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Music @ SWFS

The Jewish Americans PBS Series DVD and Soundtrack CD

12/26/2007 | Cantor Daniel Singer

Earlier this year, the renowned documentary film producer, David Grubin, attended a Shabbat service at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. He was so inspired by the music at the service that he asked Cantor Singer to participate in the sound track for his project. This led to a collaboration with the award winning composer and music director,
Michael Bacon.

The Jewish Americans, a six-hour PBS documentary series, portrays the 350-year saga of Jewish immigrants who gradually wove themselves into the fabric of American life, forging a thoroughly American identity without abandoning cherished traditions that sometimes set them apart. It is a quintessentially American story, layered with the tension between identity and assimilation which other minority and immigrant groups will find surprisingly familiar.

Composer Michael Bacon's evocative score for The Jewish Americans is inspired by the rich tradition of Jewish religious and folk music. The main theme features Daniel Singer, Senior Cantor of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue of New York, accompanied by cello, keyboards and vocalist Clare Muldaur Manchon. There are extended solo clarinet improvisations played by Lawrence Feldman, raucous klezmer-meets-New Orleans style jazz pieces, American folk textures mixed with Jewish inspired themes, and modern electronic soundscapes, all reflections of the Jewish experience in America.