Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/mordecai-specktor/page/2/)
“In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
But everything else in the childhood rhyme,
Ignores the historic details and genocide.”
— From “Fourteen Hundred Ninety-Two (The Rewrite),” by Dana W. Hall
Itzhak Perlman, the virtuoso classical violinist from Israel, was featured in the 1995 PBS Great Performances documentary In the Fiddler’s House. Perlman was paired with some of the leading exponents of the klezmer revival: Brave Old World, Kapelye, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra and The Klezmatics.
Growing up in St. Louis Park, Sharon Isbin had a passion for model rocketry. When the Jewish World interviewed Isbin many years ago, when she was visiting her family, she posed for a photo holding her classical guitar in one hand and a tall model rocket in the other.
After an early December meeting of the Twin Cities Jewish Alzheimer’s Task Force, at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Carol Shapiro mentioned that she has been caring for her husband, Alan Shapiro, who began showing symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 51.
Hanuka will come at the same time this year, the 25th of Kislev.
A Film Unfinished, directed by Yael Hersonski, investigates a 1942 Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto, which, as the documentary’s title indicates, never was completed. The award-winning 2010 documentary focuses on a 60-minute reel of film that was found in an East German archive after the end of World War II. The reel was marked only “Ghetto.”
Alexander Fiterstein likely isn’t a household name in the Twin Cities; but in classical music circles, the 35-year-old clarinetist is gaining a wide following.This month he released his first album, Carl Maria von Weber (Bridge Records), which is comprised of two clarinet concertos and the Concertino in E-flat major, all penned by the German Romantic composer. In December, Fiterstein will perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with his ensemble, the Zimro Project, in a concert of Russian Jewish chamber music that hasn’t been played publicly for nearly 100 years.The clarinet professor at the University of Minnesota also was named co-artistic director, with cellist Nicholas Canellakis, of the Sedona Winter Musicfest, which takes place in January, in Carefree, Ariz. And Fiterstein has an April date to perform in New York City with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Before heading east, he has two Minnesota Sinfonia concerts set for late March, and will play Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, op. Continue Reading
On Monday, I received an e-mail from the Minneapolis Police Department’s friendly crime prevention specialist for the 3rd Precinct. The message concerned the MPD conducting “a calibration test of ShotSpotter technology,” in both the Folwell neighborhood on the north side and in the Central neighborhood on the south side.
Four Israeli natives are facing numerous federal felony charges for unlawfully employing young Israelis at Mall of America kiosks.A 12-count indictment filed July 16 alleges that the four individuals conspired to recruit and hire “Israeli nationals, who were abroad or present in the United States on visitor visas without employment authorization to work for defendants’ company,” Ya & Ya USA, Inc., at stores and kiosks in the Mall of America.Ya & Ya, according to documents relating to searches and seizures in the case, operates Natural Beauty and Hollywood Hair Extensions kiosks at the Mall of America. Three of the kiosks were open on Monday evening.The indictment also alleges that another part of the conspiracy was “to harbor” the young Israelis in apartments near the Mall of America in Bloomington, and to transport them from the apartments to the mall.The four defendants in the case are Avraham Nadivi, Yosi Rachamim, Yehiel Shpitser and Adam Vaknin. According to a lawyer involved in the case, Nadivi and Vaknin are in Israel and out of the reach of federal authorities. The case is known as U.S. v. Nadivi et al.Rachamim and Shpitser are represented by local lawyers, and there will be a hearing on motions in the case Oct. 3 before a magistrate judge at the St. Continue Reading
You load sixteen tons, what do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt.Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go / I owe my soul to the company store.— “Sixteen Tons” by Merle TravisBen Sidran’s most recent album, Don’t Cry for No Hipster (Nardis), is comprised of original songs, except for “Reflections,” by the nonpareil jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, and “Sixteen Tons,” by Merle Travis (4-12-13 AJW).Of course, those of a certain age associate the latter song with country singer and TV variety show host Tennessee Ernie Ford — “The Ol’ Pea-Picker.”“I thought it fit real well with the original stuff I wrote, you know, the theme of the album: the kind of jaundiced look at contemporary society,” the pianist and composer explained about this bit of Americana. “And I always loved the song.”Sidran, who lives in Madison, Wisc., performs Aug. 29 at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, as part of a “little Midwest tour.”As for the cover of “Sixteen Tons,” Sidran told the AJW during a phone interview last week: “It must have been 10 years ago, I was playing in Madrid, and a young guy came up to me and he suggested that I do it. He said, ‘How come you don’t do “Sixteen Tons”?’Sidran responded, “That’s a really good idea. I’m going to do it.” And 10 years on, he did.For his upcoming show at the Dakota, Sidran will be joined by his son, Leo Sidran, on drums. The quartet will be rounded out by two renowned locals, Billy Peterson, on bass, and his brother, Ricky Peterson, on Hammond organ. Continue Reading