Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Zickel, a 10-year member of the San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir.
Hi Mark, please kick things off for us with an introduction to the Choir and your story.
The San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir all began in 1998 as an idea in the living room of our first musical director, Rhoda Gaylis. A bunch of guys who grew up in the Jewish community of South Africa and immigrated to San Diego got together to bring their experience of traditional, South African-style Ashkenazi Orthodox music to San Diego.
Our current musical director, Ruth Weber, took over in 2011, and the Choir quickly evolved creatively from that point on. To our traditional liturgical music, we added a wide variety of numbers of many styles, from liturgical to folk to contemporary pop, and in languages like English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). We now have hundreds of songs in our repertoire, and it must be noted that we perform all of these songs “off book,” meaning that we perform from memory without music.
Under Ruth’s direction, today the San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir is known as “25 good-looking guys who can also sing and dance.” (Ruth added “choral-ography,” choir-appropriate dance moves to our skillset.) Choir members range in age from early 20s to late 80s and hail from several different countries. Since 2012, we have produced 3 award-winning albums, one of which charted near the top of its category in Billboard Magazine’s listing of the top CDs. Music from all albums is regularly played on radio stations across the country.
The Choir has performed locally in a number of venues including the Lyceum Theater, Humphrey’s by the Bay, the Avo Theater in Vista, The Mark in Los Angeles, and in numerous synagogues, churches, festivals, and public libraries, including the downtown San Diego library. We have made television appearances on Jewish Life TV and for the Chabad national telethon. We have even performed on the road in Omaha, Nebraska with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and in Phoenix, Arizona, with more trips coming in the future.
Some of our favorite concerts are at local senior centers. Our music seems to awaken something special in those audiences, even in some of the more seemingly unresponsive residents. Seeing a hint of a smile on their faces or a small movement of their hands is just incredible. And, of course, the more able residents and staff of those communities are particularly joyous.
Through it all, regardless of venue, audience, or medium, we stick to our mission:
Our mission reflects our love and desire to preserve, promote, and share our rich heritage of beautiful Jewish choral music. This is fulfilled through our performances at community events, festivals, senior centers, synagogues, and through the worldwide distribution of our CDs and digital recordings—often free of charge to worthy causes.
“Our mission reflects our love and desire to preserve, promote, and share our rich heritage of beautiful Jewish choral music. This is fulfilled through our performances at community events, festivals, senior centers, synagogues, and through the worldwide distribution of our CDs and digital recordings—often free of charge to worthy causes.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have come a long way. Certainly, the endurance of the Choir over the years has been remarkable, from its unlikely inception to getting a new musical director 14 years into our journey, to persisting, producing, and performing music through COVID, and finally to the occasional loss of an older member for health reasons or even death.
The COVID pandemic was an extreme test of the Choir’s perseverance, as it was for the rest of the world. We were unable to rehearse or perform in person, so we, like so many people, resorted to Zoom. The problem with virtual music rehearsing, though, was that there was technically no way for us to synch up due to digital delays. We were each required to mute ourselves and sing along alone in our homes listening to the accompaniment and direction. Under Ruth’s creative guidance and ingenuity, we were able to produce two virtual performances anyway and release a third album.
The story of producing those virtual performances is worth telling. Since the Choir couldn’t get together in person, Ruth created musical “guide tracks,” and each of the members had to record themselves singing while listening to the guide tracks through headphones. Once those recordings were mixed, each of the members then had to video themselves lip-singing to the mix being played through their computer speakers. Those individual videos were digitally submitted, and the audio and video was combined creatively in studio. Amazing!
One of the challenges is to inspire the members to adapt, change, and keep pace with the evolution of the creative vision for the Choir under Ruth’s direction. Despite the occasional initial doubt or grumbling about memorizing all that music or learning dance steps, in every case the men, regardless of their ages, have embraced the challenges and have outperformed everyone’s expectations, including their own. The cliché that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” certainly does not apply here. The San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir is seriously entertaining!
One final challenge that also turns out to be an opportunity: Historically many in the choir have been “on the older side.” We do have some attrition due to the age or illness of some, but the good news is that we are always recruiting. This gives us the opportunity to bring in new, often younger voices, thereby fulfilling our mission by appealing to a younger generation that will continue to preserve and proliferate this important music.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As stated above, the Choir’s mission reflects our love and desire to preserve, promote, and share our rich heritage of beautiful Jewish choral music. This is fulfilled through our performances at community events, festivals, senior centers, synagogues, and through the worldwide distribution of our CDs and digital recordings–often free of charge to worthy causes.
The Choir originally performed liturgical music, but about 10 years ago it recognized that the best way to achieve this mission was to diversify our repertoire to include traditional “folk” and more contemporary pieces in order to attract and include a broader audience. This elevates the overall interest of that audience in our entire book of Jewish music, including both the contemporary and the liturgical.
Please note that, in addition to and part of the fulfillment of our mission, The San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir is available to perform for hire at a variety of functions, including weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, conventions, meetings, and a variety of other events. We welcome all inquiries.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
1. NEVER say it’s not possible! Who would have thought that a small group of Jewish guys practicing in someone’s living room for fun would be able to release three albums, go on a couple of tours, AND now work towards a documentary film!
2. Maybe you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! All of our music is memorized and performed “off book,” and many of our numbers combine choreographed dancing and singing.
3. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO JOIN A CHOIR! Many of our members have never sung in a choir before and never thought of joining because they don’t read music.
4. The camaraderie and the team spirit you get from singing in a choir is amazing, PLUS research shows that singing in a choir is good for both your cognitive and physical health.
Contact Information:
- Website: http://www.sdjmc.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sdjmchoir/?hl=en (@ sdjchoir)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SanDiegoJewishMensChoir
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEe-6fFuYRwvEXC1mbavlg
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AZD419Q3okwSzWPyECAFk
Image Credits
SDJMC_
Melinda Finn
John Weber
