What started out five years ago as a collaboration between two music teachers has expanded into a well-anticipated and well-attended non-sporting event for the local elementary day-school world.
In 2009, Marsha Greenberg, music director at Yavneh Academy, invited her colleague Naomi Cohen, then music director at SAR, to bring her choir to Yavneh for an evening of choral music. The evening was such a resounding success that the following year, SAR hosted the event, and the choirs of Ramaz, led by Randi Wartelsky and Daniel Henkin were invited to join in.
Now called the “Inter-School Choral Festival,” this year’s concert took place on May 28, Yom Yerushalayim, and for the second year in a row was hosted at the magnificent Park East Synagogue, thanks to the participation of the Park East Day School. A capacity crowd enjoyed an evening of choral music by eight choirs from six schools: Park East Day School, under the direction of Esther Radzyner; the two choirs of the Ramaz School; the SAR choir, now under the direction of Shim Cramer; the Heschel School choir led by Naomi Katz Cohen; the Moriah choir under the direction of Sharon Kinstlinger, and the Yavneh Junior Chorus and Concert Choir under the direction of Marsha Greenberg Motzen.
In the grand finale salute to Jerusalem, all of the schools, approximately 150 singers, joined together on the bimah for a medley of Yerushalayim songs, created from selections chosen by each school, and a communal sing-a-long of “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav.”
A lovely reception followed in the Park East ballroom. Everyone who attended was uplifted by the music and spirit of camaraderie that was evident among the students, as it was not a competition, just music for music’s sake.
The music teachers involved are already hard at work trying to coordinate a date for next year’s event.
By Marsha Greenberg Motzen
