About this Event
This concert presents selections from Salamone Rossi’s compositions—vocal music in Italian and Hebrew as well as instrumental works from the 1620s—together with world-premiere performances of three songs by Israeli composer Oded Zehavi set to poetry by Leone Modena.
Rebecca Cypess is the founder and director of the Raritan Players, known for their acclaimed past performances at the Italian Academy: and .
The Raritan Players
Ian Pomerantz, Bass-Baritone
Dongmyung Ahn, Violin
Gersh Chervinsky, Violin
Charles Weaver, Theorbo
Rebecca Cypess, Harpsichord
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Salamone Rossi’s Hebrew compositions, Ha-Shirim Asher Li-Shlomo (The Songs of Solomon, 1622–23), were published together with two lengthy essays by the rabbi, cantor, and community leader Leone Modena: one preface justifying the use of polyphonic music in synagogue and another outlining how and why Rossi wrote the Shirim. Rossi, a Jewish composer and string player active in the musically innovative city of Mantua, sought to bring to the synagogue the same musical creativity that he offered to the ducal court of the Gonzaga family and the city at large. As Modena explained, Rossi’s Shirim constituted an effort to reclaim the art of music as practiced by the Jews in the ancient Temple and breathe new life into it for Mantua’s vibrant and musically active Jewish community.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
The Raritan Players offer “incomparable musicianship” (Early Music America) and playing that is “as ravishing as it is fascinating” (Classical Music).
Rebecca Cypess is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. A historical keyboardist and scholar, she frequently presents recitals and lecture-recitals based on her current research, with recent performances at venues such as the American Philosophical Society, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Center for Jewish History, Duke University’s collection of historical instruments, the “Chamber Music Live” series at Queens College, and many others. In addition to her work as a performer, Cypess is the author of Curious and Modern Inventions: Instrumental Music as Discovery in Galileo’s Italy (University of Chicago Press, 2016); Women and Musical Salons in the Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2022); and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is co-editor of the volumes Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin (University of Rochester Press, 2018) and Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives (Indiana University Press, 2022). She is founder and director of the Raritan Players, who have performed several times at the Italian Academy (, ).
Early strings specialist Dongmyung Ahn is a performer, educator, and scholar whose interests span from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries. She regularly performs with Pegasus, Raritan Players, The Sebastians, and TENET Vocal Artists. She played rebec in the critically acclaimed production of the Play of Daniel at the Cloisters. A dedicated educator, Dongmyung teaches music history at Columbia University, New York University, and Queens College. Dongmyung earned her Bachelor of Music with high distinction and her Master of Music from Indiana University where she studied baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie. She received her PhD in musicology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and has published articles on medieval liturgy and Jewish-Christian relations in Henry VIII’s court, and a book review on gender and voice in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She has also written an essay for Huffington Post about her experience as a stuttering music history professor.
Charles Weaver is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, where he teaches historical music theory, historical ear training, plucked-string instruments, and music history. He holds a PhD in music theory from the City University of New York. His research interests include the rhythm of Gregorian chant and the history of the theory of harmony. He serves as editor of the journal Sacred Music, published by the Church Music Association of America, which, as a continuation of the nineteenth-century journal Cecilia, is the longest-running musical periodical in North America. He is organist and choirmaster at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he specializes in the liturgical performance of medieval and renaissance music. He has been assistant conductor for Juilliard Opera and has directed opera productions for Dell’Arte Opera and the Yale Baroque Opera Project. He has also played continuo in opera productions at the University of Maryland, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Princeton University, and the Boston Early Music Festival. As a collaborative musician, he has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony. In addition to being a regular member of the ensemble Quicksilver, his chamber-music projects have included engagements with Piffaro, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Folger Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Blue Heron, the Newberry Consort, and Musica Pacifica. He also once arranged Saint-Saëns’s “Swan” for cello and theorbo and accompanied Yo-Yo Ma at a gala performance for Orchestra Lumos.
Gersh Chervinsky is a professional concert violinist and violin teacher based in Rockville, Maryland. He is the second-award winner of the Cremona Festival and Competition (Italy, 2012), and was a participant in the London Purcell School Music Festival (England, 2013), and the Keshet Eilon Festival (Israel, 2019). He has performed with star musicians such as Joshua Bell, Norman Kreeger, Sarah Daneshpour, and Amit Peled, among others. Gersh played at the masterclasses of renowned violinists such as Guillaume Sutre, Sergey Ostrovsky, Paul Roczek, Eszter Haffner, Vadim Gluzman and Haim Taub. He collaborates with the premier DC baroque ensemble Washington Bach Consort. Trained at the Moscow Conservatory, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Peabody Institute of Music, he exhibits the finest traditions of modern and baroque violin playing. Gersh is an enthusiastic educator with extensive teaching experience. He has taught college students at Jacobs School of Music as an associate instructor of violin. He also taught exceptionally gifted pre-college students at the IU Summer String Academy. He teaches at his private studio in Rockville, MD.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Registration does not guarantee a seat; registrants are seated first-come, first served.
This event is in-person only.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Italian Academy, Columbia University, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, United States
USD 0.00
