'Tefilatah' (Her Prayer): The Female Experience Through the Eyes of Male Composers

Concert Produced by the American Society for Jewish Music Co-sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Admission: Free

This program offers a beautiful and culturally rich experience of how various male composers from different eras captured the female experience. It presents a rich tapestry of Jewish American and Israeli classical songs composed by male composers yet uniquely crafted from a female perspective and intended for the female voice.

Spanning various epochs and musical styles, the repertoire celebrates the profound tradition of Jewish music and literature, emphasizing the distinctive contributions of these composers. Each song serves as a narrative milestone within this genre, offering compelling stories that resonate deeply. The themes explored within the songs are diverse, ranging from the struggles of battered women to the yearnings for love, homeland, wealth, and stability—themes that often come with a high emotional cost.

Performed by soprano Ronit Widmann-Levy, this concert includes music by Kurt Weill, Menachem Wiesenberg, Daniel Akiva, Maurice Ravel, Sasha Argov, Oded Lerer, and Leonard Bernstein.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About the Performer

Soprano Ronit Widmann-Levy has received accolades for her operatic and concert performances throughout the world. A versatile artist equally at home on both concert and opera stages, Ronit has sung in opera houses and festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Tanglewood, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Berlin, Munich, London, Bangkok and Jerusalem. She sang at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Bath and Dartington Festivals in England, the Jüdische Kulturtage in Berlin, and the America Haus Concert Series in Munich.

Ronit has regularly performed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in Carnegie Hall, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony, New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and the Boston Symphony. She recorded for PBS Great Performances with Michael Tilson Thomas, “The Thomashefskys, Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater.”