MIRYAM PROGRAM NOTES

Crossroads are places where travelers exchange goods and trade stories. They are places through which people pass as they flee and destinations along the way to new life, places of creativity and new beginnings, but also uncertainty and impermanence. Throughout our history, the Jewish people have wandered through countless cultural crossroads. We are well versed in exile; we know the bitterness of leaving our homes behind with no guarantee that we will land on safer shores. We also know the sweetness of finding home, for a while, in an unexpected place: learning a new language, becoming part of the fabric of a new culture. Shir Levi’im follows the Jews of Spain and Portugal from the Hebrew Golden Age of 11th century Spain to the centuries-long Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, and further on to 18th century Amsterdam, where many Spanish and Portuguese refugees settled and found new opportunities to worship openly. Throughout this painful history, the threads of Jewish resilience, joy, and creativity remain unbroken.

Our program begins in the 11th century, in the Islamic empire of Al Andalus, towards the end of a three-century period that historians consider a Golden Age for the Jews of Spain. Between the 8th and mid-11th century, Jews experienced a relative degree of religious and economic freedom and flourished in the intellectual, scientific, and cultural life of the region. From this period, we have gained many seminal works of Jewish philosophy and poetry, including the work of Yehuda Halevi, who was born in Toledo in 1075. A poet, physician, and philosopher, Halevi wrote in both Hebrew and Arabic, and composed Hebrew-language poetry heavily influenced by Arabic literary forms. In Elohai, Mishkenotekha Yedidot, Halevi recalls a dream in which he finds himself in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, participating with the Levites in the ancient rituals of temple worship. Halevi’s poem imagines the vivid sensory details of temple worship: incense rising, the voices of the Levites chanting. His writing is poignant and full of longing as he describes an ancient ritual that ceased after the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE. At the same time, his surname — Halevi (The Levite) — connects him to this ritual and musical heritage. I have written two settings of his poem to frame this program, opening with the full text in the style of an unaccompanied liturgical chant, and closing with a setting of only two lines, scored for voices and violins. This framing underscores the continuity of Jewish creativity and music-making from ancient temple worship to the present day: Shir Levi’im — a song of Levites — continues, ever-evolving. We are thrilled to premiere these two settings for you tonight at BLEMF.

Between the Yehuda Halevi settings, we turn to the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam. After the Golden Age ended in the mid-11th century, Jewish life in Iberia continued — despite massacres, draconian legislation, and economic insecurity — until the Spanish Inquisition began in 1391. Forced conversions, executions, and expulsion shattered the Spanish Jewish community. Some of the Jews who remained in Spain converted, while others observed in secret as crypto-Jews; still others fled to Portugal, only to later experience expulsion or forced conversion in that kingdom as well. In 1593, the first Portuguese Jews began to resettle in Amsterdam, where they would build a vibrant Jewish community over the next century. By 1675, the community was thriving and they built the Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga. The synagogue’s Etz Haim library, the oldest continuously-operating Jewish library in the world, contains a wealth of historical documents, including a collection of Hebrew-language musical scores spanning the late baroque and early classical eras. From this collection, we gain a glimpse into the rich musical life of the community; they commissioned grand instrumental and vocal works from both Christian and Jewish composers and performed this music in the synagogue to celebrate holidays and important events. The community commissioned many works from Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti (1730-1795), including a Hebrew-language Oratorio, Esther, which MIRYAM produced in 2019.

Tonight, we will share three pieces written by Lidarti: Ha Mesiaḥ Ilemim, a setting of a line from the prayer Nishmat Kol Chai, and Bo’i B’shalom and Kol Haneshamah, two cantatas for solo voice, violins, and continuo. Lidarti wrote these two cantatas for Simḥat Torah, the holiday following Sukkot, in which Jewish communities read the last parashah of the Torah and then start the annual cycle of readings anew with the first parashah. Between 1720 and 1740, the Portuguese Jewish community also commissioned music from the Jewish composer Abraham Caceres (date of birth unknown), who was active in the community a generation before Lidarti. He also wrote a setting of Ha Mesiaḥ Ilemim scored for voices and violins, as well as Le’El Elim, a cantata for Simḥat Torah with text by Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, scored for two voices and continuo. Le’El Elim was first performed in 1738, sung by the cantors Aaron Cohen de Lara and Shmuel Rodrigues Mendes.

Interspersed with Caceres and Lidarti’s compositions are anonymous liturgical chants that were part of the community’s repertoire, notated by an unknown hand and preserved in the synagogue’s archives. The Kedusha, which proclaims God’s holiness, is a part of the Amidah, a central part of Jewish liturgy. A Kinah is a type of lament traditionally recited on Tisha B’Av, the observance of the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. The penultimate piece of the program is another new setting composed for BLEMF, using the text of Kaddish Yatom, the Mourner’s Kaddish. Although Kaddish Yatom is traditionally recited by mourners, the prayer contains no mention of death; instead, it is brimming with life, overflowing with praise for God and prayers for peace. In my setting, I try to capture this balance between grief and hope; I mourn for lives shattered and families torn apart while also holding abundant gratitude for the resilience of the Jewish people and the enduring gift of music.

© Alicia DePaolo

INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHIES

Alicia DePaolo, soprano, has received critical acclaim for her “perfect combination of clarity and warmth” (Harmonia Early Music). A specialist in historical performance, she has a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble singer. She has appeared with Tafelmusik, American Bach Soloists, Amherst Early Music, Ensemble Musica Humana, Crescendo Baroque Orchestra, Gotham Early Music Scene, Washington Bach Consort, and the choir of the National Cathedral. Also active in oratorio and early opera, she has played the roles of “The Israelite Man” in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, “Fatime” in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, “Castitas” in Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, “La Nymphe des Tuileries” in Lully’s Alceste, and the title role in Lidarti’s Esther. As the co-founder and director of MIRYAM, Ms. DePaolo is dedicated to bringing Jewish baroque music to new audiences. She has been featured in Times of Israel and Washington Jewish Week for her work, and in 2019 she produced the East Coast premiere of Lidarti’s Esther, a recently-rediscovered Hebrew-language oratorio. During the Covid-19 lockdown, she recorded and produced an online recital of art songs by Israeli composers and a virtual performance of Bach’s BWV 199 as a meditation for the weeks leading up to the Days of Awe. Ms. DePaolo holds a master’s degree in Early Music Vocal Performance from Indiana University, a master’s degree in Jewish Education and Jewish Studies from Hebrew College, and a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. She is currently based in the D.C. area, where she also works as a cantorial soloist and Jewish educator. This coming year, she will begin her rabbinical studies at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. 

Hilary Anne Walker, lyric mezzo soprano and Maine native, is an avid performer and supporter of early music in the greater Boston area. This past season, she was a featured soloist with Musicians of the Old Post Road, the Miryam Ensemble, and as the alto soloist for the Mozart Requiem and Lord Nelson Mass with the Church of the Advent choir.  Other ensemble work includes Boston Baroque, Odyssey Opera, BMOP, Long and Away, the former Tramontana early music quintet of which she was a founder, and Lorelei Ensemble. On stage, she's been privileged to portray many impetuous travesty roles including Jean de Morcerf in Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon, Jacquot in Offenbach’s Pierette et Jacquot, Cupid, Orpheus in the Underworld, Cherubino, Hänsel, and L'enfant in L'enfant et les Sortilèges. A student of Michael Meraw, Ms. Walker earned her Masters from New England Conservatory, and her B.A. in music from Vassar College. Outside of singing, Ms. Walkers' passions include baking up a storm, museums, enjoying the outdoors, and working furiously at a global energy services company.

During her quarter-century career as baroque violinist, Marika Holmqvist has appeared as a guest concertmaster for orchestras and opera companies on three continents, directed ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic, and served as concertmaster and artistic co-director for groups in the USA such as Sinfonia New York and the Boston-based ensemble, Cambridge Concentus. Currently her leadership positions include Zenith Ensemble (New England), Pegasus Early Music (Rochester, NY) and Washington Bach Consort (DC), among others. In addition to her extensive performance career, she is also a dedicated and passionate educator and has served as coach and guest leader for baroque operas at Cornell, Harvard and Rutgers universities, as well as given master-classes and lectures at institutions across Europe. Alongside her master’s degree in baroque violin performance from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands, she also graduated with a master’s in baroque violin pedagogy—the first such degree ever granted in Europe. Her 20-odd recordings include the Grammy-nominated Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Trinity Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra. Marika has a Finn’s love for the outdoors and when she is not performing or teaching, you will most likely find her cross country skiing, hiking, kayaking, or gravel or mountain biking.

Louisville native Alice Culin-Ellison is a versatile historical performer with professional experience in Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic era performance, as well as modern violin performance. In 2018, Alice co-founded Incantare | An Ensemble of Violins and Sackbuts, in which the members share a passion for discovering and performing seventeenth-century music. The group strives to highlight the musical and cultural connections of underexplored musicians from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, especially music by composers, singers, and instrumentalists from marginalized communities in early modern Europe. Alice was the Artistic Director of Bourbon Baroque in Louisville, Kentucky from 2017-2022. In addition to Incantare, Alice’s professional engagements include Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Chatham Baroque, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Charlotte Bach Akademie, and other baroque and modern orchestras across the United States. She has performed in Canada, France, England, China, and Japan, and participated in music festivals under the direction of Christophe Rousset, Christian Curnyn, Philippe Herreweghe and Jeanne Lamon. Alice frequently performs as a soloist and has led opera productions of Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Purcell’s King Arthur. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University, studying with Stanley Ritchie, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan studying under Aaron Berofsky. 

Joanna Blendulf is Professor of Viola da gamba and Baroque cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Joanna has performed and recorded with leading period-instrument ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. She is currently co-principal cellist and principal viola da gamba player of the Portland Baroque Orchestra and has also performed as principal cellist of Pacific MusicWorks, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, and the New York Collegium. Joanna is an avid chamber musician, performing and recording with the Catacoustic Consort, Ensemble Mirable, Music of the Spheres, Nota Bene Viol Consort, Parthenia, The Breathtaking Collective, and Wildcat Viols. She has served as a classroom and private instructor at the University of Oregon and the Berwick Academy. Joanna holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Jacobs School of Music, where she earned a Performer's Certificate in early music performance.

A native of Puerto Montt in Chile, Dr. Juan A. Mesa holds a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and composition from Western Connecticut State University, and both a Master of Music degree in organ performance and a PhD in Music Theory from Indiana University. His teachers include Stephen Roberts and Christopher Young, organ; Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord and continuo; and Todd Wilson and Jeffrey Smith, organ improvisation. Dr. Mesa has performed solo recitals across the US, Canada, Chile, and Argentina. As an early keyboards performer, he has performed with In Stile Moderno and MYRIAM ensembles of Boston, the University of Notre Dame’s Children’s Choir, Exordium ensemble of Bloomington IN, and Crescendo ensemble of Lakeville, CT, among others. He is co-founder of Le Note Diverse, a Boston-based early music ensemble which specializes in under-researched music for plucked instruments and early keyboards. Dr. Mesa is a first prize winner of the AGO Regional Competition for Young Organists, and has performed organ concerts at regional and national AGO conventions and competitions. As a scholar, he has focused his research on phrase structure in the ritornello forms of J. S. Bach (dissertation title "A Revised Model for the Analysis of J .S Bach's Concerto Ritornelli"). As a conductor, he led the intergenerational music program at St. Mary’s in Holliston, MA for six years, regularly presenting historically-informed performances of baroque and early classical repertoire for voices and instruments. He is currently College Organist and Associate Professor of Music Performance (organ) at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, Director of Music and Organist at St Leonard's Church in Boston's North End, as well as Music Minister at the Roslindale Congregational Church in Boston.