Music giant at Temple Beth Israel
Rosenzweig will present a lecture recital titled "Sounds of Resistance: Music of Courage and Defiance"
One of the leading figures in Jewish music in the United States, pianist and conductor Joyce Rosenzweig, is spending a week as scholar in residence at Temple Beth Israel in Melbourne, bringing with her decades of expertise in Yiddish, Ladino, Hebrew and Israeli song.
Rosenzweig, a professor at Hebrew Union College’s Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music in New York, has spent more than 35 years training the cantors of the liberal Jewish movements in America. She is also music director of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Manhattan, where she has served since 1994.
Her Melbourne visit was sparked by a reconnection with former student Cantor Michel Laloum, who graduated roughly 25 years ago and issued the invitation after the two had lost touch.
“I thought, who do I know in Australia?” Rosenzweig said. “I contacted him and said, Michel, do you remember me? I’d love to come to Australia. What do you think? And he goes, I’m signing you up now.”
The week includes workshops, choir rehearsals, Shabbat services and two public events.
On Thursday, March 26, Rosenzweig will present a lecture recital titled “Sounds of Resistance: Music of Courage and Defiance” at 7.30pm.
Drawing on Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino and English repertoire, she will explore music’s role in moments of fear and resistance, a theme she described as particularly timely given rising antisemitism worldwide.
On Saturday, March 28, she will feature in a concert and Havdalah service beginning at 7pm.
Rosenzweig is passionate about exposing Jewish audiences to the full breadth of their musical heritage, which she says extends far beyond the klezmer many associate with the tradition.
“There’s so much more, and they’ve just got to be exposed to it,” she said. “People are shocked.”
“Sounds of Resistance” event bookings: tbi.shulcloud.com/event/3-women-in-music
Saturday concert bookings: tbi.shulcloud.com/event/joyce-rosenzweig-concert
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