From the Choir Gallery

(or, these days, The Choir in the Round)

Elliot Burman - Choirmaster

The NWES Choir has continued to provide full choral accompaniment to all the major religious services of the year, most of the weddings (with a new electric organ) and other special services at our Shul. With Chazan Jeremy Lawson, we have worked hard to learn new arrangements of the prayers, some as sung by the Hechal Shlomo Choir in Jerusalem, a much larger choir than ours. We hope you appreciate our efforts to reproduce this music at St Petersburgh Place.

The Choir recently sang at Golders Green Synagogue in the farewell concert for Rabbi David Katanka, where the compère referred to us as "one of the best synagogue choirs, not only in this country but the world." We are singing a choral Selichot Service in Alexandra Road Synagogue in Southend, which will be one of the last major services before that lovely synagogue closes.

We have welcomed a new chorister into the Choir. He is Gary Fine, a vastly experienced chorister and choirmaster, who is also brilliant at transferring our music into the computer, correcting my frequent errors and producing learning tapes (and he sings superbly, too!). We are delighted to have him as one of us.

On a sadder note, John Bluestone's stonesetting took place in August, with an excellent turnout from the Shul and Choir - we sang Eso Aynai (Psalm 121) at the service which was very moving for all of us. John was a most loyal and conscientious chorister who is sadly missed.

We look forward to helping to lead the Congregation in prayer and music over the Yamim Noraim and throughout the year in our new seating arrangement which is far better for sound quality and communication with the Chazan. We also look forward to the arrival of Rabbi Shisler, whose knowledge of chazanut and Jewish choral music has few equals.

We wish everyone in our community a happy and healthy 5761 and look forward to seeing you in Shul - and hearing you join in!