The Brooklyn
Philharmonic kicks off its fourth season of "Music Off the
Walls" on Nov. 13 with its "Jewish Mosaic" program.
Sunday’s concert will explore – through music – the themes and
ideas presented in the current Brooklyn Museum exhibition, "Tree
of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire."
The chamber music line-up, which traces the path of ancient cantorial
singing into music new and old, includes works by Gabriela Lena
Frank, Maurice Ravel, Yehudi Wyner, George Perle and Paul Ben-Haim.
Cellist David Calhoun (pictured) will be among the musicians
performing works by this very international coterie of composers.
The exhibition, "Tree of Paradise," which is on display
in the first floor Robert E. Blum gallery through June 4, includes
21 Roman period mosaics as well as 38 related artifacts such
as textiles, marble statues, gold jewelry and bronze ritual objects.
"Tree of Paradise," which was organized by Edward Bleiberg,
associate curator in the museum’s department of Egyptian, Classical,
and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, includes mosaic panels that were
part of the sanctuary floor of the synagogue in Hammam Lif, Tunisia,
which were accidentally discovered on Feb. 17, 1883. On that
day, according to the museum, French army captain Ernest de Prudhomme
ordered his soldiers to prepare his backyard for a garden where
they simultaneously discovered the mosaics and, in the process,
ushered in the birth of synagogue archaeology.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic’s remaining "Music Off the Wall"
concert dates explore Edward Burtynsky’s photographs of landscapes
(Jan. 15), William Wegman’s photographs of dogs (March 19) and
the art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (April 23).
The Nov. 13 "Jewish Mosaic" concert begins at 3 pm
at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium in the Brooklyn Museum,
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights.
Tickets are $15, $10 for students, seniors and Museum members.
For tickets, call (718) 488-5913 or e-mail patronservices@brooklynphilharmonic.org.
