What is the intersection between music, spirituality and prayer? Join Yeshivat Hadar faculty members for a four-day interactive exploration of Nusach (prayer chants), Nigunim (melodies), and classical Jewish-Musical texts. The focus this year will be on the nusach and melodies for Hallel and the Shalosh Regalim (Three Festivals). In text sessions we will study how musical dynamics and aesthetics can create a range of powerful experiences in prayer .
Taught by Rabbi Aviva Richman and Joey Weisenberg
Aviva Richman is a faculty member at Yeshivat Hadar. She has taught at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and she is a past Rosh Kollel of the Bet Midrash at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. She has also enjoyed teaching community-wide sessions for the Hadar Bet Midrash and at the National Havurah Institute. She studied in the Pardes Kollel and the Drisha Scholars' Circle and is currently completing semikhah studies with a private teacher. Particular interests include Halakhah, gender and sexuality in Judaism and niggunim. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Rabbinics at NYU.
Joey Weisenberg is a faculty member at Yeshivat Hadar in charge of all music education. He is a mandolinist, guitarist, singer, and percussionist based in New York City, who has performed and recorded in a wide variety of musical styles. Joey works as the Music Director at Brooklyn's oldest synagogue, the Kane Street Synagogue, and visits shuls and communities around the world as a musician-in-residence, in which he teaches his popular 'Spontaneous Jewish Choir" workshops. He is the author of Building Singing Communities, published by Mechon Hadar. His CD's "Joey's Nigunim Volumes I and II" are available at www.buildingsingingcommunities.com, and his instructional videos "Table Top Rhythms for Jewish Singing" can be found online. For more information, please visit www.joeyweisenberg.com.
Dates: Monday, December 24 - Thursday, December 27, 2012
Location: Mechon Hadar, 190 Amsterdam Avenue
Price: $500 ($300 students) Scholarships are available.
(Additional scholarships available for Nusach Niggun intensive from the editors of L'chu N'ran'nah: An Egalitarian Traditional Bencher with an Alternative Edge! For details visit: http://birkat.org/scholarship.)
For more information, please contact mantell@mechonhadar.org.
Click here to register!
Tentative Daily Schedule:
9:00-10:30am - Nigunim and Building Singing Communities
10:45am-12:00pm - Texts about Music from Jewish Tradition
12:00-12:45pm - Lunch/Break (kosher vegetarian lunch provided)
12:45-1:00pm - Mincha (optional, but encouraged)
1:00-2:30pm - Holiday Nusach Masterclass
2:45-3:45pm -
Monday: Sound and Prayer in the Bible
Tuesday: The Dynamic Journey of Hallel: Textual analysis
Wednesday Table top percussion
Thursday : A time to shout, a time to be silent: Textual analysis
3:45-4:30pm - Closing Nigun Session
If you're curious about tabletop drumming, take a look at this! Watch Joey's Tabletop Rythyms for Jewish Singing.
Download Audio Recordings From 2011:
Joey Weisenberg, Nusah and Building Singing Communities, Dec. 27
Joey Weisenberg, Shabbat Nusah Master Class, Dec. 27
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, What Are We Praying? Textual Analysis, Dec. 27, Part 1
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, What Are We Praying? Textual Analysis, Dec. 27, Part 2
Joey Weisenberg, Closing Nigun Session, Dec. 27
Joey Weisenberg, Nusah and Building Singing Communities, Dec. 29
Joey Weisenberg, Shabbat Nusah Master Class, Dec. 29
Joey Weisenberg, Closing Nigun Session, Dec. 29
