This new 1-hour special features interviews with artists and public personalities about their Chanukah memories grounded in the music tied to their holiday memories. Guests on this program include cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Broadway actress Tovah Feldshuh, Sephardic music expert and flutist Daphna Mor, musician and Yiddish musicologist Henry Sapoznik, poet, musician and author Aaron Dworkin, and Eric Jacobsen, artistic director of The Knights.
Program playlist:
Traditional: Chanukah, oh Chanukah (Daphna Mor, recorder)
David Ludwig: Hanukkah Cantata (Choral Arts Philadelphia, Matthew Glandorf, cond)
Traditional: Al Hanisim (Jan Peerce, tenor, Gershon Kingsley, cond)
Doughlas J. Cohen: Shalom, Santa (Tovah Feldshuh, vocal; Scott Cady, piano)
Woody Guthrie: Hanukkah Dance
Osvaldo Golijov: Tenebrae
Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4, Dumky (Weilerstein Trio)
Daniel Samburski: Ner Li (Sung by Daphna Mor and by Pizmon, the co-ed pluralistic Jewish a cappella group of Columbia University, Barnard College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary)
Menashe Ravina: Mi Yimalel (Kol Zion Lagola Choir)
Traditional: Kita’l tas (Daphna Mor, recorder; Adam Good, oud; Rex Benincasa, percussion; Singers: Tracy Cowart, Ilana Davidson, Michele Kennedy, Daphna Mor, Sian Ricketts, Nell Snaidas, Kirsten Sollek)
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 (Colin Jacobsen, v; Eric Jacobsen, c; Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė, p)
Traditional/Colin Jacobsen: Haneros Haluli (Colin Jacobsen, v; The Knights; Eric Jacobsen, cond)
Traditional: Haneros Haluli (H. Steiner, violin; Cimbalom player unidentified)
Michael Mclaughlin: Dance of the Dreydls (Shirim)
Mikhl Gelbart: Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl (Sung by Henry Sapoznik)
Tom Lehrer: (I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica
Samuel Adler: Maoz Tsur from To Celebrate a Miracle (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony; Rodney Winther, cond)