Concert: Cantata Singers

Cantata Singers concludes its 53rd season with a program of music exploring Jewish history, culture, and music on Friday, May 12, 2017 at 8pm in Jordan Hall. Paired with Arthur Honegger’s dramatic psalm King David, Cantata Singers will present Yehudi Wyner’s Torah Service alongside Yiddish art songs and choruses by his father, Lazar Weiner, works rarely heard on the concert stage.

A pre-concert Shabbat dinner, open to all, begins at 6:30pm to contextualize the evening’s program. This event allows people of all faiths to learn about the Jewish customs that are the framework for some of the music featured on the program, while also allowing observant Jews to attend the program on the Sabbath. Rabbi Audrey Berkman will lead the dinner, and it will be held at the Huntington Avenue YMCA at 316 Huntington Avenue in Boston. The dinner is supported in part by Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Arts Collaborative. Please note that registration is required to attend the Shabbat dinner, and is available online or by calling 617.868.5885.

ABOUT CANTATA SINGERS

A singular desire to bring to Boston’s listeners music that isn’t being heard anywhere else has inspired Cantata Singers’ programming for 53 years. J.S. Bach’s music, from the cantatas to the B-minor Mass to the Passions, remains an essential part of Cantata Singers’ repertoire. However, the ensemble’s repertoire has expanded to include music from the 17th century to today. Cantata Singers has commissioned 14 works for choir and orchestra—including one that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music—and has presented more than fifty Boston premieres of music both old and new.

Cantata Singers has always focused on the music—be it by Bach, Verdi, Harbison, or Pärt—and its audiences do, too. Our audiences return year after year to hear fresh visions of iconic music, or an intriguing unfamiliar work that is—in fact—quite approachable. Each Cantata Singers concert is often surprising, sometimes challenging, always beautiful, and ultimately inspiring.