{"id":100876,"date":"2023-12-14T15:36:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T20:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=100876"},"modified":"2023-12-15T09:09:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T14:09:00","slug":"preview-sara-schabas-isabelle-david-present-canadian-premiere-yiddish-song-cycle-alex-weiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2023\/12\/14\/preview-sara-schabas-isabelle-david-present-canadian-premiere-yiddish-song-cycle-alex-weiser\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Sara Schabas And Isabelle David Present Canadian Premiere of Yiddish Song Cycle by Alex Weiser"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Isabelle David (l) and soprano Sara Schabas (r) (Photos courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Montr\u00e9al-based soprano and pianist duo Sara Schabas and Isabelle David will present the Canadian premiere of a piece by Pulitzer-nominated composer Alex Weiser in Toronto on January 9. The performance will take place as part of the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s Free Concert Series at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre<\/p>\n

Alex Weiser\u2019s (b. 1989) Yiddish song cycle, in a dark blue night | \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d0\u05b7 \u05d8\u05d5\u05e0\u05e7\u05dc \u05d1\u05dc\u05d5\u05d9\u05e2\u05e8 \u05e0\u05d0\u05b7\u05db\u05d8 will be the centrepiece of the concert.<\/p>\n

in a dark blue night | \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d0\u05b7 \u05d8\u05d5\u05e0\u05e7\u05dc \u05d1\u05dc\u05d5\u05d9\u05e2\u05e8 \u05e0\u05d0\u05b7\u05db\u05d8<\/h2>\n

Weiser\u2019s music is set to poems written in Yiddish by Morris Rosenfeld, Anna Margolin, Naftali Gross, Celia Dropkin, and Reuben Iceland that express the realities of life as a Jewish immigrant to New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the Yiddish-language world of Jewish immigrants in New York is often remembered with nostalgia and kitsch,\u201d Weiser writes in a statement. \u201cBut in reality it was rich and multifaceted, encompassing the full range of human experience from the quotidian to the sublime.\u201d<\/p>\n

University of Toronto Musicologist Robin Elliott will narrate the performance.<\/p>\n

The program will be rounded out by works by other modernist composers who were affected by Nazi persecution during the Second World War era. That includes Erich Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg, Alma Mahler and Alexander Zemlinsky, artists who fled Europe, and Viktor Ullmann, who was murdered by the regime.<\/p>\n

\"Sara
Sara Schabas and Isabelle David perform in 2022 conducted by Barbara Hannigan, with the Equilibrium Young Artists ensemble at the Lunenburg Academy of Music (Photo courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The artists<\/h2>\n

Based in Montr\u00e9al today, both Sara Schabas and Isabelle David are mentored artists under Barbara Hannigan\u2019s Equilibrium Young Artists program. You can sample a previous collaboration between the two artists here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy paternal great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland to New York,\u201d says Sara. \u201cMy grandfather Ezra never talked much about his Jewish heritage. But towards the end of his life, he would laugh over books of Yiddish jokes, which he spoke at home as a child. Exploring the human condition in this language feels like uncovering a lost piece of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Schabas, soprano<\/h3>\n

Toronto born Sara Schabas performs a range of operatic repertoire from the traditional to contemporary, as well as performing as a soloist with orchestras and other ensembles. She premiered the title role in Maxime Goulet\u2019s The Flight of the Hummingbird with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera.<\/p>\n

Sara studied voice with a literature minor at the University of Toronto, and went on to earn an M.Mus at Roosevelt University with a Siragusa Endowed Scholarship. Her debut came in the US with the Dayton Opera and Aspen Opera Theatre. This season, her roles includes Musetta in La boh\u00e8me with the Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal with the Orchestre Classique de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n

Isabelle David, piano<\/h3>\n

Pianist Isabelle David has performed all over the world at venues such as the Musiikkitalo (Helsinki), Jordan Hall (Boston), Carnegie Hall (New York), and Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall (Montr\u00e9al). Accolades and recognition include the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, and Canimex Canadian Music Competition Grand Prize.<\/p>\n

Her debut solo album Souvenirs of Auguste Descarries, featuring the world of the titular Quebec pianist and composer Auguste Descarries, was released in 2022. Descaries was piano teacher to Isabelle\u2019s grandmother Louis Lussier. Isabelle\u2019s discovery of the manuscripts sparked a curiosity that led to her doctoral research, for which she was awarded a Joseph-Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship.<\/p>\n