FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus presents
“Jewish Heroes, Sung & Unsung”

NEW YORK CITY -- In the footsteps of its sold-out concert last spring, the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus is returning to Symphony Space on Sun, May 31 at 4:30 pm. Tickets are $25 and $15. Founded in 1922, this intergenerational chorus is conducted by Binyumen Schaechter, and will sing a new program from its rich repertoire of Yiddish choral music with English translations provided throughout. He is the son of the widely renowned late Yiddish linguist Mordkhe Schaechter.

Founded in 1922, the chorus boasts members ranging in age from 15 to 85, and has made guest appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Shea Stadium, Ground Zero, the Museum of the City of New York and, most recently, at West Point Military Academy. There are students, grandparents, Canadians, Israelis, gays and straights, most of varying levels of Jewish observance, and even a couple of people who are not Jewish at all, but who are devoted to the music. Some people speak Yiddish, such as the several adult children of Holocaust survivors and late Yiddish poets and thinkers. Some speak no Yiddish. Their collective goal is to breathe life into this historic body of music work and make it live again.

This unlikely army of Yiddish singers gathers once a week at the social hall of a residence for the elderly on the Upper West Side to rehearse its dynamic repertoire, no less diverse and interesting than the singers, from exciting oratorios and comic operettas to labor anthems, beloved folksongs, and popular tunes.

This year's concert will highlight the works of the great Yiddish writers Sholom Aleichem, Dovid Edelstadt, Itsik Manger, and Peretz Miransky; and composers Michl Gelbart, Srul Glick, Mark Zuckerman, and Georg Friedrich Handel. Also in the program will be the rarely heard Wolf Younin/Maurice Rauch cantata Ester Hamalke ("Queen Esther"), featuring tenor soloist Cantor David Berger and pianist Amy Duran.

In addition, Di Shekhter-tekhter ("The Schaechter Daughters"), age 14 and 9, will perform selections from their show "Our Zeydas and Bubbas as Children," with which they have toured three continents over the past year.

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Alice Kogan, long-time irreplaceable JPPC performer and activist.

The JPPC will be performing at Symphony Space on Sunday, May 31, at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and $15. Symphony Space is located on New York City's Upper West Side, at 2537 Broadway near 95th Street. To buy tickets, visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/, or call the Symphony Space box office at 212-864-5400. For more information about the chorus, visit http://www.thejppc.org/.

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Bio on the musical director
Binyumen Schaechter, Director
bschaechter@nyc.rr.com
212-989-0212

BINYUMEN (BEN) SCHAECHTER (Conductor) is an award-winning composer of musicals and other songs which have been performed on five continents, with his music represented off-Broadway in NAKED BOYS SINGING (one of the longest-running shows in off-Broadway history), PETS! (Dramatic Publishing), THAT'S LIFE! (Outer Critics Circle nomination), TOO JEWISH? (nominated: Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards) and DOUBLE IDENTITY. His music has been recorded on a dozen CDs, including "IT HELPS TO SING ABOUT IT: Songs of Ben Schaechter & Dan Kael" (amazon.com).

As an actor, he was featured with Anna Deveare Smith in her one-woman show in Carnegie Hall. He has also entertained across North America and in Paris in his one-man show, THE SHTETL COMES TO LIFE. More recently, together with elder daughter Reyna, he toured FROM KINAHORA TO CONEY ISLAND, his musical revue about the Jewish experience in America, and with both daughters in OUR ZEYDAS AND BUBBAS AS CHILDREN http://youtube.com/user/ShekhterTekhter. He provided the translations for the first-ever DVD with Yiddish subtitles, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG. He and his 3 sisters all speak only Yiddish with their total of 16 children. He is the son of the late great Yiddish expert, linguist and teacher, Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter.


Attn: Editor – More info.

Here’s our website:
http://www.thejppc.org/

We also have a facebook page, we’re on CD Baby and you can hear us on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/jewishpeoplesphilharmonicchorus.

Here’s some info on Itche Goldberg:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itche_Goldberg

Here’s Miransky’s obit from the NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/16/obituaries/peretz-miransky-85-yiddish-literary-figure.html

And a few words about Srul Irving Glick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srul_Irving_Glick