The spring Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival May 2012

Vokalquintett Berlin

The Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival will take place once again May 25th, 26th and 27th, 2012. One of Israel’s leading festivals, it has been running twice a year since its reinstatement in 1992, offering concerts in the Kiryat Yearim Church overlooking Abu Gosh and in the Benedictine Crusader Church which nestles tranquilly in an exotic garden setting in the village of Abu Gosh. The Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) festival will, as always, present top local artists as well as overseas visiting artists and groups.

Among concerts featuring Israeli musicians, concert-goers will be able to hear J.S.Bach’s “Magnificat”, performed by the Choir of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra, with soloists Carmit Natan, Maya Heller, Liran Kopel and Hemi Levison, under the baton of Maestro Stanley Sperber. Conducted by Michael Shani, the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra will perform the Mozart “Requiem”, joined by the Tel Aviv Chamber Choir and soloists Agam Englard-Saar, Ayelet Amotz-Abrahamson, Eitan Drori and Gabriel Loewenheim. An outstanding new vocal ensemble “Barrocade Vocale”, together with Barrocade instrumentalists, with Barrocade Vocale founder Yizhar Karshon on harpsichord and organ, will perform a mostly-Bach program of “Eternal Beauty”. For those with a taste for Russian music, soprano Anastasia Kalavan, alto Svetlana Sandler and pianist Lanna Gershoni will present “Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Russian Folk Songs”. A program ranging from music of Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns, Brahms and Fauré to that of Sasha Argov, Eyal Bat and Yoni Rechter will be performed by singers Dafna Zehavi, Gal Hilman and Hillel Zehavi, with bassoonist Uzi Shalev and pianists Eran Zehavi and Eyal Bat. The Adi Choir (Conductor - Oded Shomrony, pianist -Yevegeny Oslon) in “Golden Voices – from Mozart and Rossini to Our Time” will be joined by vocal soloists Sharon Dvorin, Michal Okon and Irena Scherbin in a colorful potpourri of works by Palestrina, Delibes, Mozart, Rossini, Pablo Casals and Poulenc, also including folk songs and music of Matti Caspi and Yoni Rechter.

Hannah Zur will conduct the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir in works by Mozart and Robert Schumann, but not just: Clara Schumann’s “Evening Festivities in Venice” – three songs for a cappella choir – should prove especially interesting to many music-lovers. Eyal Bat will accompany on organ. Keren Hadar is a singer with an interesting and wide repertoire; she will solo with the Bat Kol Girls’ Choir (conductor - Anat Morag) and the Barrocade Ensemble in a program of works by Händel and Britten.

Swiss-born violinist Cordelia Hagman, now living in Israel, will perform with Israeli soprano Carmit Natan and Kenyan bass Zachariah Njoroge Kariithi in a concert of works by Fauré and Saint-Saëns. The Vokalquintett Berlin, an ensemble singing a cappella repertoire from the Renaissance to today, was formed some three years ago and has already made its mark on the international music scene; its members hail from Germany, Austria and Israel. In the upcoming Abu Gosh Festival they will perform one concert of English music and one of Italian music. The other guest group is the Tbilisi Ensemble from Georgia, conducted by Robert Gogolashvili. The ensemble will sing traditional secular- and religious songs accompanied by authentic instruments; some of the music goes back 1000 years.

There will also be several informal outdoor musical events for those wishing to picnic, listen to music and even sing along in the fresh air and relaxed atmosphere of this spring festival. Stalls will be selling all sorts of handcrafts and other items, and the alfresco festival cafeteria will be doing a brisk business.

www.agfestival.co.il