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Remember, Revere, Rejoice

Essential Voices USA
Judith Clurman, conductor

Coleman Itzkoff, cello
James Cunningham, piano

Catalog #: TROY1939
Release Date: May 14, 2023
Format: Digital
Choral

This DIGITAL ONLY recording embraces the highs and lows of Jewish life – the Holocaust (Remember), a psalm setting (Revere), and love poetry and joy (Rejoice). Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. EVUSA boasts a talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project. They have appeared at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and on NPR’S Tiny Desk Concerts. Their recordings include “America at Heart,” “Appalachian Stories,” “Celebrating the American Spirit,” “Cherished Moments,” “Cradle Hymn,” “Holiday Harmonies,” “Rejoice! Honoring the Jewish Spirit,” “May You Heal,” “Washington Women,” “Winter Harmonies,” and “Words Matter.” Conductor Judith Clurman conducts Essential Voices USA, and the Singing Tree Float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Her work has received Emmy and Grammy nominations and she has collaborated with the major classical orchestras and conductors of the world. She was Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School for 18 years and a faculty member for the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute in Classical Music and Opera. Judith currently teaches private and ensemble voice at the Manhattan School of Music.

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Track Listing

Title Composer Performer
Uner Dayne Vayse Shtern Avron Brudno, arr. Bill Cutter Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor); James Cunningham (piano)
To Be Alive Mark Broder, arr. Bill Cutter Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor); James Cunningham (piano)
Adonai Roi Daniel & Nina Faia Mutlu Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor); James Cunningham (piano)
Winter is Past Joseph N. Rubinstein Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor)
Dodi Li Steve Sher, arr. Brant Adams Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor); James Cunningham (piano); Coleman Itzkoff (cello)
Siman Tov Traditional, arr. Bill Cutter Essential Voices USA; Judith Clurman (conductor); James Cunningham (piano)

ESSENTIAL VOICES USA
Joseph Beutel, Phillip Cheah, Wendy Gilles, Chole Holgate, Elizabeth Lang, Steven Moore, Nicholas Prior, Gregory Purnhagen, Elisa Singer Strom, Jason Weisinger, Katherine Wessinger-Bozic
Margery Daley, choral contractor

Recorded October 27, 2022 at Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Astoria NY
Session Producer & Engineer Silas Brown
Assistant Engineer Grady Bajorek

Cover design by Michael Gaudet
Notes by Judith Clurman

Further Information:
Bill Cutter (Visit Website)
Coleman Itzkoff, cello (Visit Website)

All music heard on this recording is published by Hal Leonard.

Artist Information

Choir Essential Voices USA performing with a string quartet

Essential Voices USA

Ensemble

Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. EVUSA performs in many of the city’s iconic venues and events, and records and premieres works by America’s finest composers and lyricists. The ensemble is comprised of talented, seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project. EVUSA held a month-long residency at National Public Radio, performed for many years with The New York Pops in its Carnegie Hall subscription series, performed on NBC’s July 4th Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular, and at the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting and participated in President Obama’s Inaugural activities. On July 4, 2022, they performed Washington Women, the choral cycle they commissioned, on the National Public Radio Tiny Desk Concerts. They have recently performed in educational programs in the New York City schools. The group has produced The Composer Speaks at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and has premiered works and collaborated with America’s finest composers.

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Judith Clurman - Portrait

Judith Clurman

Conductor

Judith Clurman, conductor and music director of Essential Voices USA, is equally at home with repertoire from the classical canon to the American Songbook, musical theater, and contemporary compositions. She is the musical director and conductor for Essential Voices USA, conducts the Macy’s Choir in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, teaches singing at the Manhattan School of Music, and edits music for Hal Leonard and Schott. She previously directed The New York Concert Singers. She has worked with many of the world’s finest symphonies at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and has commissioned and conducted new works by over seventy composers.

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Notes

Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern
(Under Your White Stars)

During World War II, the Nazis established a ghetto in Vilna, the capital city of Lithuania. When permitted, artists – musicians, painters, writers, and performers – did their best to remain creative while in the ghetto. Composer Avrom Brudno had written musical revues for this ghetto, and worked with poet Avraham Sutzkever on this poignant song, “Unter Dayne Vayse Shertn.”   Sutzkever’s words are a description of the poet’s agony. He describes the murder around him and talks directly to God, asking where God is.  The choral arrangement, by Boston based composer/arranger Bill Cutter, was commissioned in 2022 by Essential Voice USA.

Avraham Sutzkever (1913-2010) escaped the ghetto in 1943, joined a partisan fighter’s unit, and took refuge in freezing waters and in the forest. In 1946, he was called as a witness at the Nuremberg Trails and in 1947, he emigrated to Israel, where he continued to write in Yiddish and champion the Yiddish language. He was the first Yiddish writer to win the prestigious Israel Prize for literature and the New York Times referred to him as “The greatest post of the Holocaust.”  Brudno perished in the Estonian concentration camp Klooga.

To Be Alive (Birdsong)
“To Be Alive (Birdsong),” by Mark Broder, was originally written as a solo song, for soprano and piano. The choral arrangement, commissioned by Essential Voices USA, was written by Bill Cutter in 2022. Composer Mark Broder writes: “When we were students at The Juilliard School, my friend Judith Clurman brought the collection of poetry called ‘I Never Saw another Butterfly,’ poems written by children in Terezin concentration camp, to my attention and suggested I set some of the poems to music. As I read through the book, I was deeply moved by the simple, heartfelt expressions of these children who lived under appalling conditions, most of whom would be put to death. Despite their dire circumstances, the children often affirmed their belief in the goodness and beauty of life and their innocent trust that they would eventually return to their homes. I was especially moved by the poem ‘Birdsong’ and I thought it lent itself to a musical setting because I could hear a melody in my mind as I read it.”

Adonai Roi
Psalm 23 is one of the psalms of consolation, traditionally sung at Jewish funerals and memorials. The Hebrew text ascribed to King David, utilizes pastoral symbolism to portray God as our protector and caretaker, even in the valley of the shadow of death. Composers Daniel Mutlu and Nina Faia Mutlu have written: “The 23rd Psalm remains one of the most comforting texts to those who are afflicted with pain, loss and grief. We wrote a melody that evokes the ‘still waters’ expressed by the psalmist. We paired the music with an English translation that underscores the main comforting theme in the psalm: overcoming fear despite darkness in our lives.”

Winter Is Past
Composer Joseph N. Rubinstein writes: “Re-encountering this passage from the Song of Solomon in the summer of 2022, I was struck by its hopeful message. It is about coming out of darkness and into the light, about finding joy after a time of trial. Those feelings felt apt for that summer, following as it did the hard pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. In my setting, I wanted to express a sense of relief and optimism.”

Dodi Li
Composed in 1979, Steven Sher’s “Dodi Li” melody is simple and heartfelt. The text, adapted from The Song of Songs (2:16, 3:6), is a setting of one of the most beautiful Hebrew love texts. The words have been Interpreted by the rabbis as love between God and the Jewish people, and the erotic love poetry became a staple of Jewish rituals for the Sabbath and Passover. The song has been performed in concerts and weddings throughout the world, and recorded by the prominent American folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary. Judith Clurman commissioned Brant Adams to write this choral arrangement of Steve Sher’s melody for mixed voices, piano and cello, for the wedding of her son Ari Ruben to Alexandra Ross on August 2, 2020, in New York City. She dedicated the arrangement to them in the Hal Leonard choral publication. The COVID pandemic prevented a choir singing so we used Brant’s accompaniment and premiered the work with one solo voice.

Siman Tov
The folk melody “Siman Tov,” was written in Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, and performed by Ashkenazic Jews The song wishes someone well and is primarily performed at life cycle moments like birth, bar mitzvot, and weddings. At these pivotal moments, fraught with potential as well as anxiety, the song invokes the ancient hope for a good omen to ensure that our fate will be positive. This arrangement by Bill Cutter was commissioned by Essential Voices USA.

EVUSA thanks the Michael H. Baker Family Foundation and individual contributors for making this recording possible. Judith Clurman thanks these individuals for their help in obtaining the permission for the use of Avraham Sutzkever’s poem, “Unter Dayne Vayse Shertn” – Zachary Baker and Rukhl Schaechter in the United States and Bella Bryks-Klein in Israel, who helped us locate Hadas Kalderon, the granddaughter of Abraham Sutzkever. Judith thanks Yiddish coach Paula Teitelbaum for her expert assistance.

Texts

Unter dayne vayse shtern shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant.
Mayne verter zaynen trern, viln ruen in dayn hant.

Ze, es tunklt zeyer finkl
in mayn kelerdikn blik.
Un ikh hob gornisht keyn vinkl zey tsu shenken dir tsurik.

Un ikh vil dokh, Got getrayer, dir fartroyen mayn farmeg.
Vayl es mont in mir a fayer un in fayer may-ne teg.

Nor in kelern un lekher veynt di merderishe ru.
Loyf ikh hekher, iber dekher un ikh zukh: vu bistu, vu?

Unter dayne vayse shtern shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant.
Mayne verter zaynen trern viln ruen in dayn hant.

Under Your white stars
Extend your white hand to me.
My words are tears,
Wanting to rest in Your Hand.
See, they twinkle very darkly As I glance from my cellar. And I have no place
To give them back to you.
And I want to, dear God, my true one,
To entrust my wordly goods to you.
For in my heart there grows a fire
And my days are in that fire.
I run over cellars, in holes
The murderous stillness weeps,
I run higher, over rooftops
And I search: Where are You, where?
Under Your white stars
Extend Your white hand to me.
My words are tears,
That want to rest in Your hand.

–
by Avraham Sutzkever
Translation © by Zachary Baker Used with permission
Yiddish text used and printed with permission from the Sutzkever family

He doesn’t know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn’t go out.
He doesn’t know what (the) birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.

When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth’s aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.

Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You’ll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.

–
Poem: Anonymous ca. 1941
Used with permission – from The Jewish Museum in Prague.

Adonai roi lo echsar. binot deshe yarbitzeini, al mei m’nuchot y’nahaleini. Nafshi y’shoveiv, yancheini v’mag’lei tzedek, l’maan sh’mo.Gam ki eileich b’gei tzalmavet, lo ira ra, ki atah imadi.

God is my shepherd;
I lack nothing.
God lays me down in green pastures;
God leads me beside tranquil waters.
God renews my soul,
God guides me in right paths for the sake of God’s name.
Though I walk through a valley overshadowed by death,
I fear no harm, for You are with me,
Your rod and Your staff – they comfort me.
My cup is full,
You are right here,
Walking through darkness,
I will not fear;
You are my shepherd.
Holding me so near.
Walking through darkness
I will not fear.

–
English Adaptation by Daniel Mutlu and Nina Faia Mutl

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear upon the earth,
The time of the singing of birds is come.

–
from The Song of Solomon 2:10-12

Dodi li vaani lo, haroeh, bashoshanim dodi li
Mizot olah, min hamidbar, min hamidbar.
Dodi li va-ani lo, haro-eh, bashoshanim dodi li
M’kuteret mor, mor ul’vonah, ul’vonah dodi li.
Dodi li va-ani lo, haroeh, hashoshanim dodi li.

My beloved is mine, and I am his, who feeds among the lilies.
Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness…
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?

–
from The Song of Songs 2:16, 3:6

Siman tov u’mazal tov, u’mazal tov v’siman tov.Y’hei lanu, ul’chol Yisraeil.

May we and all Israel be blessed with a good sign and good luck.

Reviews

  • “

    Throughout Remember, Revere, Rejoice one hears a polished vocal ensemble, elegant and thoughtful arrangements, and fresh musical ideas. The liner notes and translations help the listener better understand each selection. Remember, Revere, Rejoice is a wonderful album of the choral art. Listening to the barely 18 minutes of well-performed and well-crafter choral music, this writer wishes there was more music on it!

    – The Jewish Post & Opinion

*Album cover provided for Editorial use only. ©Albany Records. The Albany Imprint is a registered trademark of PARMA Recordings LLC. The views and opinions expressed in this media are those of the artist and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views and opinions held by PARMA Recordings LLC and its label imprints, subsidiaries, and affiliates.