Maayan Harel brings her soprano voice to Temple Emanu-El
Arts Emanu-El, at Temple Emanu-El Providence, presents Maayan Harel: In Concert. Harel, a Boston-based, up-and-coming soprano, is Arts Emanu-El’s 2014 guest soloist. During her concert on Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m., Harel, who was raised in Rhode Island, will sing in seven different languages.
The public is invited to hear this exciting young soprano, whose voice has been described as full, lyrical and wonderfully expressive, as she sings in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, German, Italian, English and Czech, and performs a variety of classical, Yiddish and Jewish solo pieces.
“I love music as a universal language,” explains Harel. “When you sing in concert, you feel that special connection with everyone in the audience.” To explain the power of music to make connections, Harel recalls singing to her elderly grandmother. “I started singing to her, and she moved her hand to the beat. We were making a connection that was so unique for her at that time and so special to me.”
Harel’s program at Emanu-El will offer those special connections with lovely, melodic songs by Schubert, favorite arias from popular operas, European cabaret songs and selections from the Yiddish folk tradition.
One emotional high point of Harel’s concert will surely be her singing of three Yiddish folk songs set by Viktor Ullmann, a Czech composer who was imprisoned at Terezin and perished in Auschwitz. Ullmann composed operas, orchestral and chamber music throughout his life, but only those compositions written during his time at Terezin survived. The three folks songs in Harel’s program are beautiful examples of the life-affirming music based in Jewish traditions that Ullmann embraced during his internment. In Ullmann’s own words, “All that I would stress is that Theresienstadt has helped, not hindered, me in my musical work, that we certainly did not sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep, and that our desire for culture was matched by our desire for life.”
Harel’s mastery of such varied and challenging repertoire belies her age. At 23 years old, Harel is just beginning her professional vocal career, which will surely draw from its roots in Rhode Island. As Harel explains, “I was raised in Barrington, Rhode Island, and nurtured at Temple Emanu-El.” She refers to Temple Emanu-El as her second home and names Emanu-El’s Cantor Dr. Brian J. Mayer as an important mentor in her musical training. Harel also points to her singing with Hazamir Providence and participating in the Hazamir’s annual gala concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall as formative events.
These days, Harel sings with The Zamir Chorale of Boston, and she recently returned from Salzburg, Austria, where she sang the role of Pamina in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (The Magic Flute) with the Franco-American Vocal Academy.
Harel’s concert is the second event in Arts Emanu-El’s 2014-1015 season of programs in Jewish art and culture. The public is invited to Arts Emanu-El’s spring 2015 series, The Tangled Legacy: Being a Jew in France, which includes a documentary film, a book discussion, a lecture and a major concert. For more information, see: teprov.org/arts_emanu-el.
To purchase tickets, $10, for Maayan Harel: In Concert, go to TEProv.org, or send a check to: Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906. Note: “Maayan Harel.”
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