“Where are we? What the hell is going on?”

These lyrics filled the 180-person hall at New York’s Jewish Museum on Thursday evening, as Israeli cellist Maya Beiser launched into the fourth piece of her performance—an original interpretation of Imogen Heap’s chart topper Hide and Seek.

It was an unorthodox choice for a classically trained cellist, but Maya Beiser has always been bold: that’s why she plays the cello, and why she took to the stage for the museum’s Bang on a Can series, which is dedicated to promoting innovative music.

On the small kibbutz in northern Israel where she was raised, every child was given an instrument to play at the age of six. Most kids asked for violins, Beiser remembers, but “being the rebel that I am, I asked for a cello.” She wanted an instrument that no one else on the kibbutz played.

This choice set her on her path towards becoming the world-renowned cellist that she is today. Beiser, educated at Yale University, trained on the classical masters—Brahm, Bach—but then she started to listen to rock and roll.

The music she composes, arranges, and plays is inspired by the varied musical influences she’s had throughout her life. “I was always fascinated by different kinds of music,” she explains. “Schubert, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd. One of my earliest memories was hearing the muezzin’s call to prayer.” Her kibbutz, Gazit, is located near many Arab villages.  Plus, growing up, her Argentinian father instilled in her a love of tango music, and her French-born mother ensured she had an appreciation for the French musical greats.

“Spin me around again / and rub my eyes / this can’t be happening”

This Imogen Heap lyric captures the spirit of Beiser’s performance. All of her aforementioned influences and more crept into her Bang on a Can concert, making for an eclectic, somewhat disorganized recital. But then she jolted the audience with her debut performance of her arrangement of ‘Hide and Seek’ on the electric cello. It was bold, risky, and startling; totally different from classical cello compositions, and even from Beiser’s more experimental work. The fact that she played this electronic hit on a cello was unique in and of itself, but she went above and beyond by singing along with the robotic song. She played dubstep on the cello, and sang using a Vocoder. “It’s almost like the cello is controlling my voice to the computer,” she explains.

As evidenced by her music, Beiser very much marches to the beat of her own drum—or to the pluck of her own cello. “I always had a very strong personality,” she tells me. “The classical music world is kind of too strict and stiff for me. I always wanted to do things my own way.” And she has.

In addition to her unique compositions and rock covers, Beiser is an Israeli feminist hero. When she was 17 and conscripted to the Israeli army, she insisted that she wanted to audition for the elite army string quartet. Until that point, in the early 1980s, women weren’t allowed into the unit. Beiser recalls being told she couldn’t audition. “I said if you don’t let me audition, I’ll go to the press,” she explains with pride. “I fought my way,” she remembers, and she won. That year, the army accepted Beiser and another female musician into the quartet, bringing an end to the ban on women.

Since then, she has continued to promote women in her industry. On Thursday, Beiser’s repertoire consisted exclusively of female composers, going all the way back to the medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen. “It’s crazy, it really is insane, that in the twenty-first century we still have to be in that place where we have to make an effort to actually make a program that would include women composers,” she reflects. “It’s a sad reality.”

(Image care of Christina Jensen PR. Credit: ioulex.)

The post Spotlight On: Israeli Cellist Maya Beiser appeared first on Jewcy.

For a young person watching an old Charlie Chaplain movie, it might take a bit of explanation for them to truly understand why Chaplain was such a groundbreaking figure and what he meant to the American cultural landscape.  For Harry Houdini on the other hand, an explanation probably isn’t necessary.  Watching somebody shackled at their hands and feet being dropped off a bridge and then surfacing unencumbered within seconds, lets just say it hold up.  What might actually require a bit of explaining, is what Houdini represented to the America of the late 19^th, early 20^th. To truly understand what Houdini meant to his craft, the world at large, and the American Jewish legacy, The Jewish Museum’s Houdini exhibit is an absolute must see.

The first feature of the exhibit depicts one of Houdini’s most famous tricks: the straitjacket escape.  Photos and video of Houdini display the feat is in its quick and striking glory.  Although not Houdini’s earliest trick, the straightjacket is prominently displayed right off the bat, it seems, as a metaphor for Harry Houdini’s embodiment of the immigrant experience, a first glimpse at the overall thesis of the exhibit.

Moving on, we see a timeline biography of Houdini (born Erik Weisz): baby photos, his rabbi father’s Hebrew bible, and a travel diary and newspaper clippings are included in the glass-enclosed timeline.  It’s explained that few artists ever depicted Harry Houdini and therefore most of the images of him come from photos by newspaper photographers. As a result, all the photographs of Houdini originate from early 20^th century newspapers, giving the entire exhibit this distinct sepia-tone, vintage aesthetic.  The exhibit continues displaying a multitude of original tickets and flyers from actual magic shows.

As you proceed through the museum, the sheer impressiveness of Houdini’s feats increase with each step.  Displayed in the second room are actual sewing needles from a trick in which Houdini swallowed a number of needles and then thread, only to regurgitate them a moment later with each needle perfectly threaded.   One of Houdini’s most famous tricks, was the “Milk Can Escape,” in which Houdini, naked and handcuffed was submerged in a milk can filled with water.  In describing this trick, the museum also details Houdini’s knack for showmanship.  Like a master architect, Houdini would plan each trick so as to shock and crowd as much as possible.  For instance: during the milk can trick, a large man brandishing an axe would stand beside the can.  Once Houdini had been inside the can for long enough that the crowd would begin to worry, the man would ready the axe about to chop open the can in order to free Houdini before he suffocated.  Just as the man would pull back to swing the axe, Houdini would emerge safely as the crowd sighed in collective relief.  Displayed in the center of the exhibit’s main room was a huge milk can actually used by Houdini for the escape.

One of Houdini’s nicknames was, “The Handcuff King,” for his ability to escape any set of handcuffs.  The exhibit explains that a very young Eric Weisz apprenticed for a locksmith in order to help out his struggling family, but spent a lot of his time tinkering with the locks on his own.  Afterwards, his mother’s attempts to lock up the sweets in the house so that he wouldn’t eat them all became futile.

The reminder of the exhibit is rich with artifacts and memorabilia that explore Houdini’s fame: films depicting his life, Houdini inspired art and videos of modern magicians who pay tribute to him.  The exhibit does a wonderful job reminding the visitor of how fame worked in a time before the internet or television.  The American zeitgeist was very much the result of a mindset of strangers in a strange land.  Houdini represented that zeitgeist.  He was an immigrant whose parents didn’t even speak English, and, inspired by the world around him, he strove to work harder than anyone else.  This is what people once respected in their celebrities.  The spin that the Jewish Museum subtly puts on this picture is that Houdini further represents an archetype not only of the hardworking immigrant, but of the hard working immigrant Jew.  Houdini, like so many Jews who came after him and rose to fame, embodied the notion of the underdog, and dedicated himself to his craft.  For anyone looking for a reminder of what can of dedication and hard work can bring, or for any Jew looking for a reminder of what our ancestors have accomplished, the Houdini Exhibit will serve to reinforce a sense of pride and perseverance for a long time to come.

The Houdini Exhibit will run thru March 27th at The Jewish Museum (1109 5th Ave. @92nd St)

The post Houdini Reappears At The Jewish Museum appeared first on Jewcy.