For nearly 16 years, Yuriy Bekker has walked into A World of Jewish Culture at Piccolo Spoleto with a program of music most Charleston audiences have never heard and left them wanting more.
The concertmaster and artistic director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra returns this month with another one. Bekker describes the work as part of his life’s mission.
“I always try to find a theme and put a spotlight on Jewish composers, who made a prominent influence on classical music,” Bekker said.
His approach has been consistent since he took over the chamber music portion of A World of Jewish Culture: never repeat a program and always balance the familiar composer with lesser-known artists. This year, that means opening with Felix Mendelssohn and building toward a composer most people in the room will be hearing for the first time.
The performance takes place Sunday, May 31, at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, the oldest continuously functioning Jewish congregation in North America.
Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein, interim director of the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program and dean of the College of Charleston Honors College, said the concert serves a purpose beyond the music itself.
“Jewish Voices in Classical Music is a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together around music that is both beautiful and meaningful,” she wrote in a statement for the City Paper. “The concert highlights the lasting impact of Jewish composers while creating a welcoming space for people of all backgrounds to listen, reflect, and connect.”
The program opens with Mendelssohn’s string quartet in A minor, Op. 13. Then comes the piece Bekker has been building toward: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s guitar quintet.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Florence in 1895 into an Italian-Jewish family. As Italy adopted racial laws that pushed Jewish families out of professional life in the late 1930s, his career collapsed, Bekker said..
He wrote to violinist Jascha Heifetz for help. In July 1939, he and his family boarded the S.S. Saturnia in Trieste. When they disembarked in New York two weeks later, Arturo Toscanini’s personal assistant met them at the dock to help with arrangements.
Heifetz helped secure work in Los Angeles, where Castelnuovo-Tedesco lived until his death in 1968, teaching a generation of composers that included John Williams, Henry Mancini and Jerry Goldsmith.
Bekker does not think it is a coincidence that this story lands in Charleston. Spoleto Festival USA was founded by Pulitzer prize-winning Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Piccolo Spoleto, which runs alongside it, is now featuring an Italian Jewish composer who escaped Europe and rebuilt his life in North America.
“I think it will be very special and unusual because you don’t hear this every time,” Bekker said.
Bekker said he believes the strategy works, when audiences come to the concert knowing a composer such as Mendelssohn and leave curious about someone new.
“My hope is that when people see Mendelssohn they think ‘okay, we love Mendelssohn — great composer,’” he said, “And then they’ll be introduced to Tedesco and realize, oh my gosh, this composer is brilliant. His music is so accessible and beautiful.”
The five musicians performing with Bekker reflect a mix of long-standing partnerships and new ones, he said.
Benjamin Mekinulov, principal cellist of the Charleston Symphony, joins the ensemble alongside violist Michael Klotz, a Miami-based musician and faculty member at Florida International University who has performed chamber music with Bekker for nearly a decade.
Classical guitarist Mak Grgić, a five-time Grammy Award nominee who appeared as a soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra last season, is a newer collaborator. Violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport, a familiar presence in Charleston through the Color Music Festival, will perform with Bekker for the first time.
“We breathe the same,” Bekker said about the group. “We feel music in a similar way. My hope is that this music will make their day a little bit better.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Jewish Voices in Classical Music takes place Sunday, May 31, at 6 p.m. at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, 90 Hasell St.. The concert runs 60 minutes.
There is no formal dress code, but the venue is a place of worship and respectful attire is encouraged. Tickets are available at citypapertickets.com.
Wesley J. Pérez Vidal is a magazine, news and digital journalism graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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