Press Releases
Volume 07: Masterworks of Prayer
December 5, 2011
"It is a work of love; it is the voice of a creature communicating with his God." That's how Madeleine Milhaud, widow of the French-Jewish composer and American transplant Darius Milhaud, described her husband's Service Sacré during an oral history interview with the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American...
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Volume 2: A Garden Eastward
October 6, 2011
Think of them as the first world musicians. Music did not always travel as easily as it does today. Yet hundreds of years before the Internet made sharing music as easy as sending an e-mail, Sephardi Jews–those who originated on the Iberian Peninsula and subsequently dispersed across the globe, from...
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Volume 16: Heroes and Heroines
May 1, 2011
Murder. Sex. Mayhem. These are just a few of the topics that have for centuries drawn audiences to the opera. Topics that feature prominently in "Heroes and Heroines: Jewish Opera," Volume 16 of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience. All of the works included herein bear a...
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Volume 10: Intimate Voices
May 1, 2011
Intimate. Expressive. Profound. If you had to pick just a few defining characteristics of chamber music, these would surely top the list. They certainly apply to the music of "Intimate Voices: Solo and Ensemble Music of Jewish Spirit," Volume 10 in the Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience....
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Volume 15: Swing His Praises
May 1, 2011
Think of Jewish liturgical music–the music of the synagogue, of the High Holidays and the Sabbath service–and many words come to mind. Words like "majestic," "stirring," and "meditative."But words like "funky," "bluesy," or "swingin'"?Well, let's be honest: not so much.Yet based on the evidence presented by the Milken Archive, perhaps...
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Volume 05: The Classical Klezmer
May 1, 2011
What's in a name? A lot, in fact–if the name in question is klezmer, and the thing it purports to describe is Eastern European Jewish folk music. For most of its life, the word “klezmer” meant no such thing. A Yiddishized version of the Hebrew phrase for “musical instrument” (k’li...
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Volume 11: Symphonic Visions
May 1, 2011
Did you know that the musical polymath David Amram–a man who played jazz with Charles Mingus, championed “world music” before the term even existed, and was Leonard Bernstein's choice as the first composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic–also wrote Songs of the Soul, a three-movement symphony that melds cantorial melodies,...
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Volume 13: Great Songs of the American Yiddish Stage
May 1, 2011
Imagine a time when actors were as likely to burst into song as they were to recite a few lines of dialogue. A time before the golden age of movie musicals, or even the golden age of Broadway: the golden age of Yiddish theater, the heyday of Second Avenue. Fortunately,...
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Notes from the American Jewish Experience
September 8, 2010
Dave Brubeck. Leonard Bernstein. Igor Stravinsky. John Zorn.What do these four men have in common, aside from being four of the most famous names in music?If you said, “they're Jewish,” you'd be wrong. (Bernstein and Zorn, yes; Brubeck and Stravinsky, no.)But if you said, “they're all represented in the Milken...
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100 VOICES: A JOURNEY HOME
August 25, 2010
Jewish and Polish cultures, once interwoven for centuries, reunite for an unprecedented and poignant event of remembrance, healing, resilience and rebirth in 100 Voices: A Journey Home, a compelling and musical film opening in Los Angeles at the AMC Century City and NYC at the Empire 25 on September 22-28,...
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