Sunday, Sept. 22 | 3 p.m. AZ time

Zoom and in person; Arizona Jewish Historical Society: 122 E. Culver St., Phoenix

Neal Brostoff, Los Angeles-based concert pianist and musicologist
 

Attend via Zoom

RSVP here if you are attending in person

About the lecture: In a lecture and performance, Jewish music historian and pianist Neal Brostoff will present an overview of music of the Polish-Jewish experience. The illustrated lecture will consider popular, klezmer, classical genres, and Polish-Yiddish tangos. Mr. Brostoff will also perform Sirota, a recently commissioned work for solo piano and historical recording by the Russian-American composer Lev Zhurbin. Near the end of the minimalism-infused piano grove, we hear the voice of Hazzan Gershon Sirota, the superstar twentieth century cantor, who served the celebrated Great Synagogue of Poland in Warsaw. Sirota was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, and the magnificent synagogue was dynamited by the Nazis in 1944.

About the preformer: As a child prodigy, Los Angeles-based Neal Brostoff’s classical music career began with a solo performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 14, followed by several additional performances with the Phil through young adulthood. A major career shift was prompted by his personal discovery of Jewish classical music in the 1970s, as an outflow of his work as a synagogue music professional. Following several years of organizing concerts of Jewish art songs and chamber music, Mr. Brostoff’s recent focus on Polish Jewish music has taken him to several cities in Poland for performances, with Polish musicians, of this underplayed repertoire. As an academic, Mr. Brostoff has lectured on a variety of Jewish music topics in faculty positions at UCLA, American Jewish University, Loyola-Marymount University and Los Angeles Pierce College.