"Kabbalah Music" CD Concert Art Exhibit

[Laura Wetzler <laura...>]

Please pass the word. Thanks! Maggie Sash, for Nervy Girl Records
LauraWetzler.com

Angelamilner.com
For Immediate Release. Photos, sound clips and graphics at above websites.
Contact: Maggie Sash Associates, (413) 634-5617 161 W. 61St  Suite 35C, NYC 
10023
info (at) laurawetzler(dot)com and info (at) angelamilner(dot)com

  ?Kabbalah Music? CD Release Concert & Art Exhibit
Sisters Explore Jewish Mysticism through Music and Painting

Laura Wetzler in ?Kabbalah Music: Songs of the Jewish Mystics? Sunday, 
March 9, 3pm at The Merkin Concert Hall, 129 W.67th St., NYC. Tickets  $25. 
Call Box Office:(212) 501-3330, Special Guests: Alicia Svigals, violin (of 
the Klezmatics,) Amir Chehade & Robin Burdulis, mideast percussion; Scott 
Wilson, kanun; Maurice Chedid, oud.
Set Design and Art Exhibit by Angela Milner.
In conjunction, ?Kabbalah Music: Encaustic Paintings by Angela Milner? The 
Merkin Concert Hall Gallery, 129 W.67th St. NYC. March 9-April 1. Post 
?Kabbalah Music? concert reception and art opening in gallery. Gallery 
hours by appointment thereafter: (212) 307-1385.


Laura Wetzler?s new CD, ?Kabbalah Music: Songs of the Jewish Mystics, 
Meditations, Devotions and Ecstasies, New and Old, From Around the World? 
is based on 4000 years of writings by great Jewish mystics, and features 
both traditional Jewish songs from communities around the world and new 
music by Laura Wetzler. Sung in Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, Ladino 
(Judeo-Spanish) and English, Kabbalah Music celebrates traditional mystical 
imagery from the Torah, the Zohar, the Hechalot poets, Ibn Ezra, Gerondi, 
the "Ari," Najara, Alkabetz, Labi, Shabazi, Nachman of Bratzlav, Levi 
Yitzak of Berdichev, Sarah Bas Toivim, and others, set to music from Jewish 
communities in Uganda, Italy, India, Spain, Yemen, Iraq, Greece, Morocco, 
Eastern- Europe and the U.S.. The Kabbalah Music CD has turned into a 
critical success and surprise ?cross-over? hit, making many Top 10 world 
music charts and is currently receiving airplay on over 600 radio stations 
internationally. Available at stores and from amazon.com; cdbaby.com; 
jewishmusic.com, soundswrite.com, and hatikvahmusic.com

The ?Kabbalah Music? CD release concert of exciting, world-beat Jewish 
meditation music will have a backdrop of large 7? by 7? paintings created 
especially for this event by her sister, artist Angela Milner. In addition, 
there will be a ?Kabbalah Music? art exhibit by Milner, on-site, in the 
Merkin Concert Hall Gallery. Laura and Angela grew up in North Babylon, 
Long Island, New York. Their mother, Rosalie, was a professional musician 
working in Jewish music. Their father, Rudi, was a businessman and survivor 
of Nazi Germany. This event is a unique collaboration by two sisters, a 
musician and a painter, who are working together in the esoteric realm of 
Jewish mysticism.

Laura Wetzler, ASCAP Award winning singer, composer, recording artist, and 
ethnic folklorist, tours internationally in over 150 concerts and lectures 
each year, singing original music, world Jewish roots music in Hebrew, 
Yiddish, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and the great classics of American 
song. Laura began singing Jewish music professionally at the age of 15. She 
has composed for independent film, television, and her debut, 
critically-acclaimed contemporary American folk CD, Songwriter?s Notebook, 
recent single, To Save A Life, and new Kabbalah Music CD?s are heard on 
radio stations around the world. Laura has shared stages with such artists 
as Pete Seeger, Dave Mallet, Odetta, Richie Havens, The Klezmatics, and 
many others. Meticulous research goes into creating her 24 different 
concert programs, including Songwriter?s Notebook, Kabbalah Music,  Music 
of the Jews of Italy,  American Hitmakers, Laura Wetzler and Janiece 
Thompson in Jewels of the Diaspora: A Celebration of African-American and 
Jewish Song, and A World of Jewish Music, among others. Laura recently 
returned from a concert and song-sharing visit with Jewish communities in 
Mbale, Uganda and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  ?Top 10 World Music Charts? Toronto Radio      ?Top 10 World Music 
Charts? WSIA, NYC
"Laura is one of the very best" Pete 
Seeger                     ?Captivating with Kabbalah? The Jewish Ledger
?A fascinating new album?vastly impressive?superb performances...a major 
achievement.? Robert Sherman, of The New York Times, WFUV
??pure vocal ecstasy!? Jewish Entertainment Resources    ?An amazingly 
gifted, singer, songwriter and ethnic folklorist.? David Amram
??Kabbalah Music? is one of the best albums of new Jewish music in the past 
decade and establishes Wetzler in the forefront of the rich, exciting 
renaissance of contemporary Jewish music. Laura does a terrific job of 
presenting a focused, coherent overview of Jewish music?s span and scope?a 
masterful work of folklore and scholarship, as well as a beautifully 
performed work of original, traditional-based music ? Seth Rogovoy, Author, 
The Essential Klezmer, WAMC Public Radio        ?What glorious 
singing!?exciting, up-beat, joyous,? Workman?s Circle, NYC

Angela Milner?s latest art work is inspired by the teachings of the Jewish 
mysticism, introduced to her by her sister, Laura, who asked Milner to 
design the Kabbalah Music CD cover. For the Kabbalah Music set design and 
art exhibit, Milner explores several aspects of philosophical kabbalah 
through colorful, expressive works, referencing Jewish mystical concepts 
such as the sephirot, (or Tree of 10 Divine emanations), tzeruf, (Hebrew 
letter meditations), shemoth and shiviti (various Hebrew names for G-d 
placed as Jewish meditation and prayer focus points). Working from her 
Brooklyn studio in D.U.M.B.O., Milner uses the ancient process of encaustic 
painting as her medium, created by combining beeswax, color pigment and 
varnish. The rich waxy surfaces achieved with encaustic painting creates a 
wonderful rendezvous between process and thought, well suited to this 
mystical theme.                 "visually exciting..... the inventiveness, 
spontaneity and movement
of Abstract Expressionism is retained, but added objects expand meaning." 
Phyllis Braff, The New York Times
?fragments of perception make up a composite of organic and mechanistic 
elements, commenting on the dual
and sometimes conflicting aspects of modern life." Helen A. Harrison, The 
New York Times
"...creates a sense of the romantic and poetic and engages the viewer in 
new ways of reflecting on the world." Elizabeth Wix, Newsday
"Angela Milner manipulates paint in a misty, poetic manner to create 
abstract canvases infused with a ?Turneresque?
sense of light and rugged textures. "Martin Parsons, Artspeak