Ben Apfelbaum

SHIR MADNESS SYDNEY JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL : A SHEER PLEASURE

 

Gary Holzman and his team have yet again done a superb job selecting the brilliant musicians for this festival which is now held every second year in Sydney.

The various performers sang songs and played music that had audiences dancing in the aisles, laughing at witty lyrics and patter, and being moved to tears by some piercingly emotional vocal artistry.

The one common denominator was that either the performers were Jewish or the music was Jewish – including songs composed by Jews- and occasionally the two paths merged with Jewish musicians performing Jewish melodies.

Running from 11am to 10pm the day started on a classical note with virtuoso pianist Simon Tedeschi accompanied by violist Roger Benedict playing romantic music by Schubert, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Jewish Viennese composer Hans Gal. Elena  Kats Chernin also graced the piano with her lovely original compositions given a more meaningful rendition due to the insightful explanations she  gave the audience before each piece. A highlight was a beautiful performance of a piece composed for her son’s wedding.

The rest of the day diverged into all forms of music imaginable. Headliners Nefesh Mountain played in separate performances  both to children and adults. Their combination of American Appalachian, bluegrass and Jewish traditional tunes. Quirky but it works. They played on two of the four stages available with one of the stages reserved for children.

Its hard to list all the acts and their virtues but for me these performances lingered in my mind : Alexis Fishman’s scatological  and funny Amy resurrected, Alma Zygier overcoming illness to deliver a raw emotional rendering of songs by Jewish composers of the twenties and thirties such as the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and the infectious Iraqi rhythms  led by cantor George Mordechai with narration by Geoff Sirmai.

The Janis Joplin type singing of Bonnie Love, the witty lyrics of Jude Perl, the joyous sounds of Ilan Kidron and Glass, Off the Stoop and Hello Tut Tut had the audience twirling in the aisles.

As is traditional with Shir Madness its climax is reached when some of the Festival’s musicians joined eleven Australian superstars to perform in the Song of Songs chorus. The chorus comprised Glenn Shorrock, Dami Im, Richard Clapton, Emma Pask, Josh Pyke, Hannah Joy, Nadav Kahn, Bek Jensen, Nefesh Mountain, Alexis Fishman and Dan Rosen who lead a rousing performance of Stand By Me.

I will be standing not by but in the line for the next Shir Madness festival in Sydney alas in two years time.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.