Publicity
Choristers with a portion of the Kosher for Passover food collected for the National Council of Jewish Women Canada - Toronto Section
Passover Food Drive - 2009
Youth choir to record songs associated with holidays, prayers
By CAROLYN BLACKMAN
Staff Reporter
Page B6 T cjnews.com THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS March 5, 2009
As part of Renanim Youth Singers 10th anniversary celebrations, they are embarking on a new project. The Jewish community youth choir, directed by Susan Michaels, has been invited by Koltor Publishing, a company committed to Jewish interactive learning, to record the tfillot and songs associated with the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays and prayers. The recordings will be incorporated in an interactive multimedia DVD-ROM, which will be distributed to students in congregational and day schools worldwide. The project was developed in collaboration with rabbis, cantors, educators and lay leaders from the Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements.
Tzvi Taub, director of Koltor Publishing, said in a press release that he did not have to think hard about where to enlist help for the project. “Choosing the Renanim Youth Singers to record this important collection of musical prayer was easy for me. The choir’s spirited and soulful sound is inspirational, making it the perfect choice,” he wrote.
Michaels, who is “humbled and grateful” for the recognition, said that it will be a multi-year undertaking for the choir. They will record the materials for grades 1 and 2 in 2009, grades 3 and 4 in 2010 and grades
5 to 7 in 2011.
“This is a natural for us. A core mandate of Renanim is to foster a love for the richness and beauty of our collective Jewish heritage through music, regardless of one’s Jewish affiliation, level of religious observance or schooling,” she said. “Jewish music is the connective channel between emotional and intellectual communication. It taps into the inner soul, the neshamah, and develops a positive sense of Jewish identity and culture for these kids.”
Working with the choir has been a labour of love, Michaels said. “Regardless of how high I set the musical bar, they always meet the standard, and then together we aim even higher. “I have been given the privilege and joy of harnessing their extraordinary talent and enthusiasm. The kids take their music very seriously and can be counted on to perform and behave professionally during community events,” she added.
The choir, Michaels said, is made up of students from elementary school to Grade 12 and represents the entire community. “We have members from every day school in the city and from many public schools.”
She said she is working the new project into the choir’s current rehearsal and performance schedule – they rehearse once a week– which also includes a second singing tour through Israel.
Other 10th anniversary celebrations include the launch of the choir’s second CD, Israel at 60 – Despair to Triumph, featuring songs about the horrors of the Holocaust and about Israel and its accomplishments.
February 3, 2009 - Press Release
Toronto’s Renanim Youth Singers Chosen for Unprecedented Worldwide Music Education Project
TORONTO, On. – Jewish schools across North America, Europe and Israel are about to receive an injection of Jewish song and prayer, as Toronto’s Renanim Youth Singers embark on a unique global learning project.
Fresh off a string of high profile performances and accolades, Renanim Youth Singers has been invited to record the T’fillot and songs associated with the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays and prayer. The recordings, designed for inclusion in congregational and day schools in different parts of the world, will be incorporated in an interactive multimedia DVD-ROM which will be distributed to students.
This unprecedented project, initiated by Koltor Corp., a publishing company committed to Jewish interactive learning, was developed in collaboration with rabbis, cantors, educators and lay leaders from the Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements. It will be a multi-year undertaking for Renanim as they record the material for grades one and two in 2009, grades three and four in 2010 and grades five to seven in 2011.
Tzvi Taub, director of Koltor Publishing, didn’t have to think hard about where to enlist help for the project.
“Choosing the Renanim Youth Singers to record this important collection of musical prayer was an easy choice for me,” Taub says. The choir’s spirited and soulful sound is inspirational, making it the perfect choice for the project.”
Susan Michaels, artistic director for Renanim, has gladly taken on the challenge and calls it a “labour of love”.
“This is a natural for us,” says Michaels “A core mandate of Renanim is to foster a love for the richness and beauty of our collective Jewish heritage through music, regardless of one’s Jewish affiliation, level of religious observance, or schooling. Jewish music is the connective channel between emotional and intellectual communication. It taps into the inner soul, the “neshama” and develops a positive sense of Jewish identity and culture for these kids.”
Michaels, the daughter of observant Holocaust survivors and sister of Hollywood producer/director Ivan Reitman, has led the choir to numerous high profile performances, both here and abroad and is now celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Music Education Project is being worked into the choir’s current rehearsal and performance schedule, which also includes a planned singing tour through Israel - the second for Renanim.
Renanim and Koltor have a second teaming project in the works as selections from Renanim’s recently released CD, Despair to Triumph – Israel @ 60 will serve as the musical backdrop in an online educational unit for Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim).
For additional information regarding the Music Education Project, contact Susan Michaels at 416-449-2296
or Tzvi Taub at 905-884-6484.
Koltor Publishing is committed to Jewish education and develops products that help educators and students harness the infinite instructional possibilities of interactive learning. Koltor’s products include the interactive Trope Training course "Chant the Bible”, “High Holidays Chant the Bible”, as well as “The Heritage Keyboard” series.
Canadian Jewish News, January 15, 2009
Renanim Youth Singers collected donations for the Kosher Food Bank at their recent Chanukah Party and Talent Show in December, 2008