Golden sounds of cantors in full voice

LEADING Australian and overseas chazans will team up for the “Symphony for the Soul” concerts, which proved a hit with the community when they were staged last year.

New York chazan Yitzchak Meir Helfgot will perform with Australian father-and-son duo Shimon and Dov Farkas, with the backing of a 43-member symphony orchestra under the baton of Israeli conductor Dr Mordechai Sobol.

The “Symphony for the Soul” concerts will be held at Central Synagogue, in Sydney on October 20 and at Caulfield Hebrew Cong- regation (CHC) in Melbourne on October 27.

The concert will also be staged in Perth on October 25, but on a smaller scale without the orchestra.

For Dov Farkas, a ­former Sydneysider who is chazan at CHC, singing has been part of his life since he was aged 10 and he has performed many times with his father.

“Singing in shul has a special feeling,” he said this week. “When we decided to hold the “Symphony for the Soul” concert last year with the orchestra in a shul, we knew it was a bit of a gamble, but everyone was thrilled by the great atmosphere that it created.”

Farkas said this year’s concerts would have a new program and feature a mixture of chazanut, Israeli and Yiddish songs.

“There will be something for everyone,” he said, adding that the Melbourne concert has been billed as music from the shtetl to Jerusalem.

Shimon Farkas has been senior cantor at Central Synagogue since 1994, and also served as chazan at the shul from 1972-87. He was honoured in the 2008 Australia Day awards with an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the Jewish community.

Dr Sobol is a leading force in the world of Jewish liturgical music and a guest conductor of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Israel, he holds a doctoral degree in Jewish music and has written many arrangements for cantorial music.

Dr Sobol has worked with many prominent chazans from around the world, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic at the New York Metropolitan Opera — he is sometimes referred to as the “Jewish Placido Domingo”.

Earlier this year, Dr Sobol organised a special concert in Tel Aviv honouring four father-and-son teams of chazans from around the world, including Dov and Shimon.

Cantor Helfgot is the chief cantor of the Park East Synagogue in New York. Born in Israel, he spent his teenage years studying voice and nusach (the art of prayer) with the aim of becoming a chazan.

Helfgot has performed liturgical music in concerts around the world, including Russia, China, South Africa, Italy and Australia, where he is making his third visit.

The Melbourne concert is in honour of Rabbi Chaim Gutnick, who founded the Rabbinical Council of Victoria in 1967 and served as its president until his death in 2003.

The Sydney concert also features singing by Cantor Yehuda Niasoff, who performed at last year’s concert, and Ilan Kidron of the Potbelleez.

DANNY GOCS