Fascinating Fusions

Ladino music from Jewish Music Central
marks the UK launch of the book 'The Sephardic Songbook',
reviewed by MALCOLM MILLER

An enjoyable evening of inspiring Ladino music formed the climactic concert of the first season of Jewish Music Central, held at the Central Synagogue, Hallam St, London W1, UK, on 19 March 2006. Over the last year JMC, an initiative launched by Cantor Steven Leas with the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS, under the leadership of Geraldine Auerbach MBE, has hosted five hugely successful concerts of a wide variety of Jewish music, including two at the South Bank, a Holocaust Memorial Event and this concert, to mark the UK launch of The Sephardic Songbook (C F Peters, 2001, Nr 10849).

The evening began with a talk on the relationship of Peters Edition and Jewish Culture by Irene Lawford-Hinrischsen, a member of the family who once owned Peters Edition, followed by a talk by Dr Hilary Pomeroy, lecturer in Sephardi Studies, about the context of the songs in the collection. The climax of the event was a performance by soprano Monica Acosta, editor at Peters Edition, of a dozen of the exciting collection of 51 Ladino songs originally published in 2001 in Germany by Peters Frankfurt, and now newly available in the UK.

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