warshauer
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Day 3 in Bratislava
Today was Shabbat. I had a lovely time with Rabbi Baruch Myers and his wife Chani and their family and guests. Jennifer and I joined them for dinner last night I met Laura Berg there, who works in the cultural office of the US Embassy, and she will help get the word out about the concert to their consituency. Timi had contacted the Embassy, but Laura hadn’t heard anything about the concert yet…maybe the personal contact will help. Some things are the same the world over…
Also at the rabbi’s house was Yvette Fishbein and her family. Yvette defected from Slovakia duting the Communist era, and is visitng her home with her American family–seemed like the first time they are all here.
Today was the Bar Mitvah of Benjamin (not sure last name) which was an important event for the Jewish community as it was the first time in 32 years that a boy was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah! It was a honor to be present. He was great.
The synagogue is impressive–a large structure–stone trim, two stories with a large women’s balcony and a mehitzah downstairs, too. It is the only one functioning now in Bratislava, but was considered one of the smaller neighborhood shuls before the war. The Jewish community is small now, but there is a Jewish Day School for the primary grades (I think). The daughter of a friend from Crown Heights (Brooklyn)–Mina Caplan– is teaching kindergarten there for the year.
Not much else to report as I rested during the “day of rest.” Jennifer and I had a nice dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel, and came to check our e-mail. Big excitement in Bratislava… I’m sure there is a lot going on but we are happy staying quiet.
Tomorrow Michael and Stephanie arrive. I did arrange to meet with the chorus 15 minutes before our Monday rehearsal to go over the speech/singing section. I’m thinking I need to re-write it with some pitches and Jennfer offered to help transliterate the English into international phonetics. Will work on that tomorrow.
Dobre, I found out, means “great.” So, ciao (what everyone says for “goodbye”)
Meira
posted by Meira Warshauer
Sunday in Bratislava
Timotea – my publicist in Bratislava
Medieval Town Hall at the Main Square
The Mirror Hall in the Primate´s Pallace is usually used for some official occasions (state visits) and concerts. There was also a Peace Treaty with Napoleon signed there.
posted by Meira Warshauer
Monday in Bratislava
At the Philarmonic Choir rehearsal in Reduta
posted by Meira Warshauer
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Tuesday in Bratislava
You have already seen me in one of the pictures from Sunday, my name is Timotea Vrablova. I am writing on behalf of Meira as her publicist of the concert in Bratislava. Very soon you find that I am not a native English speaker so be patient with me, please.
Meira sends you warm greetings. She is doing very well. Her days are extremely busy. Yesterday was a difficult day. She had a rehearsal with the choir doing her best to teach them the right American accent for the parts of Shacharit that should be recited. At night she did not feel very well as she got a cold. Today was a long day of rehearsals and recording. In the morning she was struggling with having a cold. But in the afternoon she felt much better.
You are probably curious how I am going on with the promotion of the concert. The presentation materials and press release were distributed to all relevant printed media, as well as to some radio stations. Information about the concert with a little Meira’s profile was published in Bratislava – Vienna cultural bulletin. Some little articles appeared in Rosh Chodesh (Czecho-Slovak Jewish magazine) and Delet (Slovak Jewish magazine). Slovak Radio daily broadcasts a spot about the concert. Also B3 (a Christian radio station) presents this week a little feature about Meira and the concert in Bratislava. Slovak TV station TA3 has already announced that they come to the concert and will make an interview with Meira and some of the soloists, etc. Meira’s concert is understood like it continues the message of reconciliation and peace that was initiated in the “Oratorio Terezin” written by Ruth Fazal, a Canadian composer. The European premiere of it was in Bratislava in 2004. No doubt this concert is more than just an ordinary cultural event.
New pictures from today are from the rehearsal in the Slovak Radio. There are also pictures of the Grasalkovich’s palace, the residence of the President of the Slovak Republic. The residence was built around 1760 by an aristocrat Anton Grasalkovich who was a great donator of culture. His residence was famous for concerts and theatrical performances.
That is all for today. Tomorrow I will bring you more news about Meira’s endeavours and maybe also about Bratislava.
posted by Meira Warshauer
Wednesday in Bratislava
Today was again an extremely busy day with recording. Meira is much, much better than yesterday. She is still in the Slovak Radio with the orchestra. We have a good news for everyone who would like to join us at the concert. It will be a life broadcast and you can listen to from the Slovak Radio or via website www.slovakradio.sk. When you open the website, search “devin” and there look at the right side of the screen. Tomorrow you should find there the title of Meira´s concert “Music of Jewish heart”. The concert starts at 7 p.m. in Bratislava what is 1 p.m. of eastern time. Is it not a great thing that we could listent to the concert together?
By the way, today she made an interview for the newspaper Mosty (Bridges). The newspaper are popular mostly among intellectuals.
posted by Meira Warshauer
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Wednesday night from Meira in Bratislava
Hi everyone.
I’m glad you got to meet Timi, my wonderful publicist and now my friend here in Bratislava. She really saved me yesterday, bringing me food from the vegetarian restaurant and some cold remedies that really helped. Because of her, I was able to make it through the recording sessions yesterday and felt better foday. We finished recordng Ahavah! I think it will sound great. Jennifer sang beautifully, and the chorus is fantastic and so is their director, Blanka, and so is Kirk and the orchestra, and so are the engineers! So you see we have quite a team of players that makes it possible to put together a recording like this. And I didn’t even mention Kirk’s wife, Maria, a harpist, who organizes everything for this project with Kirk. And you must know that I feel the support of all of you who have encouraged me in so many ways to bring this project to fruition.
Tomorrow night is the concert, broadcast live on Sloavak Radio! Timi already wrote how to hear it on live stream internet. I hope it will work. I don’t know if you will see the title of the concert or not. But it will be live broadcast at 7 p.m. Slovak time, which is 1 p.m. EST. I am told they made a poster with the title “Music from the Jewish Heart”–nice, I think. I was interviewed by a magazine at lunch today and tried to be coherent with a message of love and peace that I feel this music represents. I hope I’ll be more articulate tomorrow night for the TV interview that is supposed to take place at the concert–don’t know when–intermission or after, I hope.
In the middle of all the activity, I have flashes of being so grateful for having this music come through me and for now being able to offer it to the world through the recording. Hearing the narration in Slovak is very moving—making concrete that this music will be broadcast here in Slovakia bringing its message of peace and love. I am privileged to be a part of this amazing unfolding, and pray that this music, inspired by the traditional Jewish texts, will help bring some light and wisdom to point us towards a hopeful future.
I hope you are all well. More from here tomorrw.
Love,
Meira
posted by Meira Warshauer
Thursday – Day D – the concert
Brochure for the concert
Timi, Meira, Michael, Jennifer, Stephanie, Kirk
Jennifer and Stephanie
That is me, Timi, now. I am writing my first impressions after the concert. It was simply AMAZING! Standing ovations and both music and musicians were more than worth of it. Listening to Ahavah you could like taste different aspects of love between G-d and people. The first part was like looking at the picture of “sand, which is on the seashore” bathed by large sea waves of love. The second part – Hishamru – captured your concetration to watch the path of His will and the last one was like expression of eternal safety coming from passing the covenant of love from generation to generation. Jennifer Hines was an excellent mezzosoprano and she devoted herself into her part, she sang in spite of having cold, she probably got influenza, so she sang in pain. Unfortunatelly, Stephanie – soprano in Shacharit had the simmilar troubles. But she sang like she had no ones. Shacherit was a real great experience for the audience, too. It is beautifully and well-balanced orchestrated, and exceedingly creative composition. Meira was able to use orchestral instruments in innovative way(e.g. percussions, violins). Both Michael Hendrick and Stephanie Gregory deserved to be applauded. The same is about Kirk Trevor who as a conductor proved again his mastership like many times before. As Meira said: “The orchestra was amazing and kept the energy of music until the end”. The same was true about the choir. My friend Marta, a musician and composer, said that this concert was one of the best she has ever heard. She brought her students and colleagues from the Breakthrough Creative Studio. Young people were so fascinated by music that they stopped Meira during the break to tell her how they liked it. After the concert they asked her some questions. I took a picture of them and Meira for you. Many people from the audience stopped me praising the concert and they liked the idea to have such a continuity have started by the Oratorio Terezin. I received e-mails that people listened to the life broadcast also through the internet. My friend Linda Batty (USA) sent me her reaction: “Timi,that was amazing!We got to hear the concert—live! Modern technolog yis just amazing! I was envisioning you sitting on the front row,listening to the orchestra, soloists and chorus. I suppose that Meirawas sitting in the audience next to you. (My favorite part was the cello solo—beautiful.) Thank you for including us!”So you can taste how much blessing and encouragement came from the music. Though the morning seemed to be drammatic when Stephanie and Jennifer felt so badly, they became real heroines. All the musicians, singers, Kirk and Meira have done a very big job, they worked very hard on the recording. Jennifer is leaving tomorrow and there are couple of days before the others to finish the recording. I have some pictures for you. There is the Pyramid – the Slovak Radio building, some of them are from the concert, then standing ovation and some of them are after the concert.
posted by Meira Warshauer
Thursday, February 02, 2006
My friends Robert and Simona and their son Robert belonged to those who enjoyed the music so much.
Standing ovations
Breakthrough Creative Studio and Meira after the concert
posted by Meira Warshauer
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
We did it!
We did it! We recorded all three pieces, “Shacharit,” “Ahavah,” and “Like Streams in the Desert.” You’re probably thinking, of course you did–isn’t that why you went to Slovakia?? Well, yes, but like everything in life, there were some suprises.
You already know I got sick with a major cold on Monday. It wasn’t a great feeling, but at least I didn’t have to sing, and with enough food and medicine and hot drinks, could keep myself awake and alert for the sessions. I really didn’t see how I could make it through the day Tuesday, with 3 sessions scheduled and almost no break for food in between. But Timi called in the morning to see if I needed anything, and I said “Yes!!” She brought me some food from the vegetarian restaurant, oranges, and cold remedies that really helped. I also remembered that my water bottle could hold hot liquids, so I made green tea in it and drank constantly.
My job in the recording booth was to listen for errors, balance, interpretation, and to answer questions about the music. Emile, the producer, was also listening for accuracy, balance and interpretation, and Blanka, the choral director, made sure the chorus was doing its best. Hubert arranged that the sound production was working optimally, adjusting balance as needed. So I wasn’t alone, but I did need to be actively involved. More important was that the singers stayed healthy….
On Tuesday, the day we were to record “Ahavah,” the cold latched onto Jennifer Hines, the soloist for “Ahavah.” Jenn felt miserable, but she could still sing–actually, her voice sounded great. As Timi reported, Jennifer heroically managed to make her recording Tuesday night in a session that went from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. The next morning she felt a little better, and we completed the recording of the third movement. Jenn later said she thought the congestion in her sinuses made it easier to project her high register! By the time we got the the concert on Thursday, though, Jenn’s cold had moved into her chest. She still sang beautifully, but with more breaths than usual. Luckily, her recording was already “in the can,” and she flew home Friday morning, with promises to rest and make sure she didn’t get any complications from the cold. We were sad to see her go–Jenn was so much fun to have on the project. Her sense of humor kept us all feeling happy.
Thursday morning, the day of the concert, Stehpnie Gregory, the soprano soloist for “Shacharit,” woke up feeling dizzy and not well. She wanted to skip the dress rehearsal and sleep, but Kirk needed her for the engineers to get the levels set for the concert. That afternoon, she slept and felt much better for the concert where she sang beautifully. There were two recording sessions scheduled for Shacharit–Friday morning and Saturday night. Stephanie asked if she could record her solo part, “Or Chadash,” Friday morning, in case she developed something like what Jenn had, but we didn’t get to it because Kirk wanted to record the parts with marimba–the marimba player wouldn’t be available for future sessions. Friday night, Stephanie started feeling bad again. Timi came over to stay with her for a while. The next day, Timi consulted with her mother who has medical training, and it was decided Stephanie should see a doctor. We didn’t know quite how that would work, but Timi arranged for the hotel clerk to call for the doctor. We needed to figure out payment (and pooled our dollars to help cover the bill), and to our surprise, the doctor came to the hotel! Not only the doctor, but also two assistants, in an ambulance. They set up an IV for Stephanie right in the hotel room. Then they recommended she be taken to the hospital for tests. By this time it was around 3:30 p.m., and the last recording session for Shacharit was scheduled for 6 p.m. That would be Stephanie’s only chance to record, so she was quite concerned about going to the hospital and not getting back in time. Timi reassured us the hospital was nearby. All we could think of was emergency rooms in the States, and the hours that one waits to be seen…! But she had to go–health comes before anything else. By 4:30, Stephanie was back at the hotel! She had been examined, diagnosed, and treated, all within the hour. She felt much better, and got ready for the 6:00 session where she sang beautifully!
Meanwhile, Kirk had come down with a cold on Friday, too. He really didn’t feel well, but managed to get through the morning session and slept the rest of the day, I think. Michael was the only one of us who escaped physical maladies in Slovakia. He had been sick the week before leaving for Bratislava, which had me worried, but he recovered fully, and stayed healthy the whole time.
Michael and Stephanie left Sunday morning in good health. We had no problems with recording “Like Streams in the Desert” Sunday, and finished with an hour to spare.
In peripheral excitement, Dinah Spritzer, an American journalist living in Prague, who wanted to attend the concert to cover it for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, got on the train to come to Bratislava Thursday morning. Her purse was stolen–the theif actually grabbed it and she struggled unsuccessfully to get it back from him. So her boyfriend, Jan, called me at 9 a.m. to tell me she woldn’t be coming because inside the purse was her passport which she needed to cross the border from the Czech Republic into Slovakia. I had been looking forward to meeting Dinah because she is the niece of my Aunt Lucile “on the other side.” I canceled her hotel reservation and went to the 10 a.,m. dress rehearsal. Around 11 a.m., my cell phone rang in the studio–Jan reported the police had recovered Dinah’s passport and she was coming on a later train!
Dinah brought Maros Borsky to the concert. Maros is Curator for Slovak Jewish Heritage at the Slovak National Museum-Museum of Jewish Culture. I’ll report more about meeting Maros, visiting the Jewish Museum, and other reflections on my visit to Slovakia and the experience of making the recording and the concert in a later post.
The main thing now is, we did it! I felt God kept us in the light, and blessed the whole venture. The only way I could get through it was to remember to trust that the whole project was ultimately in God’s hands. I am happy and grateful that this very time-sensitive part of the CD project–the recording, with so many coordinated performers– has been completed.
Now I think I’ll start to unpack, wash clothes, answer e-mail….from home in SC.
Love,
Meira
posted by Meira Warshauer
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
one week later
I’ve been home about a week now. I promised to write an overview… I still feel this project is blessed, and picture the studio in SlovakRadio Hall that has our recording sessions on the computer as a little bundle of light. Emil and Hubert will edit all the recorded takes and insert Carol Potter’s narration into a CD for us to approve in about two months, and the process will continue. We expect Albany Records to release the CD in fall/winter 2006. If you are not already on my mailing list and want to be notified, send me your e-mail: [email protected].
Meanwhile, I have thank you letters to write and a few more sponsors to approach. The account at the American Music Center that receives tax deductible contributions for this project (“Meira Warshauer Recording Project”) needs more dollars to finish up the project and cover some unexpected expenses. This account has been wonderful in providing a place to receive contributions and disburse funds in a transparent accounting process. Carlos Camposeco at AMC is my “banker” and does a great job–thanks, Carlos! I am so grateful to my sponsors who have contributed funds and so much encouragement for this project. (If you want to contribute, also send me an e-mail!)
I went to Bratislava because Kirk Trevor had the relationship with the orchestra and chorus that made it possible to make this recording. His wife, Maria, who is Slovak and also a musician (harpist with the Slovak Opera) helped negotiate the government music bureacracy to make all the arrangements. She continued to hold everything together as needs arose during the recording period.
Kirk really grasped the drama and emotion behind the music, and made it come alive in his conducting. When I met with him in Knoxville several years ago, he had some perceptive observations about the music, and I incorporated some of those suggestions when revising the music for the recording. Even during the sessions, Kirk made suggestions to improve the balance in a couple of places –I think Kirk’s other calling is really music editor!
The chorus was wonderful, and the director, Blanka Juhanakova, loved the music and really brought out the spiritual sensitivity and power of the text. Their Hebrew was great–they had worked with two Hebrew coaches before I arrived. They sang English very well, and we worked on the spoken English, so it also sounded very good. (I mentioned some concern in one of my earlier posts, but I requested 15 minutes of rehearsal time to work on it, and they were very responsive to correction.)
The soloists, Jennifer, Stephanie, and Michael, were all wonderful and really communicated the depth of the music and text. Jennifer has a velvety mezzo voice that brought great warmth to “Ahavah(Love).” Stephanie has an angelic soprano voice that highlights the transcendent sections of “Shacharit.” And Michael brought power and sensitivity to Shacharit’s tenor role, with Hebrew that sounded authentically cantorial.
Hubert Geschwandtner, the engineer, and Emil Niznansky, the producer were on top of every detail of the sound. They are a great team, and have a proven track record of many fine recordings with the Slovak Radio Symphoy Orchestra. I loved being in the recording booth with them and Blanka. (I have been a few other recording booths, and physically, this one is the easiest to work from, with a clear view of the orchestra, good lighting, and plenty of room.)
What added a special depth to the project was the concert and live broadcast at Radio Hall. The orchestra and the chorus really connected with the music during the performance, and everyone was glowing at the end.
We decided to add the concert when we realized the orchestra was receptive to presenting and broadcasting it. There had been a concert in Bratislava in 2004 by a Canadian Christian composer, Ruth Fazal, titled “Oratorio Terezin” which had contributed to the process of facing the Jewish Holocaust of World War II in Slovakia. During Communism, no one had spoken of it, so education was important on a national level. I felt my music could offer a possible next step–presenting music from the Jewish liturgy that offers a message of love and justice, and a prayer for peace. Kirk titled the concert “Music from the Jewish Heart,” and I loved the title. It was especially moving to hear the narration for “Shacharit” in Slovak, and to know that these inspiring words were being heard in a new context by the radio audience and those in the hall. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have performances in many other countries, with narration in each language?!
Timotea says she thinks this is the first concert of Jewish music with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra to be broadcast on Slovak Radio. Many people heard it on radio and the live stream internet broadcast. The recorded concert is supposed to be made available to the European Union for later broadcast, along with all the other broadcasts of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. We need to make some contacts with radio stations in Europe to encourage them to access the broadcast.
The day after the concert, Dinah Spritzer, who did arrive on the later train from Prague (see previous post for the story of her stolen and recovered passport) , interviewed me about the music. I recalled an image that had inspired me to keep going with this project: I saw the kedushah chant from “Shacharit,” “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh (holy, holy, holy)” enveloping the whole world in awareness of holiness. From my backyard in South Carolina, I saw/heard the chant coming from Asia across the Pacific Ocean, moving West to East, and encircling the globe. Timi, who was sitting with us, said she had friends in Japan, Canada, the US, Austria, the Czech Repuclis, and Israel who had listened to the Internet live stream of the concert. So in a small way, the vision was beginning to come true.
On Sunday, Timi and I met Maros Borsky at the Jewish Musem, which is part of the National Museum in the castle complex. As I mentioned earlier, Maros is the curator for Jewish Heritage at the museum. He gave us a personal tour. The museum shows Jewish life cycle and holiday observances as an educational perspective for the non-Jewish visitor, and includes a moving memorial to Slovak Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. It also includes a listing of the 100’s of Slovaks who hid or helped save Jews from the death camps.
There are now about 3,000 Jews living in Slovakia, half of whom are in Bratislava. Of those, 700-800 are affiliated with the official Jewish community in Bratislava. Rabbi Myers and his wife, Chani, have established a Jewish pre-school and kindergarten which they hope to grow yearly to reach the 4th grade. One synagogue is still standing, and is used weekly for Shabbat services. A daily minyan meets either in the synagogue or the Chabad House nearby. Rabbi Myers has been in Bratislava for 13 years, and although American, speaks Slovak and delivers his sermons in Slovak. He has a background in music, having studied music composition at the University of Michigan before becoming a rabbi, so we had much to talk about together. I enjoyed two Friday night dinners with his family in Bratislava.
During the second Shabbat of my stay, Dinah and I went to the Jewish Community Center for a Friday evening service (Kabbalat Shabbat) with a visiting woman rabbi from England. The small group of about 15 seemed very interested in her teaching.
I don’t know how many of Bratislava’s Jews were in attendance at the concert. I hope more listened on the radio, and possibly in areas beyond Bratislava. The president of the Jewish Community in Bratislava told Timi he would buy a block of tickets, but I don’t know if that actually happened. Timi placed notices and articles in several Jewish publications as well as other cultural magazines and sites, with information about both the concert and the broadcast. I know Maros and the director of the Jewish Museum who also attended, told us they found the concert very moving.
Timi’s friend, Marta, attended the concert with about 10 of her young music students. I spoke with the students after the concert and during intermission. They were full of questions and enthusiasm, and loved the music. Timi wrote me of another response to the concert:
“My colleague at work listened to the broadcast from the concert. She said to me, that she was really amazed and touched. She is not a very spiritual person and she said: ‘I do not know, what was in the music, but when the concert was over, I was not able to do nothing else but close the door of my room and stay in peace.’ “
Michael and I were talking about how to make the ending of “Shacharit” special, I said I hoped people, when hearing the end of “Oseh Shalom (Grant Peace)” would love the feeling of peace in the music so much that they would want to keep it always. I believe music, if deeply felt, can create such an experience within the listener. It may awaken a place in us that we truly desire; it may inspire us to make that desire a reality in the world.
I know that for me, as a composer, my work is to translate my deepest desires, my deepest prayers, into music. I ask for your blessings that the music we recorded in Bratislava will reach the hearts of many listeners, and that the prayers for peace, love, and justice which are contained in this music, will be shared and expanded through our lives.
I didn’t write much about “Like Streams in the Desert,” because it was not included in the concert. It’s the third piece on the CD, and is really a celebration. It was written for the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel, and celebrates coming home, physically to the land of Israel, and on the spiritual level, to our true, whole and holy selves.*
May each of us, in our own way, use our talents and efforts to bring peace, through love and justice, and to celebrate the true coming home together.
(If you want more details about the music–program notes, text translations–and bios of all the performers, come to my home page: home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer and click on “press kit.” )
Thanks so much for following this journey with me.
Love,
Meira
posted by Meira Warshauer
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