Choral festival gives voice
THE inaugural Australian Jewish Choral Festival (AJCF) will be held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music later this month.
Based on the long-running North American Jewish Choral Festival, which attracts hundreds of singers to workshops in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the AJCF will bring together 75 singers to learn about the Jewish communal-singing experience.
The festival is being presented by Jewish Arts in association with the Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival, which will also take place later this month.
The acclaimed New York vocal group, the Western Wind, will perform at AJCF’s opening-night concert on Saturday, March 17 at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium and take part in festival workshops.
Jewish Arts director Judy Campbell said the festival aims to build engagement within the Jewish community through a communal experience of singing and celebrating Jewish choral music.
Campbell, who is music director at North Shore Temple Emanuel, has made three visits to the US festival.
“On each occasion I was deeply inspired as a Jewish singer and conductor, and came back home with renewed energy,” she said. “That was where the idea for an Australian festival germinated, and I hope it will become a regular event, hopefully every two years.”
Participants from the festival will form a new choir – to be called the AJCF Choir – which will make its debut at Shir Madness at Bondi Pavilion on Sunday, March 25.
The Australian Jewish Choral Festival is being held from March 17-25.
Enquiries: ajcf@jewish-arts.org.au
REPORT: Danny Gocs
PICTURED: New York vocal ensemble, the Western Wind.
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