RE: Milken Archive of American Jewish Music

[Julie Unger <junger...>]

The Milken Family Foundation is pleased to announce the upcoming release of an 
important project that is sure to delight music lovers, the Jewish community 
and anyone interested in the American Jewish experience.

The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music (www.milkenarchive.org) is a vast 
panorama of the rich body of Jewish music, both sacred and secular, that has 
developed since the first Jews landed in America over 350 years ago.  The 
Milken Archive includes more than 600 recorded musical works by more than 200 
composers.   Fewer than 100 of these compositions appear to have been 
previously recorded by other companies for commercial release.

The recordings in the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music will be released 
and distributed by Naxos American Classics over a period of several years, with 
the first recordings to be released in September 2003.

All proceeds from the sale of the Milken Archive recordings and educational 
materials will be directed back into the Milken Archive's nonprofit programs in 
furtherance of educational and cultural goals.

For more information, please visit <www.milkenarchive.org>.

The Milken Archive repertoire ranges from classical art music for the concert 
hall, to more popular idioms for the theater and communal celebrations, to 
liturgical music for the synagogue and home.  Included are symphonies, 
concertos, solo and instrumental works inspired by Jewish themes; cantorial 
masterpieces and art songs; popular songs from the heyday of Yiddish theater 
and radio; complete synagogue services in the Orthodox, Conservative, and 
Reform traditions; operas, oratorios, and other dramatic works; "klezmer" and 
Hassidic-inspired music; music for holyday and life-cycle celebrations; songs 
of Zionism and social action; and a wide range of sacred compositions, from 
authentic Colonial-period prayers to contemporary settings in the idioms of 
Broadway and jazz.

In addition to such well-known figures as Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, 
Lukas Foss, Darius Milhaud, Shulamit Ran, Kurt Weill, and Lazar Weiner, to name 
only a few, there are young composers represented on these recordings who are 
finding their own voices; award-winning composers at the forefront of American 
musical life who are creating new works of Jewish significance; and older 
composers whose legacies have recently been "rediscovered."

In addition, the Milken Archive also includes the works of several non-Jewish 
composers who have been inspired by Jewish ideals or texts including Dave 
Brubeck, whose cantata, The Gates of Justice, explores the historic and 
spiritual parallels of Jews and African Americans, combining Hebrew biblical 
texts and the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., in a plea for brotherhood.

The international roster of renowned performing artists heard on the Milken 
Archive recordings includes conductors Yoel Levi, Sir Neville Marriner, Gerard 
Schwarz, and Joseph Silverstein; orchestras including the Academy of St. 
Martin-in-the-Fields, the Barcelona Symphony/National Orchestra of Catalonia, 
the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and 
the Seattle Symphony; instrumental soloists and chamber musicians including the 
Dave Brubeck Trio, Eliot Fisk, the Juilliard String Quartet, David Krakauer, 
Elmar Oliveira, and Richard Stoltzman; vocal artists such as John Aler, Phyllis 
Bryn-Julson, James Maddalena, Ana Maria Martínez, and Erie Mills; and choral 
ensembles including the BBC singers, the London Choral Society, the Ernest 
Senff Chor, and the Vienna Boys Choir.   These artists are joined by well-known 
theatrical personalities including Theodore Bikel, Tovah Feldshuh, and Fritz 
Weaver, who serve as narrators in several of the dramatic works.  

In November 2003, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Milken 
Archive of American Jewish Music will jointly sponsor an international 
conference-festival on American Jewish Music to take place in New York City on 
November 7-11, 2003.  Titled Only in America:  Jewish Music in a Land of 
Freedom, this five-day event, the first of its kind ever held, will feature 
both scholarly activities and musical performances and will herald the 350th 
anniversary of American Jewry to be observed in 2004.

For more information, please visit <www.milkenarchive.org>.

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