UPDATE JAN. 10: The public cast nearly 17,000 votes for the Top 12 Jewish Star Talent Search finalists! Amazingly, there was a tie in the 14-18 age bracket – so there are SEVEN Jewish Star Grand Prize winners! 14-18 Bracket winners: Ellie Fern (Scottsdale, AZ), Andrew Goldstein (McKinney, TX), Noah Levine (Austin, TX), Marc Luban…
This summer, Portlanders have two ways to experience the music of teacher, storyteller and musician Kim Schneiderman, who has spent the past 15 years singing, creating and making music with young families. Kim recently released a new album, “Walk Around the Block.” Additionally she will perform in concert at 5 pm, July 16, on the…
Sometimes growing up Jewish in a small town can be an isolating experience, but not for Gabe Young. The 18-year-old senior from Ashland, who begins his second year as a member of the prestigious National Youth Orchestra this summer, credits his small, vibrant Jewish community for giving him a strong, self- confident Jewish identity. “I…
The Oregon Symphony welcomes pianist Emanuel Ax. Ax has an unusual double feature: he plays Johan Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Keyboard in D minor, BWV 1052, alongside Richard Strauss’ Burleske for Piano and Orchestra with the Oregon Symphony on Jan. 11-13. Ax combines unsurpassed musicianship with a self-effacing, almost diffident approach to making music, whether…
Israel is in mourning. On Nov. 26 Arik Einstein died at the age of 74. And I honestly think Israel has died a little too. Arik Einstein was part of my reason for coming here and making Aliyah. He was a nuanced symbol of the Israel I so loved in the early ’70s. I didn’t…
The Jerusalem Quartet, among the best-known of Israel’s chamber music ensembles, is one of the world’s most highly regarded string quartets. The Strad magazine calls it “one of the young, yet great quartets of our time.” Several years ago, violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violist Ori Kam and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov embarked on a…
Thanks to the TV show “Portlandia,” Oregonians west of the Cascades are now famous for their highly developed food sensibilities, militant bike activism, flowing long gray hair and ever-intensifying addictions to locally produced artisan coffees, oh-so-perfect pinots and craft beers. What “Portlandia hasn’t touched on – yet (hint) – is the amount of buzz generated…
He’s a klezmer violin virtuoso, a composer, an arranger, a filmmaker, the author of 13 books, a playwright and a photographer, and he has conducted original ethno-graphic and musical research in Eastern Europe. In short, Yale Strom is a one-man walking Jewish cultural storehouse. Strom started his multifaceted love affair with Jewish culture in the…
