Sephardic Music Concert Coming to the Main Line

The following is my story in the February 20, 2020 edition of the Philadelphia Jewish Link about the Bala Cynwyd Library’s Concert Series, which is set to feature a Philadelphia-based ensemble that will present an exciting concert of Sephardic music from Turkey, Greece, and North Africa:

Sephardic Music Concert Coming to the Main Line

David's Harp

One of the best kept secrets on the Main Line is a magical musical performance that takes place twice a year. While the Bala Cynwyd Library Concert Series has delighted local audiences with high quality artistic programming for an incredible 49 consecutive years, the Greater Philadelphia area is in for a real treat when the curtain rises for its next show in March.

On Sunday afternoon, March 8th, “David’s Harp” will perform at the Sylvia Glickman Memorial Concert. The talented Philadelphia-based ensemble will present an exciting concert of Sephardic music from Turkey, Greece, and North Africa. With a program of rollicking Ladino folk tunes and soulful ballads on themes of Jewish ritual, love, and domestic life, the performers will demonstrate the fluidity and blending of diverse musical ideas between Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. Their repertoire is drawn from Ottoman court music, Sephardic pizmonim, Ladino folk songs, Turkish fasil music, and Greek rebetika among many other genres. Since its inception ten years ago, David’s Harp has given standing room only concerts at the Center for Jewish History, Drexel University, Yale University, the Penn Museum, Georgetown University, the Graduate Center CUNY, and many other venues in New York, Philadelphia, and New England.

The concert will take place at 2:00 p.m. at the Levering Mill Tribute House, which is located at 382 Bala Avenue in Bala Cynwyd.

Merion Station resident Dr. Gilya Hodos, who is a member of the Bala Cynwyd Library Board of Trustees, has been running the concert for the past 12 years. Hodos, whose background is in performance and education, has held an adjunct faculty position at Penn State’s Abington campus for the past 14 years.

Hodos’ musical pedigree is quite notable. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in Piano Performance, a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Piano Performance. In addition, Hodos, who runs a number of other concert series in the area, is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through the Music Teachers National Association who enjoys working with a wide variety of ages and abilities, from students as young as four years old, through adults returning to music or starting for the first time. She also has concertized extensively both as a soloist and collaborative artist in Israel, Germany, Australia, and throughout the United States.

“I’m really a collaborative artist,” said Hodos. “Music is my passion.”

“The series was founded back in 1971 by Sylvia Glickman – she was really a powerhouse,” Hodos added while praising the composer and musician who founded a publishing firm for female performers called Hildegard Press. “Bringing these world-class musicians and phenomenal concerts to the community is truly a labor of love. This concert brings world-class musicians right into our lap – it’s a real gem.”

Dr. Gilya Hodos

Hodos noted that David’s Harp has strong connections to the Philadelphia community. For example, the group’s founder Joseph Alpar, who is David Harp’s sole singer and a santouri and darbuka player, is from Bala Cynwyd. The group also includes Brenda Alpar, who was the music, art, and drama teacher at Perelman Jewish Day School for 31 years before retiring in 2015. June Bender is a noted local violinist in the Philadelphia area who teaches from her home studio in Ardmore, Cynthia Folio, a noted composer and flutist, is Professor of Theory and Composition and Chair of the Music Studies Department at Temple University, and Nick Millevoi is a noted Philadelphia-based guitarist and composer.

“This will be a family-friendly concert that will have a strong Jewish connection,” said Hodos. “All of the music they’re performing has a tremendous amount of improvisation in it. It’s the ultimate in how cultures meld together.”

The concert will feature a program celebrating women composers, songwriters and singers of Sephardic origins. There will be music by the Bosnian Jewish singer/songwriter Flory Jagoda, music by a famous Greek Sephardic rebetika singer, music by a female Ottoman-Turkish composer, and vocal improvisations based on music by a female Greek-Jewish singer. In order to perform this music, the performers will bring a variety of ethnic instruments, including a santouri, which is a Greek Hammered Dulcimer, and a darbuka, which is a goblet shaped hand drum from the Middle East, in addition to guitar, piano, flute, violin, and voice.

“David’s Harp is really an amazing group,” Hodos said. “They perform all over and we are so lucky that they are performing for us.”

Hodos noted that while the library’s concert series is partially funded by the Hildegard Institute with the mandate that it spotlights women composers, which was Sylvia Glickman’s passion, they truly rely on community support to sustain the series, which has been presented for the past half-century. She also pointed out the library’s connection to the Levering Mill Tribute House, which is the venue that hosts the concerts, noting that the original library in Bala Cynwyd was housed at that very site.