Mishkan Torah's Generations United 2 Concerta Smashing Success

Greenbelts' Mishkan Torah Synagogue gave a  special Father’s Day present, the gala Mishkan Torah's Generations United 2 Concert, on Father’s Day, June 16, 2013. The concert featured performances by no less than sixteen Mishkan Torah classically trained vocalists and instrumentalists. The Mishkan Torah artists  were  accompanied by well-known local pianist and collaborative artist Andrew Kraus, who has just released his first CD.  The event  was part of the  Synagogue’s  ongoing series of performance commemorations of From Generation to Generation, as was the original Generations United Concert on Mother’s Day 2012.

The Concert was a true intergenerational event ,featuring performers ranging in age from teenagers  to septuagenarians. Additionally, the Concert included no less than five sets of related intergenerational performers. Gordon Fung and Aaron Goldstein  played, a grandfather-grandson French horn duet , the world premiere of “Generations Medley” by Kay Meade, based on well-known Jewish themes.  There was a mother-daughter duet of clarinetist Rebecca Lemus and pianist  Sheila Lemus and a mother-son duet with flutist Carolynn Sonnen  and son tenor Ben Greenfield.  In addition, there were three sets of fathers and sons in the program: Adam and Don Juran; Ben and Cantor Phil Greenfield; and Joshua and Jeffrey Rosen. To complete the family picture, there  were three husband and wife combinations: Cantor Yael Fischman and Yoni Charry; Rachel White Greenfield and Ben Greenfield; and Carolyn Sonnen and Cantor Phil Greenfield.

The program  included both classical and lighter fare. The concert commenced with mezzo-soprano Cantor Yael Fischman singing a cantorial, “Yedid Nefesh,” by Ben Schaechter. Clarinetist Rebecca Lemus accompanied the work. Veteran Mishkan Torah pianist David Charney played  two tour-de-forces: Polonaise #4 in C Minor and Polonaise #6 in A Flat (heroic) by the famed nineteenth century Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin. Operatic tenor Adam Juran  sang two operatic standards, “Della Sua Pace” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and the Flower Song from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.”  Clarinetist Rebecca Lemus performed the Second of theThree Preludes by the beloved Jewish-American composer George Gershwin, accompanied by her mother, longtime Mishkan Torah Choir Accompanist pianist Rebecca Lemus. Rebecca also perfomed an improvisation on the theme of hail , a topic suggested by a member of the audience. Bass-baritone and composer Don Juran then performed three songs of his own composition from Don’s song cycle “Beyond the Mirror,” which in keeping with the intergenerational theme of the day is a setting of poems by Don’s son, Joshua.  French Hornist Joshua Rosen played the Rondo in E-flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The first half of the program ended with tenor Greenfield singing the “Benedictus” from the Mass in B Minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach, accompanied by his mother flutist Carolyn Sonnen.

The second half of the program opened with a world premiere, the aptly-named “Generations Medley” by Kay Meade. The work is a duet for French horns, and was played by the grandfather-grandson team of Gordon Fung and Aaron Goldstein. Don Juran returned to perform a darkly comic number, the sardonic “Madeira M’Dear” by Michael Flanders and Donald Swan. Tenor Yoni Charry  provided outright comic relief by singing two additional songs by Flanders and Swan, “The Gasman Cometh” and “The Elephant,” the latter of which featured two toy elephants borrowed from Yoni’s twin daughters Nava and Avagayil. Jeffrey Rosen honored his 39th anniversary by singing “Anniversary Song”by Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin.

The concert  concluded  with a set of selections from the Broadway and movie smash hit “Les Miserables.”  Cantor Yael Fischman  commenced the proceedings by singing the doomed Fantine’s showstopper “I Dreamed a Dream.” Yael then changed character completely, and joined her husband Yoni Charry to portray the villainous Thernardiers in “Master of the House.” Joshua Rosen played Javert’s big solo “Stars” in Joshua’s own original arrangement for French horn.  Rachel White Greenfield then portrayed another doomed figure, Eponine, and sang “On My Own.” Ben Greenfield performed another of the show’s absolute show stoppers in the original French, the hero Jean Valjean’s poignant “Bring Him Home.” Carlos Castillo accompanied him on the guitar. Carlos,who will be a high school junior, then took the part of  Marius to perform “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” to his own guitar accompaniment.  For the Grand Finale,  Tenors Carlos Castillo, Ben Greenfield, Cantor Phil Greenfield, and Jeffrey Rosen  brought the concert to a close with  a four tenor version of “Bring Him Home,“ which the multi-talented Carlos Castillo arranged.  

Mishkan Torah is already planning to follow the gala concert up by presenting a Generations United 3 in the fall. In addition, Mishkan Torah also plans to present at least two other performing arts programs in 2013-2014. Please watch for further announcements!