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80 YEARS
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HOME |
ABOUT |
CONTACT |
RECORDINGS |
80 YEARS
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One of the foremost Jewish choirs in the world, the London Jewish Male Choir has a long history of entertaining audiences with high quality performances of a broad range of Jewish music. Our repertoire includes music sung in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Russian, and English.
The choir is currently enjoying a renewal with young dynamic Musical Director, Michael Etherton, the addition of fresh modern repertoire and several fresh singing talents including Chazzan (Cantor) Steven Leas. In 2004, the choir appeared at Wembley Conference and promoted a sell-out concert at the new ArtsDepot venue with the four piece group "Shir". In January 2005 the choir toured Florida to packed houses, performing with top Chazzanim (cantors) including, Moshe Schulhof, Gideon Zelermyer and Benjamin Warschawski.
Founded in 1926, the choir developed a reputation of excellence first under the founding conductor Isadore Berman then after the war under Martin White and famously under conductor Manny Fisher who took the choir to new heights. In 2006 the choir celebrated 80 years of singing with the release of a "Best Of" CD including recordings made in the 1920's, 1930's through to new tracks recorded during 2005. During this anniversary year, the choir performed twice in Trafalgar Square, in Cardiff, Croydon, an inspiring concert in Enschede, Holland and finally in front of a packed audience at St. John's Smith Square.
Throughout the years, the LJMC has traveled extensively around the UK and has performed in London's most prestigious concert halls, including the Royal Festival Hall, The Royal Albert Hall, The Wigmore Hall and St. John's Smith Square. The choir regularly appears on TV and radio recently featuring in the documentary "Because I Sing" broadcast on Channel 4. Internationally the choir has sung in Israel, USA, Germany, Holland, South Africa, Poland and Belgium.
Chairman: Dan Jacobs
Vice Chairman: Ian Kaye
Treasurer: Eliot Berman
Secretary: Jeff Jacobs
Without portfolio: Maurice Martin, Saul Marine
Michael Etherton |
Michael Etherton was Music Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, where he also read law. After graduating he was awarded a licentiate diploma in cello and subsequently won a scholarship for advanced conducting studies at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music under the Chief Conductor of the New Israeli Opera/Israel Symphony Orchestra, Mendi Rodan. He was awarded the Hebrew University Scholarship, a Leche Trust Outstanding Musician Award and was a regular conductor of the Rubin Academy Orchestra. Since returning to London, Michael Etherton has worked as a freelance conductor for orchestras and choirs in the UK. In 2004 he founded Upfront Opera, which gave its Wigmore Hall debut with Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. The company has since won an Arts Council award and has toured this work nationally. Among his broad ranging musical work Michael has a particular commitment and passion for Jewish music. He was appointed Musical Director of the London Jewish Male Choir in January 2004 and has toured with them to the USA and Holland as well as recently releasing a recording with them on the Arc label, and directing their 80th anniversary celebrations at St. John's Smith Square. He is also conductor of the Central Synagogue Choir and directed the choir for a BBC televised performance in front of the Queen and Prime Minister on Holocaust Memorial Day. He has been a guest conductor of the critically acclaimed Choir of London directing them at the Brighton Festival of World Sacred Music in October 2006 and at Windsor Castle in January 2007.
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Eliot Alderman |
Eliot is the Chazan Sheini at the Central Synagogue, as well as being in regular demand as a guest chazan for other synagogues. He studied chazanut at the Tel-Aviv Cantorial Institute with Naftali Herstik and Raymond Goldstein of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, and privately with Chazan Moshe Haschel of St. John’s Wood Synagogue. He is also the Assistant Musical Director of the London Jewish Male Choir. Eliot has recently been awarded a scholarship to study on the prestigious Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music, a place he will take up in September 2008. He previously trained to Postgraduate level at the Guildhall School of Music, following a first degree in Physics at Cambridge University. His opera credits include Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Don Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro), Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos), and recently Monsieur Triquet (Eugene Onegin) for British Youth Opera, as well as numerous oratorio and concert performances, and wide professional experience in his previous life as a baritone. In 2006 he played Uziel in the first performance in almost a century of Samuel Alman’s Yiddish opera King Ahaz at the Purcell Room, and he sang the Narrator in a new oratorio based on the paintings of Francisco de Zurbarán, performed in Auckland Castle in the spring of 2007. In 2007 he created two roles in new operas: Chico Mendes in Rainforest by Martin Read with Opera Minima, and Daniel in Nathan Williamson’s A Fountain Sealed at the Arcola Theatre festival for new music. He also created the role of Choregus I in Kevin Flanagan’s new oratorio The Ten thousand Things, as well as a role in a new musical, Jack. Future plans include the role of Count Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Spring 2008 with Unexpected Opera, as well as forthcoming concert engagements in London, Portsmouth and the USA.
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Joseph Finlay |
Joseph Finlay was born in 1981 and has lived in London all his life. He read music at Clare College Cambridge, studying composition with Robin Holloway, and recently completed an MMUS in composition at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Paul Patterson and taking lessons with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In 2003 he was awarded the Arthur Bliss Award for composition at Cambridge University He has had works performed by many professional ensembles including the Britten Sinfonia, the London Sinfonietta, members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers, and has had works programmed as part of the Cambridge Britten Festival and The Spitalfields Festival. Most recently, his Piano Trio was given its London Premiere by the Leibniz Trio, after performing it extensively across Europe, and his Saxophone Concerto: Written in Honey and Sand was performed by Amy Dickson and the Royal Academy Orchestra. |
Steven Leas |
Currently serving as Cantor of the Central Synagogue, London, Steven has quickly become one of the leading Cantors in the UK. Since arriving in London from his native South Africa in 2002, Steven has made a big impact on the Cantorial scene in the UK, appearing on two BBC television programmes commemorating 60 years since the liberation of Aushwitz. Steven has appeared in concerts all over the world, with top Chazzanim, Choirs and Orchestras. Steven is the lead soloist of the London Jewish Male Choir, Steven performs with other top London choirs including the Choir of London and the Neimah Singers. Steven studied with the English National Opera under Mary King. He has performed a wide range of secular works and concerts including; appearances with Willard White and Helmet Lotti. Steven has recently appeared at the reopening of the Roundhouse with Michael Ball, Brian Connelly, Maria Friedman , Michel Legrand and Don Black in a tribute to 350 years of Jewish Music. He has just been asked to record the Tenor role in the new Israeli Opera, "Golem 13", written by Noam Sherif and George Whyte. |
