“A masterfully performed and recorded selection of Jewish art music.”

Dr. Zisl Slepovitch
Musician-in-residence
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale

“Schenkman and Pomerantz capture the yearning of the Jewish spirit as it peers out through the windows of classical art song…invites the listener into the deeper mysteries of the Jewish soul.”

Matt Austerklein
Cantor and musicologist, Beyond the Music

“A brilliant mosaic of the Jewish musical experience in all its variety and splendor…each song is a gem.”

Gloria J. Ascher
Associate Professor Emerita, International Literary and Cultural Studies, Judeo-Spanish, Tufts University

“Wide-ranging repertory, insightfully presented…Warmly recommended!”

Joel Bresler
Publisher, www.sephardicmusic.org

Even in living memory, the locus of Jewish classical music has not always been Israel or the United States of America. Today, Acis is proud to release ART SONGS OF THE JEWISH DIASPORA, a new album of songs performed by Ian Pomerantz (bass-baritone), Byron Schenkman (piano), and Sarah Freiberg (cello).

The album is “a story of stories”. It uncovers a treasury of Jewish art song through which the diversity of the diaspora experience, and the lives, countries, and compositional styles of many overlooked composers is celebrated. Many of the songs have not been recorded in the digital age and have survived only in archives up until now. Amongst them, there is queer, female, refugee, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi representation.

Pomerantz and Schenkman’s research and performance project is one of the heart, and the album has been years in the making. It features nineteen works written by ten composers, with songs in six languages, together with piano and cello solo tracks. The liner notes come with modern translations and biographical details deepened through new research and the cooperation of surviving family members and their estates.

Streaming now.

#artsong
#jewishdiaspora