Player pianos, pianolas and piano rolls were all the rage during Prohibition.
By the early 1920’s new advances in piano-roll technology gave rise to a complex, performance-oriented style of music that became the soundtrack of an era.
All types of music were recorded on piano rolls, from Ragtime to folk songs; from Jazz to Cantorial masterpieces. So….can these “Boardwalk Empire” era Jewish piano rolls still find an audience in today’s fast-paced electronic world?Read More About This…
Known as the Last of the Red Hot Mamas, Sophie Tucker had a career that began in vaudeville, embraced the new jazz age of the 1920’s and lasted well into the 1960s.
Widely known for her bawdy humor (which may seem tame by today’s standards) and her big personality, she never lost touch with her Jewish roots.Read More About This…
Equally at home on the opera stage and in the synagogue, Stephen Texon’s successful and distinguished singing career spans decades.
The Judaica Sound Archives is delighted to add the voice of Cantor Stephen Texon to its distinguished online collection of Cantorial and operatic recordings. A native New Yorker, Texon studied at Yeshiva University and NYU. His rich baritone voice was a natural for the opera stage and he was inspired to pursue operatic training in Geneva, Switzerland and at the Met in NYC.Read More About This…
Martin Bookspan had life-long friendships with two great classical music geniuses, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland.
As the voice of the PBS television series Live from Lincoln Center from 1976 to 2006, Martin Bookspan riveted audiences with his eloquently distinctive voice and extensive knowledge of classical music. The N.Y. Times (May 24, 2006) described Bookspan as “One half erudite informer, the other half grandfatherly guide, [who kept audiences] tuned in during intermissions with easy-to-digest program notes and anecdotes.”
A generous supporter of the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University Libraries, Bookspan spoke before a sold-out audience at FAU Libraries’ 2013 Kultur Festival in March.Read More About This…
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