Adath Jeshurun

40th Anniver­sary Adath Jeshu­run Music Festival

Sun­day, March 13, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Gema­tria: Trea­sures of Jew­ish Music

• Buy tick­ets online
• Event Infor­ma­tion
• Does One Have to Be Jew­ish to Write Jew­ish Music? by Can­tor Lipp
• Chil­dren & Teen Art Expres­sion Project Details: Each of Us Has a Name
• Tra­di­tion and Change in ‘Gema­tria’ AJ’s Music Fes­ti­val by Can­tor Lipp
• Voces Novae



At 7:00PM Sun­day, March 13, 2011 the audi­to­rium at Louisville’s Con­gre­ga­tion Adath Jeshu­run will be filled with the sounds of an eclec­tic Music Fes­ti­val per­for­mance named “Gema­tria: Trea­sures of Jew­ish Music.” To cel­e­brate the 155-year old synagogue’s 40th annual Music Fes­ti­val, Louisville’s unique, semi-professional, 70-member choral ensem­ble, Voces Novae, (Latin for “new voices”) will per­form a third time at the annual Music Fes­ti­val, con­ducted by its found­ing Artis­tic Direc­tor, Frank A. Heller, III. Voces Novae has been together as an ensem­ble for 18 years.

Dur­ing the evening’s unusual pre­sen­ta­tion of many diverse styles of music, a quin­tet com­prised of Louisville Orches­tra mem­bers, past and present, will per­form local com­poser Jeremy Beck’s World Pre­miere of “Each of Us Has a Name,” a piece inspired by the Israeli poet, Zelda.

Adath Jeshurun’s Can­tor David Lipp said, “I was deeply moved by the recent doc­u­men­tary, ‘Music Makes A City’, about the many pieces of music com­mis­sioned over the years for the Louisville Orches­tra. I have since wanted to find a way to re-create what that meant to Louisville in gen­er­at­ing diverse sup­port for a vital insti­tu­tion. As a result I con­tacted and com­mis­sioned Jeremy to use Zelda’s inspi­ra­tion to bring us all a spe­cial, musi­cal moment.”

To fur­ther sup­ple­ment the mean­ing and impact of this mov­ing selec­tion, chil­dren from Jew­ish and sec­u­lar com­mu­ni­ties are being invited to cre­ate and sub­mit art­work inspired by Zelda’s poem. If selected, their art­work will be placed on display.

Addi­tional high­lights of this spe­cial cel­e­bra­tory evening will include the choir’s mov­ing regional pre­mier per­for­mance of a work writ­ten for the new Con­ser­v­a­tive High Hol­i­day prayer book, Mah­zor Lev Shalem.

Can­tor Lipp will per­form with Can­tor Sharon Hordes, along with the com­bined Junior and Adult Choirs com­prised of singers from local syn­a­gogues. Can­tor Lipp added, “Music is the food of the soul and I hope this feast of Jew­ish music will sate the artis­tic appetites of all who ben­e­fit by being part of a very excit­ing evening.”

Both the num­ber 18 and the num­ber 40 have spe­cial mean­ing. Gema­tria is a Jew­ish sys­tem of numerol­ogy in which Hebrew let­ters are assigned numer­i­cal val­ues which allow for inter­pre­tive mean­ing to be derived. The num­ber 18 is asso­ci­ated with Hebrew let­ters that spell the word “chai” mean­ing “life.” The num­ber 40 is often Bib­li­cally under­stood as the span of a gen­er­a­tion of years.

Tick­ets for “Gema­tria: Trea­sures of Jew­ish Music” are $12.50 in advance, $15.00 at the door. Seniors and stu­dents’ tick­ets are $10.00. Tick­ets may be pur­chased online at http://2011ajmusicfestival.eventbrite.com. Those pur­chas­ing online may print their own tick­ets; oth­ers may pick up tick­ets at will-call the evening of the Music Fes­ti­val. Tick­ets will not be mailed.

This will be the 9th con­sec­u­tive year the AJ Music Fes­ti­val is under­writ­ten by the Adolf and Sara van der Walde and Israel Rosen­bloum Char­i­ta­ble Fund.

Chil­dren and Teen Art Expres­sion Project for the 2011 Adath Jeshu­run Music Festival

Earn a FREE ticket & have over 700 peo­ple view your art!

WHO: Grades 3 — 12

WHAT: Cre­ate a piece of art from any medium that expresses your per­sonal inter­pre­ta­tion of Zelda’s poem “Each of Us Has a Name.”

WHERE: Accepted entries will be dis­played at the 2011 AJ Music Fes­ti­val and the first 40 artists will receive a com­pli­men­tary ticket to the concert.

WHEN: The 40th Anniver­sary of the Adath Jeshu­run Music Fes­ti­val is on Sun­day, March 13, 2011.

WHY: To learn about art, cul­ture and expres­sion. As part of the Fes­ti­val, a world pre­miere of a new piece by local com­poser Jeremy Beck based on his inter­pre­ta­tion of this poem will be per­formed by mem­bers of the Louisville Orchestra.

HOW: Cre­ate a piece of art in any medium you wish. All entries must be sub­mit­ted to the Adath Jeshu­run office located at 2401 Wood­bourne Ave., Louisville, KY 40205, no later than Tues­day, March 1, 2011 to be con­sid­ered. Artists will be noti­fied by March 8th if their work will be dis­played at the reception.

Con­tact: Carre Tucker, AJ’s Event Coor­di­na­tor, with ques­tions at (502) 458‑5359 or ctucker@adathjeshurun.com.

Each of Us Has a Name

by Zelda

a.k.a. Zelda Schneer­son Mishkovsky, 20th cen­tury Hebrew Poet
Trans­lated from the Hebrew by Mar­cia Falk & Copied from Mah­zor Lev Shalem, the new Con­ser­v­a­tive Jew­ish Prayer Book for the High Holidays

Each of us has a name
given by the Source of Life
and given by our parents

Each of us has a name
given by our stature and our smile
and given by what we wear

Each of us has a name
given by the moun­tains
and given by our walls

Each of us has a name
given by the stars
and given by our neighbors

Each of us has a name
given by our sins
and given by our longing

Each of us has a name
given by our ene­mies
and given by our love

Each of us has a name
given by our cel­e­bra­tions
and given by our work

Each of us has a name
given by the sea­sons
and given by our blindness

Each of us has a name
given by the sea
and given by
our death

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