Pre-Cantorial Student to Present Unique Recital of Jewish Music

Laura Breznick, a senior in the University’s pre-cantorial program, will perform a musical program that brings together Jewish culture and the world of the arts.

Her performance, titled “Cycles: From Jewish Life and Culture to the World of the Arts,” will take place on Monday, March 23, at 7 p.m. in Wilde Auditorium. The program is presented by The Hartt School and the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies’ joint program in Pre-Cantorial Studies.

The program is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. For additional information, contact the Greenberg Center at 860.768.4964 or mgcjs@hartford.edu.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Professors Joan Glazier and Jerome Pruett, the University of Hartford offers the only pre-cantorial program for undergraduate students in the United States. The Hartt School’s Vocal Studies Department and the Greenberg Center provide students with a combination of coursework preparing them for future careers in Jewish music and the Cantorate.

Breznick will present her senior recital, which will feature a full cycle of Jewish and contemporary music. The first half of her program will include traditional melodies and contemporary artists. It will begin with the entire Jewish life-cycle events from “womb to tomb” celebrating birth, coming of age (bar mitzvah), wedding and the final steps of life. Some of the traditional melodies will be accompanied by the Temple Sinai Children’s Choir of Newington, and Cantor Donna Gordon of Temple Sinai. Yiddish songs and the works of Jewish composers whose popular music transcended the traditional religious and liturgical melodies of the Jews, such as Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, and Leonard Bernstein, will be featured in the first part of the program.

The second part of the program will feature some of the most beloved art songs from the world of music, including works by Schuman, Schubert, and Guiseppe Giordani. The program will close with a tour de force of the great compositions of Jewish prayer from the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

This event is one of the centerpieces of the semester-long celebration of Jewish Music sponsored by the Greenberg Center . This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree. Laura Breznick is a student of Jerome Pruett and Cantor Sanford Cohn. The concert and reception are made possible, in part, by the Jerry Wagner Jewish Music Collection Fund of the Greenberg Center.