Showtime

America-Israel Cultural Foundation makes 75

By BARRY DAVIS
Vocal Music Festival in the village of Abu Ghosh (photo credit: Courtesy)
Vocal Music Festival in the village of Abu Ghosh
(photo credit: Courtesy)
America-Israel Cultural Foundation makes 75
The America-Israel Cultural Foundation has been supporting the creative evolution and efforts of many of our most promising artists for three quarters of a century. That landmark will be noted on February 5 (8:30 p.m.), when the winners of the 2014 Aviv Competitions join winners of the previous 15 contests, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Lezion for a concert at the Rishon Lezion Heichal Hatarbut.
The conductor for the occasion is Ariel Zuckermann, a past competition winner himself, and he will be joined on stage by two other former winners, cellist Hillel Zori and violinist Guy Braunstein, as well as this year’s successful contestants – French horn player Gal Raviv, violinist Daniel Eisenshtad and pianist Tomer Gvirtzman.
The program includes Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, Saint-Saens’s Cello Concerto, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, excerpts from Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
For tickets: (03) 517-4177
A Different Sonnet
As the title suggests, Megi Rome’s new exhibition feeds off musical themes. “A Different Sonnet,” which opens today at the Office Gallery on Zamenhoff Street in Tel Aviv, and will run until February 28, features musical compositions which appear to have been ripped out of books of sheet music. In fact, the works are painted on cloth, paper and cardboard, with the base material often appearing to be wrinkled or scorched. There are also oil paintings in the collection created in a realistic, almost photographic, manner.
The exhibition also includes an installation based on the figure of an outsized metronome, which beats time to the sonic backdrop of a Bach prelude, performed by Rome – who is also a pianist.
For more information: (03) 525- 4191 and 054-452-7052
Over the Rishon gospel rainbow
Vocalist and pianist wife and husband duo Iris and Ofer Portugali have been putting on all kinds of large-scale, gospel-based shows up and down the country for some years now. Their latest venture, “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” will be unveiled at Cinema City in Rishon Lezion at 9 p.m. on February 12.
The Portugalis will be joined by their Gospel Choir, which will perform a wide range of popular numbers from across a broad disciplinary stretch, including “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” The Beatles’ “Let It Be,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Adon Olam,” “Yom Yavo” and even a gospel rendition of the Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
For tickets: (03) 943-7615
A dance at the Raices The Remangar Flamenco Dance Group will perform its latest work, Raices, in Beersheba, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from February 6 to 15.
The new show is choreographed by Remangar leaders Keren and Avner Pesach, and will feature celebrated Spanish dancer Mariana Martinez, and violinist and oud player Amin Sayegh.
Raices – “Roots” in Spanish – feeds off various eponymous links, and is designed to bond the performers with roots connected with movement, sound and the ground, as well examine a range of elements such as tradition, tribal lifestyle and searching for simplicity.
In addition to Martinez, the show features five dancers, two vocalists and four instrumentalists. The Raices show will take place at the Performing Arts Center on Thursday at 8:30 p.m., the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv on February 14 at 9 p.m., and at the Jerusalem Theater on February 15 at 8:45 p.m.
For tickets: *6226, (08) 626- 6300 (Beersheba); (03) 510- 5656 (Tel Aviv); and (02) 560- 5775 (Jerusalem). For more information: remangar.co.il/
Abu Ghosh Blow
The next installment of the Abu Ghosh Festival winter program will take place at the Kiryat Yearim Church tomorrow at 12 noon.
The concert program includes the Venus and Adonis opera by English baroque composer John Blow, and Henry Purcell’s Orchestral Suite.
The works will be performed by members of the Barrocade Vocale, sopranos Revital Raviv and Ye’ela Avital, and bass Oded Reich, as well as the Ephroni Hey Choir and instrumentalists of the Barrocade – the Israeli Baroque Collective. English conductor Philip Pickett will preside over the proceedings.
For tickets and more information: (02) 623-7000, *6226, www.agfestival.co.il, www.bimot.co.il