TORONTO JEWISH FOLK CHOIR TO PERFORM 85th SPRING CONCERT
The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir is soon to perform its 85th annual spring concert with guest artists Beyond The Pale and Winnipeg composer-pianist Sid Robinovitch.
Founded in 1925 primarily by immigrant garment workers, the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir is Canada’s longest continuing Jewish performance group. Designed to commemorate the original immigrant workers who founded the choir, its concert program features Robinovitch’s evocative suite In Amerike, with the composer on piano. Its lyrics are from the poem In Kanade (In Canada) by the late Montreal Yiddish poet Sholem Shtern.
The choir, with Lina Zemelman on piano, also performs a lively mix of music in Yiddish, Hebrew, English and more. Soloists are sopranos Miriam Eskin and Galina Kuznetsov, tenor Martin Houtman and bass Herman Rombouts. The Choir’s conductor is Alexander Veprinsky.
Posluns Auditorium at Baycrest, 3560 Bathurst St., north entrance, 2nd floor (wheelchair accessible). $25, $20; children 12 and under free. Sunday, May 15, 3 p.m. 416-789-5502, [email protected]. For information, please visit the website www.winchevskycentre.org/institutions/choir.html
Musical Notes
• Toronto singer-songwriter Donna Greenberg is joined by pianist Jordan Klapman and guitarist Tony Quarrington to perform a concert of jazz standards and Greenberg’s original tunes. Some of the proceeds will benefit the Lymphoma Research Fund at Princess Margaret Hospital. $12. Trane Studio, 964 Bathurst St. Tuesday, May 3, 8 p.m. Reservations, 416-913-8197.
• Active Seniors presents The Creation of Fiddler on the Roof and Songs We Love to Sing, featuring live piano and sing-along with Jordan Klapman. Miles Nadal JCC, Thursday, May 5, 1:30 p.m. 416-924 6211, ext. 155.
Arts in Brief
• Friends of the late Gerry Salsberg (1949-2010) are planning a celebration of his life and “his generous heart, remarkable talent, loving spirit and boundless wit and humour, and of course that wonderful voice!” Second City Theatre, 51 Mercer St. Sunday, May 1, 1 p.m.
• “The Life and Times of Yiddish” with Prof. Kalman Weiser. This series of talks explores the social history and origins of Yiddish. Miles Nadal JCC, May 5 to 26.
Thursdays, 7 to 8:30 p.m. $48. [email protected] or 416-924-6211, ext . 154.
• The deadline for submissions for the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition is Thursday, June 30. The prizes are $1,000 and a staged reading at the Miles Nadal JCC. Previous winners are Vern Thiessen (Einstein’s Gift), Don Molnar (Sara’s Cave) and Alex Poch Goldin (Yahrzeit). For more information, e-mail [email protected]
At the Galleries
• Pictures of Resistance – The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman features photos by the only known Jewish partisan to document the World War II partisan experience on film. Presented as part of the Contact Festival. Gallery at the Miles Nadal JCC, May 1 to 31. [email protected], 416-924-6211, ext. 262.
• Ten professional artists open their home studios to the public for the 14th annual Thornhill Visual Artists Tour & Sale, May 7 and 8. The artists create in a wide variety of styles and media including oil, acrylic, watercolour, mixed media and stone and clay. Visit www.thornhillva.com for gallery locations and hours.
• Bonhams of London, England is hosting an Israeli Art & Judaica auction next month. A featured piece is Marseille Port, a 1933 painting by Romanian-born Dadaist artist Marcel Janco that is expected to sell for a minimum of 120,000 British pounds (around $190,000). Janco moved to Israel in 1941 and established the artist village of Ein Hod in 1953. Other artists in the May 24 sale include Israel Hershberg, Ori Reisman, Jakob Steinhardt and Ludwig Blum. www.bonhams.com
