Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert premiers on PBS TV Wednesday,
December 3 at 8 pm (check local listings at www.pbstv.org/tvschedules), WLIW TV announced today.
The musical special features an eclectic group of performers, many of them well-known in the Jewish music scene along with artists not normally associated with the genre or the holiday.
lights: Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert is hosted and produced by international Jewish musician Craig Taubman. The concert special celebrates the holiday that everyone can enjoy. As Taubman says, “You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this show.”
lights: Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert will also be available as a musical CD via Craig ‘N Co.’s website www.craignco.com, and at national retailers on November 4, 2008. A special edition of the CD, plus a DVD of the entire special will be available for purchase via local PBS TV stations during their pledge drives in December.
lights: Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert offers a diverse and joyous new way of looking at the holiday for all generations. Grammy winners The Klezmatics share songs from their hit Hanukkah album featuring lyrics by Woody Guthrie with high energy and old country charm, while Cantor Alberto Mizrahi - the “Jewish Pavarotti” familiar to PBS audiences from the special “Cantors: A Faith in Song” - wows the audience with his Middle-Eastern rendition of “Ocho Kandelikas.” In a brilliant blending of tradition and innovation, Mizrahi also performs a collaborative number with the award winning Keshet Chayim dance ensemble.
Michelle Citrin, whose YouTube videos “Rosh Hashanah Girl” and “Twenty Things to Do with Matzah” have received millions of hits, gets the crowd singing along to Peter Yarrow’s “Light One Candle.” Emmy Award winner Mare Winningham, a recent convert to Judaism, tells her unique story through “A Convert Jig,” while Grammy nominee and top-selling saxophonist Dave Koz transforms “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” into a song about hope - and a potential new Hanukkah classic.
Multi-instrumentalist Josh Nelson leads a children’s choir in the moving ballad “L’Dor Vador,” Gospel singer Joshua “The Prince” Nelson puts a new spin on “I Have A Little Dreidel,” and Rabbi David Wolpe (named the #1 pulpit rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2008) adds to the proceedings with touches of inspiration throughout the program. Taubman performs a number of songs including his original compositions “Shehechianu” (with his sister, cantor Caren Glasser), “Holy Ground” (with the dance troupe BodyTraffic), and the traditional
melody “Maoz Tzur” (a duet with multi-Grammy winner Laurence Juber).
lights: Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert is a co-production of International Media and WLIW New York.
DETAILS: lights: Celebrate Hanukkah Live In Concert CD release available nationally on November 4, 2008. SRP: $15. Visit http://www.craignco.com to order online. Air dates on PBS TV stations nationwide in December; dates and times to be announced soon.
