Saturday, January 24, 2015
PRINZ PROJECT
In Memphis, they are honoring Rabbi Joachim Prinz who, first, helped Jews escape from Nazi Germany before WW II then, after he emigrated to the United States, became an important associate of Dr. Martin Luther King.
A number of co-incident factors helped create this event, which includes the World Premiere of a Violin Concerto by Bruce Adolphe, dedicated to Rabbi Prinz, and performed by the IRIS Orchestra under Michael Stern, written for and performed by violin soloist Sharon Roffman.
Rabbi Joachim Prinz with Dr Martin Luther King
Sharon Roffman
Sharon Roffman, in addition to performing with orchestras and chamber music groups around the world, has been creating curricula and presentations for students, relating their classroom work to music and musical ideas, and bringing the world's finest young musicians to classrooms to perform with the students, who are encouraged and coached to contribute to a joint performance. Her visits to schools integrate the work of the class, whether it be science, math, or historical studies such as the holocaust, with the musical presentation. 'Though not part of the Prinz Project, Sharon has created a foundation, ClassNotes, to bring music and music education into concert halls, and public and private school classrooms around the country and internationally.
Note: My personal connection includes the fact that, as a further coincidence having nothing to do with this event, Rabbi Prinz assisted my wife's parents in escaping from Europe and at their request, along with Rabbi Eugene Sack (my uncle), officiated at our wedding.
Here is Sharon's description of this event, along with an article that appeared in the Memphis newspaper and links to the musicians:
SHARON'S "PRINZ PROJECT" WEBSITES
FROM SHARON'S "NEWS"
http://sharonroffman.com/news/
ARTICLE IN MEMPHIS PAPER
THE IRIS ORCHESTRA
MICHAEL STERN
BRUCE ADOLPHE
Labels: Bruce Adolphe, Joachim Prinz, Memphis, Michael Stern, Sharon Roffman, The Prinz Project. IRIS Orchestra
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
FORTY SHADES OF BLUE
"Very little plot and so much life," is the director's own -- very accurate -- comment on his film, Forty Shades Of Blue, the story of a (beautiful) Russian woman living with a (much older) music producer and their young son in Memphis.
I liked this film a lot. (If it had more plot, so it moved ahead like a freight train going down a hill, it would be a great film, a classic.) Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the film is sensitive, interesting, moving and perceptive.
Directed and co-written by Ira Sachs, this is a film that has been carefully constructed word by word and shot by shot. It was written and re-written several times, and developed in part at the Sundance Institute. The commentary by the director exposes in great detail the process and the thought behind the writing, directing and acting of almost every scene, together with the antecedents in film history. For any student of film making, this is one very valuable DVD.
Especially interesting is the exceptional acting by Dina Korzun, a Russian actress. Her Russian style of acting lends a special kind of intensity to the film. Her behaviour is very different from the way an American would behave. Her English is excellent, and accented just enough to give her strangeness a grounded reality of Russian detail. Rip Torn also gives one of his best performances.
It seems as if every shot, every costume, every set, every word has been planned to enhance the resonance of a story of love and lovelessness, happiness, sadness, discovery and loss.
The careful construction, though, has it's own pitfalls. It is both a strength and weakness of the film that is well described by the director's last words on the DVD: "It's a movie -- whatever you say, it's a movie. It's not life."
Labels: Dina Korzun, Forty Shades of Blue, Ira Sachs, Memphis, Rip Torn, Sundance
