By Atara Beck
Tribune Correspondent
The award-winning Renanim Youth Singers, led by conductor Susan Michaels and accompanied by pianist Mark Andrews, were one of a number of vocal groups who treated the Toronto community to a delightful pre-Passover concert last week at Leah Posluns Theatre.
Titled From Generation to Generation, the evening included performances by U of T’s Varsity Jews (conducted by Robbie Burko), York’s Kol Neshama (conducted by Etta Abramson), and the Miles Nadel JCC Community Choir (conducted by Harriet Witchin), as well as the Miles Nadel JCC Youth Singers (conducted by Susan Michaels).
The singers ranged in age from 8 to 80, and the enjoyable musical features varied from the very traditional to the modern. The beauty of the music was enhanced in a few of the pieces by flutist Shawna Basiuk, whose playing was mesmerizing.
Many were pleasantly surprised by the remarkable musical talent in this community. The program was also unique in that it represented the diversity of this city’s Jewish population, united in song.
For the fifth consecutive year, the talented Renanim Youth Singers are the winners of the Kiwanis Music Festival’s First Class Honour Award. Susan Michaels, its gifted director, is an award-winning music educator. The group is scheduled to visit Israel during the 2006 winter vacation, and last Tuesday’s concert was a fundraiser to help achieve that goal. Arrangements are being made for Renanim to entertain, among others, new immigrants and low-income families who otherwise might not have the opportunity to attend a concert of this calibre. They are also hoping to visit Yad Vashem, the Children’s Holocaust Museum and Shalva, an association for mentally and physically challenged children, and to meet with the Moran Chamber Ensemble at Moshav Beit Yitzhak.
Nava Baltman, a parent volunteer, introduced the concert as “a celebration of our freedom here. We pray that others not as fortunate will be redeemed soon.”
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