Hundreds of people attended on Sunday the year-end celebration of the Mizmor music school.
The school, which was established this past year and concluded its first year of studies, is one of the first music schools halakhically, socially and culturally established for members of the religious sector.
The celebration, which was held in the Givat Washington religious youth village in central Israel, included musical presentations by the various school ensembles, who presented mainly original works.
The first part of the show involved a performance by the school’s female students, which was open to women only. Musician Daniel Zamir, academic director of Mizmor, said that he sees this as the beginning of a new musical genre.
“In our first year we had about 30 very talented female students,” he said. “It is likely that as the years pass and more girls seek a career in music, the genre of singing performances intended solely for women is only going to intensify. This may be a unique scene in the music world.”
Following the girls’ performance, the male students joined the celebration and students took turns on stage, playing a variety of different musical styles from salsa to cantorial music to an original jazz piece, and more. All ensembles were applauded by the audience, who sometimes did not even wait until the end of the song.
“It is hard to imagine the satisfaction I feel when I see such a high quality show at the end of the school’s first year,” said Mizmor’s principal, Itzik Weiss, at the end of the show.
About 60 students studied at Mizmor this past year. The female students were taught by famous Israeli singer Mika Karni, who taught vocal pedagogy, composition, and interpretation for female singers.