Beethoven in the Yiddish Imagination
|
Concert
In Partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Beethoven Celebration Admission: Free This program was live streamed on YIVO’s Facebook page. |
Ludwig van Beethoven, a figure emblematic of the peaks of Western culture, loomed large in the Yiddish imagination. From Yiddish translations of Ode to Joy by poets such as Y. L. Peretz and M. Rivesman, to biographies, novellas, poems, and stories written for children, there are ample testaments to Yiddish speaking Jewry's love for Beethoven.
Join us for two Facebook live streams celebrating Beethoven in the Yiddish imagination.
3:00pm EDT
A 3:00pm performance by baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and pianist Spencer Myer will feature Ode to Joy in Yiddish translation alongside An die ferne Geliebte, a song cycle Beethoven wrote setting to music poetry by German Jewish poet Alois Isidor Jeitteles.
4:00pm EDT
A 4:00pm live stream with actors Allen Lewis Rickman and Yelena Shmulenson showcases a bilingual dramatic reading of Bethovens levone sonate – a Yiddish children's story by Shloyme Bastomski retelling an apocryphal story of the origins of the Moonlight Sonata.
About the Performers
Allen Lewis Rickman is a Yiddish theater historian and translator as well as an actor, writer, and director. Acting credits include the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated A Serious Man, Barry Levinson's You Don't Know Jack (with Al Pacino), John Turturro's Fading Gigolo (with Woody Allen), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (as Red Skelton), recurring roles on Boardwalk Empire and Steven Spielberg’s Public Morals, Relatively Speaking on Broadway (with Marlo Thomas); and he has worked extensively Off Broadway, in regional theatre, and in Yiddish theatre. He co-adapted and directed the Drama Desk-nominated Yiddish Pirates of Penzance, and two other plays each for the Folksbiene and New Yiddish Rep. His translation of Zolotarevski’s Money, Love, and Shame! was produced in New York by the Target Margin company. Plays he’s written have been produced in France, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, Romania, and the U.S.; his co-written farce Off the Hook was published in French in L’Avant-Scene Theatre, and his revue The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum was published in the anthology Yiddishkeit, edited by the late Harvey Pekar.
Yelena Shmulenson is perhaps best known as the icepick-wielding Dora’ in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated film A Serious Man (with Mr. Rickman). Other film and TV credits: Orange is the New Black (Inmate Boyle’, recurring), Blue Bloods, Madame Secretary, The Knick, Boardwalk Empire (as Mrs. Manny Horvitz’), Chicago Med, Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish, and Chinese Puzzle (w/Audrey Tautou). Stage credits include The Golem of Havana (LaMama/Miami New Drama), The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum (Fringe/tour), two seasons at the Ellis Island Theatre, Covers, Knock, Old New Year with The Lost & Found Project, Tevye Served Raw (NYC) etc. She has also been a Yiddish coach/translator for numerous projects, has won three Earphones Awards for her recorded books (in English), and is fluent in five languages.
An active interpreter of Opera, Art Song and new music, Mario Diaz-Moresco is recognized for his versatility and stage presence.
Highlights this season include recitals with Pianist Spencer Myer at the Mendocino Music Festival and The Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck, numerous concerts with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, performances with John Musto and Amy Burton with the Cincinnati Song Initiative, Papageno with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Alwan in Sumeida’s Song with Opera Maine and performances of the music of Joan La Barbara and Alex Weiser at Roulette Intermedium.
Mr. Diaz-Moresco studied at the University of Colorado, the University of Southern California and most recently completed the Professional Studies Diploma program at Mannes The New School. He has been a young artist with Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, a Stern Fellow at SongFest and a Vocal Fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. Operatic roles include Papageno, Guglielmo, Schaunard, Malatesta, Orfeo, Mercutio, Morales, Sid and William in The Fall of the House of Usher by Philip Glass. Mr. Diaz-Moresco was a finalist in the 2019 Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition.
An active recitalist, his Art Song repertoire includes works by Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Beach, Poulenc, Duparc, Fauré, Ravel, Bolcom and Musto. In recent seasons Mr. Diaz-Moresco has given recitals with pianist Spencer Myer on California’s “InConcert Sierra” series, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society of Ohio, the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck and the Brooklyn Art Song Society. In 2018 Mr. Diaz-Moresco was a finalist in the Joy in Singing competition.
Passionate about new music, Mr. Diaz-Moresco has premiered Laura M. Kramer’s song cycle The Miracle of the Walking Fish, for voice and guitar, Julia Adolphe’s opera Sylvia and the song cycle The Wanderlusting of Joseph C., by Joan La Barbara. At the Glimmerglass Festival he covered the role of Bernard DeVoto in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck, and as a Stern Fellow at SongFest Mr. Diaz-Moresco premiered Ben Moore’s John and Abigail and sang the Baritone Soloist in Bernstein’s Songfest in a new arrangement for duo piano and percussion by John Musto. Mr. Diaz-Moresco is currently in his second cycle as a resident singer for American Opera Projects’ Composers & the Voice.
Other highlights include Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, playing the lead role in Robert Ashley’s Dust, which was named one of the best classical music performances of 2017 by the New York Times, and singing the baritone role in Hydrogen Jukebox at Chautauqua Opera, under maestro Steven Osgood. Recitals and concerts include a second appearance with the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago, singing in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert version of West Side Story, numerous appearances with the Brooklyn Art Song Society and a performance of The Wanderlusting of Joseph C. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Diaz-Moresco is a student of Diana Soviero.
Lauded for “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” by the Boston Globe, and labeled “definitely a man to watch” by London’s The Independent, American pianist Spencer Myer is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today’s concert stage.
Adding to his North American credentials, Spencer Myer includes in his current season debuts with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the Omaha and Mid-Texas Symphony Orchestras, the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra and Canada’s Windsor Symphony Orchestra, as well as return engagements with the Canton, Chattanooga and Richmond (IN) symphony orchestras. His solo recitals and chamber music collaborations take him throughout the United States, and he continues as half of the Daurov/Myer Duo, having teamed up with the award-winning cellist Adrian Daurov in 2012.
Spencer Myer’s orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with, among many others, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boise, Dayton, Evansville, Louisiana and Rhode Island philharmonic orchestras, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Altoona, Baton Rouge, Bozeman, Canton, Chattanooga, Duluth Superior, Flagstaff, Grand Junction, Indianapolis, Juneau, Knoxville, Longmont, Macon, Missoula, New Haven, Phoenix, Ridgefield, San Juan, Santa Fe, Springfield (MA, MO, OH), Traverse, Tucson and Wyoming symphony orchestras, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Ohio’s ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, New York City’s The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, South Africa’s Cape Town and Johannesburg philharmonic orchestras and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors David Bernard, Nicholas Cleobury, Kayoko Dan, David Danzmayr, Robert Franz, Neal Gittleman, Bernhard Gueller, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Dirk Meyer, Elliot Moore, Timothy Muffitt, Maurice Peress, Kyle Wiley Pickett, Arthur Post, Kevin Rhodes, Lucas Richman, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia, Klauspeter Seibel, Steven Smith, Gerald Steichen, Arjan Tien, Peter Stafford Wilson and Victor Yampolsky. His 2005 recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, followed by return orchestra and recital tours in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018.
Spencer Myer’s recital appearances have been presented in New York City’s Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and London’s Wigmore Hall, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago). An in-demand chamber musician, he has appeared the past five summers at the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival in Dallas with cellists Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Amit Peled, Tom Landschoot and Brian Thornton, and has enjoyed a recurring partnership with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. Other artistic partners include clarinetist David Shifrin, sopranos Nicole Cabell, Martha Guth and Erin Wall, the Jupiter and Pacifica string quartets and the Dorian Wind Quintet.
Spencer Myer’s career was launched with three important prizes: First Prize in the 2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association and the Gold Medal from the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition. He is also a laureate of the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland and 2005 Busoni international piano competitions. He enjoys an esteemed reputation as a vocal collaborator since winning the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition. Mr. Myer was a member of Astral Artists’ performance roster from 2003-2010.
An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Spencer Myer has served as a guest faculty at the Oberlin and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatories of Music, and in the fall of 2015, he was appointed Artist-Teacher of Piano and Collaborative Piano at Boston’s Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Spencer Myer’s debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - solo music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007 to critical acclaim by Fanfare and Gramophone magazines. He can also be heard on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo’s Chamber Concerto Cycle and in a performance of Ravel’s Chansons madecasses, included on “Intimate Masterpieces,” a 2013 CD featuring faculty and alumni of the Oberlin Conservatory and issued by Oberlin Music. Mr. Myer’s most recent recordings—”Bolcom: Selected Rags” and the Brahms Cello Sonatas with Brian Thornton—were both released in January 2017 on the Steinway & Sons label.
Spencer Myer is a Steinway Artist.