Preserving Tradition

Photograph by Paul Bliese

Jewish life in the United States has a rich musical tradition dating from the colonial period, and the Milken Family Foundation, in Santa Monica, Calif., is doing what it can to preserve the compositions for future generations.

More than 600 compositions and numerous interviews with the people who wrote them make up the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, a multimillion-dollar project that, in most cases, has involved recording pieces of music for the first time.

Whether they were influenced by the Holocaust, played in the synagogue, or performed in Yiddish musical theater, the pieces all reflect an aspect of Jewish history, religion, or sociology. At the end of next year, the foundation expects to release a 20-volume compilation featuring performances by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist; the Seattle Symphony; the Vienna Boys Choir; and many others, including relative unknowns.

The foundation hopes the music will be enjoyed at home and studied in classrooms as a significant cultural achievement.

Says Neil Levin, the archive’s artistic director: “It is one chapter of American music, because what American music is — and what the history of American music is — is a collection of different musics.”

Here, Issachar Miron, a composer who is featured in the archive, and his wife entertain guests at home in New York.