New voices shine at Piccolo Spoleto's “A World of Jewish Culture”

After 15 years, conductor Yuriy Bekker still manages to find new voices for “A World of Jewish Culture,” the Piccolo Spoleto series of shows and film screenings celebrating Charleston’s Jewish community.

“Over the course of the time that I’ve been curating this show, I have not repeated anything,” said Bekker, who is in charge of the chamber music portion of the series. “I always find and research some new voices — voices that we have not heard of but that we want to put on the map.”

As the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s artistic director and concertmaster, Bekker has lived in Charleston for 18 years. He has spent nearly all of that time curating for “A World of Jewish Culture,” too.

“I always pick music of Jewish composers that have contributed so much to the arts and to humanity,” said Bekker, who will also perform in the June 8 program. It will include Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, Op. 3 but also a violin-piano duo by the lesser-known Erwin Schulhoff.

A ‘life’s mission’ to amplify Jewish voices

While Bekker said he tries to include less prominent Jewish composers, he considers it his “life’s mission” to highlight Jewish musicians and composers as a whole.

“It’s something I relate to very much,” he said. “I was born in Belarus and we fled in 1992. We were refugees because my family were victims of anti-semitism. I was 10 when we came here, and for the first 1o years of my life we had been hiding that we were Jewish.”

The other three musicians performing with Bekker are not Jewish, a fact that doesn’t bother but rather delights him.

“I invite these other musicians to play, and they are excited about this music and this performance,” he said. “We have all nationalities and backgrounds that can play this music and celebrate it.”

While Charleston has a strong Jewish community, Bekker said, it also has the sense of “others helping to lift up this community” that comes through in chamber music.

“I very much feel connected to this music, to these composers,” he said, “and I want to champion them and put them on the map.”

IF YOU WANT TO GO: The “A World of Jewish Culture” chamber music performance is 6 p.m. June 8 at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. Tickets are $20-$30.

Other events from “A World of Jewish Culture” include an encore screening of the film Auction at 4 p.m. June 5 at the College of Charleston Education Center. Tickets are $10. “Sol y Sombra – Music of the Sephardim” at 6 p.m. June 8 at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. Tickets are $20-$30.

Madey Lynch is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.