Shir Eres was recorded at the beginning of the pandemic, when it was popular to create square video clips from afar.
The first two lines of the poem by Nathan Alterman are: “The city and hall were silenced at once, and muted as well was the Persian bazar.” We felt that the words of the lullaby reflected the mutual experience of a global quarantine.
Shir Eres (lullaby) is an Israeli art song which was written in the 1960’s.
In the musical “Queen Esther”, The court clown sings this Hebrew lullaby to the king when he struggles to fall asleep. The play and lyrics were written by Nathan Alterman, and the music was composed by Sasha Argov.
“Queen Esther” - The Israeli Musical was not successful when it opened at the Cameri Theater in Tel-Aviv in 1966, however Shir Eres became a popular Israeli song with many cover versions.
I met Tomina on the first day of our orientation week at the Boston Conservatory.
It was love at first sight.
We spent 5 years together in Boston.
During our Freshman year we lived door to door in the dorms’ basement and shared our fear of mice and the very cold Bostonian nights.
During our studies I used to go to Tomina’s practice room, sit on the floor, and listen to her playing the harp for hours.
It was like meditation - soft sounds for the heart.
She was strumming on my souls’ wings.
As students, besides being close friends, we started playing, singing, and performing together.
A bulgarian harpist and an Israeli soprano - an unusual and a very exciting collaboration began. We called our duo - Kol VaNevel - which in Hebrew means Voice and The Harp.
Our duo was one of the awarded groups of the Chamber Music Honors Competition at school! We were so extremely happy!!
After graduation, Tomina and I parted ways, building our own solo careers.
Several years passed, and our mutual passion and dream to perform together merged our paths again!
We were invited to perform in amazing concerts and festivals. We performed some of the greatest works written for voice and piano, arranged for the harp by Tomina, as well as works written originally for harp and voice.
Shir Eres (Lullaby) by Sasha Argov is one of the most beautiful Hebrew lullabies ever written, and it is our duo’s encore piece. Every time we perform it, people from around the world love it and are very moved by it.
Tomina is one of my best friends. She is so dear to my heart and soul, and even though we live oceans apart (Tel-Aviv - NYC), every time we meet we feel like no time has passed at all.
Mantra for today: PLAY AND SING FROM YOUR HEART AND SOUL
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