The Jewish Chorales Project is a collection of short vocal compositions for choir (SATB) with traditional and contemporary Jewish texts in Hebrew. The compositions are by Avi Albers Ben Chamo and include well-known chorales and pieces by J.S. Bach in German and Hebrew.
A few years ago, Avi discovered his ancestor, Rabbi Joseph Messas. Rabbi Messas, who came from a family of great rabbis in Morocco, was a progressive and open thinker of his time and tradition, who wrote Pjutim (liturgical Jewish music), and books. In the 1960s, Rabbi Messas was the Chief Rabbi in Avi's hometown of Haifa. At the same time, Avi was also very inspired by J.S. Bach's music. Especially Bach's chorales, which are often sung in churches. He found the possibility of combining religious texts with music fascinating. So the idea of composing chorales was born, but instead of working with Christian texts, Avi decided to use Jewish texts from different sources. The text selection focuses on humanistic aspects in Jewish religious and secular texts that deal with friendship, family and society. Even though the text is in Hebrew, the influence of Bach's music is of great importance since this project originated in Germany. It is a connection between Israel and Germany, Judaism and Christianity, Bach spirit and the Hebrew language.
Laura Barchetti - Soprano Helen Ispirian - Alto Yuval Halpern - Tenor Markus Teichmann- Bass
Choir conductor: Yuval Halpern