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Judi Axelrod - Conductor & Music Director

Biography

Main goals or my "raison d'etre"

   To discover the essence of the piece, go deep and then deeper still
   To communicate to the audience
   To be interesting, even theatrical at times
   To work for beauty of tone, vocal colours and styles, and,
   To be aesthetic, musically and visually

Shortly after immigrating to Israel in 1981, she joined the Cameran Singers under the direction of Avner Itai. Aaron Harlap invited her to be joint founder of the Jerusalem Chamber Opera Theatre where she sang and directed for the stage and TV. She was appointed Music Director of the Madrigal Quartet in 1988 who went on to perform in all the major vocal festivals of Israel, at State occasions in the presence of Yitchak Rabin and Shimon Peres, Chaim Herzog in the President's House, for the Vatican Holy Emissaries on their official recognition of the State of Israel and abroad.

Ms. Axelrod has given workshops on vocal technique, opera and the art of performance in high schools, at the Matan Summer School of Music and the Hebrew Union College. She also wrote, directed and performed specially designed programs on opera for children and youth, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Arts Nationwide and Jeunesse Musicale. She has recordings on compact disc and radio.

In 2002, Judi Axelrod decided to concentrate on conducting. This led to appearances in the Knesset, the Israel Museum and concert venues all over the country. Her appearances as conductor in the Abu Gosh Vocal Festivals received high critical acclaim and these concerts were recorded live both for Kol Hamusika, and for two of the Abu Gosh Festival compact discs, "African Mass" and "Balkan Voices".

Judi Axelrod has conducted the Zamir Chorale, the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir with the Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra and is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers.

On occasion, Judi Axelrod has also been called upon to act and read poetry; noteworthy are some educational recordings for BBC English courses; the play "Not I" ('mouth') by Samuel Beckett, and "Voices" by composer Ben-Zion Orgad, together with Mira Zakai, with texts from "The Image of Woman" by Rebecca Rass. Radio programmes devised by Ilana Zuckerman were broadcast on Kol HaMusika with Judi Axelrod reading poetry in English set to original music. She also sang a coloratura soprano melody for a radio jingle with David D'or advertising classical music on Galgalatz! Most enjoyable was her participation in Ruben Salamon's first solo album, (the singer-song writer of Atraf, and her husband), providing vocal harmonies on some of the tracks.

On a more personal note...

I have had the rewarding job of teaching, coaching and nurturing many singers. Perhaps now is the time to mention a few of them since they were all a very important part of my professional life as a musician. They still are.

Not in any order.

Gal James, Shira Green, Sharon Dvorin, Samuel de Beck-Spitzer, Reuven Aristiki, Kinneret Ely (New York), Hannah Rosenfeld (London), Sarah Spielman, Noar Naggan, Imanuel Witztum, Jill Rogoff, Sandy Cash, Betty Klein, Brigitte Chaviv, Tirzah Singer, Judith Paull-Litoff, Chana Ran, Marlena Fuerstman, Judy Kahan, Daniel Ran, Ruben Salamon, Jay Shir, Haim Isaacs (Paris), Ruth Magen-Wieder, HUC and JTS Cantorial students (U.S.), drama students of Aspaklaria Theatre and Nissan Nativ, members of the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, soloists of the Jerusalem A Cappella Singers, Renen choir, Zamir chorale.

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Repertoire

I plan to start two new ensembles; one will specialize in ethnic folklore music, starting with Bulgaria and Romania, both vocal and instrumental and with a theatrical leaning; the other ensemble will focus on Jewish liturgy, Israeli art songs and classical vocal music with biblical texts. Am gathering singers and am always interested to hear from new ones.

Over the many years of my career I have performed a wide range of musical styles. Always curious, I am constantly exploring and discovering new repertoire and am not afraid of making daring artistic choices. This has meant that my musical scope has ranged from the madrigals of the renaissance to the throat singing of the Bulgarian women. For this reason, rather than presenting a long list of composers, I have decided to highlight some of the programmes that have introduced new repertoire to audiences and singers alike. They are listed below, not in any particular order.

"Festa Italiana"
In the Abu Gosh Festival programme, "Festa Italiana" (An Italian Feast) I worked on the different styles of Monteverdi, Antonino Lotti and Luigi Rossi with period instruments. In the works of Rossini and Donizetti I noticed the intensely lyrical melodies and harmonies. This led to my investigating the ethnic music of Italy where I discovered the male voices of Sardinia and their vocal tradition.

"Bach and African Mass"
When Chana Tsur, the Artistic Director of the Abu Gosh Festival first invited me to perform in the Festival with the Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers, she gave me the title "Bach and African Mass". I chose Bach's "Lobet den Herrn" and Chana gave me the African Mass by Norman Luboff for choir and percussion with Chen Zimbalista as our soloist: "So you want to write a fugue?" for choir composed by Glenn Gould was an entertaining addition to this programme.

"Balkan Voices"
The moment I discovered the "Mysterious Voices of the Bulgarian Women" I was totally hypnotized by their vocal production and arrangements. And thus the programme "Balkan Voices" was born. I found the arrangements of Bulgarian songs for women by Ivan Spassov and Philip Koutev. As an admirer of Goran Bregovic and Kusturica I rearranged Ederlezi for 4 voices, brass ensemble and percussion and found some Serbian and Roma gypsy songs for female voices and brass. I included Antonin Dvorak and Zoltan Kodaly whose choral music is renowned and added a Slavic Liturgy, "St John Chrysostum" by Stevan Mocranjac.

"Magical Voices from the Baltic Sea"
I am always looking for unusual pieces that are written for men only or for women only. This gives me the chance to form small ensembles and explore ethnic art songs with new vocal colours and timbres. In our "Magical voices from the Baltic Sea" one of my singers introduced me to some unusual Finnish folklore singing; clearly northern and "other". Thanks to Zmira Lutsky I was introduced to Veljo Tormis, the "Bartok" of Estonia. Arvo Part had long been a favourite of mine and along with Henryk Gorecki and Edvard Grieg I was able to incorporate some deeply spiritual vocal music into the Baltic programme.

"Best of British"
As a true Brit, I was eager to perform the "Lamentations of Jeremiah" by Thomas Tallis along with works by Benjamin Britten and William Byrd and as soon as I started conducting the Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers I embarked upon a programme called "Best of British" which also included works by Henry Purcell, Elgar, Arne, Henry VIII, Lennon and McCartney and English and Scottish folksongs.

"Portrait of the Madrigal Quartet"
During my 15 years as singer/director of the Madrigal Quartet I specialized in European and English madrigals and had the good fortune to work with Anthony Rooley and Emma Kirkby on stylistic ideas.

In the year 2002 I was invited by Judith Paull-Litoff to conduct the Jerusalem Zamir chorale. This was the turning point in my career as a conductor and I knew that this was the path I must follow.

Zamir Chorale, Jerusalem
With the Zamir Chorale, I focused mainly on Jewish and Israeli music as well as English madrigals, William Billings and Vaughan Williams. Some of the Israeli composers I performed included Yehezkel Braun, Mordechai Seter, Paul Ben Haim, Oedon Partos, Menachem Wiesenberg, Arie Levanon, Gil Aldema, Uri Givon and Nomi Shemer.

Whilst conducting the Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers I was also conducting the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir. The repertoire was quite different, most of which was performed with orchestra.

Jerusalem Oratorio Choir
In the three years that I conducted Zamarei Oratorio, the largest choir out of the four choirs managed by Haggai Goren, I prepared my singers for all the big works they were to perform under the baton of Ronen Borshevsky which included extracts from the Faure Requiem, the Requiem by Mozart, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Psalm 42, Polovztian Dances by Borodin, "Dies Irae" from the Verdi Requiem and the Chorus of Gypsies, from Il Trovatore by Verdi. I conducted them in the Vivaldi "Magnificat" with soloists, strings and continuo and as my parting performance I conducted the Ra'anana Symphonette and the full Jerusalem Oratorio Choir in the Halleluyah Chorus of Handel's Messiah in the Henry Crown Auditorium.

Romantic Germany
The great German composers of choral music: Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Rheinberger and Brahms.

Other styles and genres
Since my teens I have had a deep appreciation and love of 20th Century music. Some of the composers I have conducted include Poulenc, Messiaen, Ravel and Debussy, Samuel Barber, Bela Bartok, John Cage and John Tavener.

The Holocaust
The composers of the Holocaust have a special place in my heart. Terezin was "home" to many great artists and musicians before they were transported off to Auschwitz; people like Gideon Klein, Victor Ullman and Pavel Haas.

Jewish composers of the St. Petersburg School, 1908;
Schkliar, Engel, Krein and Max Helfman are some of the composers I recorded for the radio and a concert tour in Mexico. Yiddish pieces by Avraham Goldfaden and liturgical pieces by Louis Lewandowsky and Salamone Rossi have also been part of my choral programmes.

Negro spirituals have a special energy which I enjoy greatly and I have incorporated them into several of my programmes with all the choirs I have conducted.

Christmas carols
Since I have rehearsed in the beautiful Y.M.C.A. in Jerusalem for many years, I was happy to repay their kindness and provide them with a concert of Christmas carols for Christmas Eve, 2007.

Repertoire for educational purposes:

Ministry of Culture and Education and Noar Musicali (Jeunesse Musicale)
Equally rewarding are the many years I have spent singing and acting for children. Of the various programmes on vocal music I created for schools, most notable and still being performed is "Let's create an opera, Shilgiya and the 7 dwarfs" which I wrote and directed in 1992 - music and libretto by Amnon Beham. The overwhelming success of this "pocket opera" lead to a large scale production of Humperdinck's opera "Hansel and Gretel" which I directed and where I sang the role of Gretel.

The Kfar Saba youth choir invited me to direct the Hindemith opera "Wir bauen eine stadt".

"If music be the food of love, sing on, sing on..."

Compiled in January, 2008, to be continued...

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Discography

Jerusalem Madrigal Quartet "A Portrait"
Music Director and Soprano: Judi Axelrod

A Criolla Celebration and an African Mass
The Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, Volume 4
The Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers with Chen Zimbalista (Percussion)
Conductor and Music Director: Judi Axelrod

With all my soul
Kehilat Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem
Conductor and Music Director: Judi Axelrod

Balkan Voices
The Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, Volume 6
The Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers with Brass Ensemble & Percussion
Conductor and Music Director: Judi Axelrod

The Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers
Coming 2008...

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Contact

Judi Axelrod:

Mobile: +972 (0)522 315 865
Email: just_in AT netvision DOT net DOT il

Jerusalem A-Cappella Singers:

Artur Frajnd:
Mobile: +972 (0)506 232 506
Email: artur AT mekaver DOT gov DOT il

Hallel - The Israel Choral Organisation (ISCO):

The Israel Choral Organisation

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