Temple Chamber Players Wrap First Season

The newly formed Temple Chamber Players, featuring some of the finest classical musicians in Atlanta, wrapped up its first year of performances of “Yiddishkeit: A Story of Song & Prayer,” just before Passover on Sunday afternoon, April 21.

The group is under the direction of Roee Harran, an Israeli-born cellist who has worked with the Atlanta Symphony and the Atlanta Opera and is on the music faculty of Emory University.

The pre-holiday program, which was held in the historic Temple sanctuary on Peachtree Street, devoted a number of short pieces from the 20th century classical repertory that explored the legacy of European Jewish music, “Yiddishkeit: A Story of Song and Prayer.” The series of short selections, mainly from the music of the last 125 years, ranged from “Bei Mir Bist du Sheyn,” the Yiddish show tune that became a hit for the Andrews Sisters during the Swing era of popular music in the 1930s to an evocative musical reading of Ravel’s Kaddish.

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Roee Harran produced The Temple’s Sunday afternoon Chamber music series // Photo Credit: Rachel Linkwald

The works were complemented by the historic setting of The Temple’s large main sanctuary that dates to 1931. The imposing structure is dominated by its unique and elaborate wrought iron railings that frame the bimah at the front of the large worship space and its shining gold metal ark that crowns the setting. The congregation, which dates to the late 1860s, has overhauled the building in recent years.

The rebuild was capped by a state-of-the-art video production facility that was installed in the main sanctuary. Flanking either side of the soaring, classically ornamented worship space are 10-foot square video monitors. They helped to transform the live Chamber Players concert into a hybrid event, which featured pre-taped introductions by the musicians at the Sunday afternoon event.

Cellist Harran told Lois Reitzes on her WABE broadcast, “City Lights,” that the elaborate electronic installation, which is unique to an Atlanta synagogue, complemented the afternoon’s music program.

“The Temple incorporated this high-end, top-notch technology during COVID, with its huge screens. And I thought to myself, since I love chamber music, what a wonderful venue that would be if we could have live music and create this immersive experience that the audience can listen to great music with wonderful musicians and at the same time watch us on these big screens, zooming into our playing and see our facial expressions or hand motions. It’s an experience for classical music lovers that just doesn’t exist at this point in Atlanta.”

Not only does the video installation help provide a greater sense of intimacy in a space that can overwhelm the stage for a small chamber ensemble, but it gives guests a close-up view of the vocal performance that was one of the highlights of the Sunday concert.

The Temple’s Senior Rabbi, Peter Berg, introduced the concert held just before Passover.

The Temple’s recently hired Cantor Tracey Scher, who grew up in Canada, decided on a career in liturgical music after an initial start in opera as a mezzo-soprano. Her beautiful, dramatic rendering of Maurice Ravel’s Kaddish was a perfect complement to The Temple worship setting. The classically trained voice brought back memories of an earlier era in cantorial music, when beautiful sung cantorial melodies by male cantors developed a passionate following not unlike modern day rock stars.

The April concert was one of three that The Temple Players created under Harran’s management. It featured two Kennesaw State University faculty members — violinist Helen Kim and pianist Judy Cole — who also plays for Friday night worship services at The Temple. Rounding out the ensemble was Jesse McCandless, who is also the principal clarinetist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The season launched Oct. 23, two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel on with a benefit performance for the Magen David Adom ambulance service. The program, entitled “Fervor: Journey from Buenos Aires to Germany,” featured violinist David Coucheron, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, with Julie Coucheron at the piano, Justin Bruns on violin, Josiah Cole on viola, with cellist Harran rounding out the ensemble. The afternoon featured two beautiful performances of Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio #1” and Schumann’s “Piano Quintet, Opus 44.”

A performance on March 17 presented “Zest – A Tale of Romantic Reflections,” with Sergiu Schwartz, violin; Josiah Cole, viola; Roee Harran, cello; and Esther Park, piano.