Michael Isaacson
By Michael Isaacson
-
Culture You Shoot, He Scores: The Kibbutz King of Komposers
“My grandparents drained swamps and established Kibbutz Merchavia in northern Israel. My father, an actor/director, and my mother, a teacher/poet, lived on it and raised three sons there… They divorced when I was 20. I moved to Tel Aviv to study at the Music Academy and was advised by my guru, ‘There’s nothing more for…
-
Culture Bound Up for Two Decades: A Test of Faith
Twenty years ago, young composer Lawrence Goldberg entered his one-act opera about the binding of Isaac into The Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles’ competition for a new pulpit opera. Of the resultant piece, “A Test of Faith,” Dr. Richard Braun, chairperson of the commission, reported: “It was just the kind of piece that we hoped…
-
Culture A Strong Voice Quietly Changing the Cantorate
In 1993, as I was preparing to produce a recorded anthology representing 25 years of my synagogue music, I found myself searching for a particular kind of voice — one that was harder to find than you might expect. I was looking for a cantor who could bring an authentic American/Ashkenazic vocal sensibility to the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News A pioneering Reform synagogue makes way for a booming Iranian Jewish community
- 2
News Hampshire College closure reverberates for alumni who treasured a Yiddishist hub
- 3
Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
- 4
News Iran’s regime is obsessed with Jeffrey Epstein
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
-
Looking Forward Stumbling across Jewish history in a vintage store
-
Film & TV Remembering Siskel and Ebert’s great debate: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
-
News A Jewish gun club teams up with the NRA, in pursuit of self-defense
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
