Art Songs of the Jewish Diaspora

Art Songs of the Jewish Diaspora is a groundbreaking recording collaboration between the award-winning Seattle-based American concert pianist and prolific recording artist Byron Schenkman and acclaimed bass-baritone and Washington, DC resident Ian Pomerantz. The goal is to make a full-length professional recording that gives voice to Jewish composers writing songs in the Classical idiom during the 19th and 20th centuries in the Jewish Diaspora. Featured composers will include Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Sidor Belarsky, Lazar Weiner, Darius Milhaud, Joel Engel, Henriëtte Bosmans, Else Weber, Léon Agazi, and others. It will also include new collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner and Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award-winner Lori Laitman. The project will reflect the diversity of the languages spoken by the Jewish People - including, among others - Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, French, and English. Much of the included repertoire has never been recorded, and the recordings that do exist were either not in the original language or were made before the modern recording era and are not up to current listing standards. We will record the last week of January and the first week of February, 2023.

The artists are currently seeking donors and benefactors who are interested in supporting the preservation and transmission of Jewish music and Jewish cultural heritage. To realize this project, we need to raise $4,000. This will cover costs associated with production, artists’ travel to and accommodations in Boston, where we will be recording, legal rights to perform and distribute works currently under copyright, instrument tuning, a professional recording engineer, a space in which to record, and a producer to record the performances.

Those who donate $99 or less will receive one free track from the recording before release. Benefactors of over $100 will be entitled to a pre-release digital copy of the full recording. Donors of $250 or more will receive a pre-release digital copy of the recording, an autographed physical copy, and free access to a 4-part virtual lecture series by Ian Pomerantz on the history of Jewish art songs. Benefactors of $250 or more will be recognized liner notes. All donors will be recognized online on the project’s webpage. We invite you to contribute at any of these levels:

Malakh (Angel) $1000+

Hakham (Wise Person) $300-$999

Shamash (Helper) $250-$299

Khasid (The Kind One) $100-$249

Tzadiq (The Righteous One) $50-$99

Khaver (Friend) $36-$49

Mentsh (A Good Person) Up to $36