Selected Programs

„Sounds of the Synagogue“
This program is aimed to reach the new-comers as well as the well trained ear. The music varies from dramatic to intimate, melancholic to joyful, from the classical synagogue music to contemporary compositions. A concert for cantor with organ or piano.

The "Eisenstadt Project"
Synagogue music by David Eisenstadt who was murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto. An ode to the only 7 surviving pieces, surrounded by music of successful composers in pre-war Europe, who fled and developed new musical languages in their new homelands.
Music for Cantor, Choir and Organ/Piano.

"Revival synagogaler Musik"
see Revival“

„Opera and Synagogue“ - Two worlds meet
The worlds of opera and synagogue music have a great similarity in their emotional weight and dramatic expression and this made crossing from one world to the other so common amongst many cantors, of whom the best known are Joseph Schmidt, Richard Tucker and Jan Peerce. In her program "Opera and Synagogue", Mimi Sheffer, trained as both opera-singer and Cantor, compares, confronts, expresses and lives in both worlds. "Opera is a passion, whereas synagogue music - a longing."
"The deeper I experienced every operatic aria, the clearer I could hear its echo in the liturgical music, until I finally allowed that echo to sound fully." Many of the operatic characters such as Desdemona, Adriana, Tosca and Norma are deeply religious and express themselves in such a manner. The program includes arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Händel and Cilea. Synagogue works by Birnbaum, Lewandowski, Finkelstein and Nathanson

 „SoundTrialogue“  -
An extraordinary interplay of Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious musicians. The project SoundTrialogue  is so unique because it took the first step in confronting and comparing  the liturgical music of all three monotheistic religions. It is for the first time that a Jewish cantor, a Muslim Syrian liturgical singer and a German church musician accompanied by a West-East violinist and a Turkish percussionist each play and sing their prayers intertwined, respectively or followed by each other. “It was pure curiosity that led  to this adventurous project. I wanted to learn and hear how my colleagues from the neighbouring faiths react emotionally to specific themes in life and how they express them religiously. I wanted to express it with them and to react in my own way.”
The audience, deeply moved by the intensity of emotions and their expression and by the chance they see in it for peace and understanding, applauded gratefully with standing ovations.