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Alive and well

Nine Gates expands its revival of Jewish culture
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 13th, 2007 issue

Nine Gates Festival

When: Through June 17
Where: Wallenstein Gardens, Jerusalem Synagogue
Admission: All the events are free
For a complete schedule, check www.9bran.cz (Czech only)

COURTESY PHOTO
Okar Murat Ozturk brings a Turkish take on Jewish music to this year's festival.
enlarge
The Nine Gates festival is already under way, starting inconveniently between Prague Post deadlines. But there’s still time to catch plenty of great music.
The festival is the brainchild of television journalist Pavel Chalupa, who started it in 2000 as a way of reviving and strengthening Prague’s Jewish cultural heritage. “Jewish culture is not a ‘dead’ phenomenon,” Chalupa says. “We want the public to know that it is alive and well.”
Certainly the festival is alive and well. What began as a local music event has grown into a multimedia affair that now includes theater productions , a photo exhibition, literary discussions and a music lineup that ranges from classical to klezmer, with performers coming from further abroad every year. Unfortunately, there’s no accommodation for English speakers in the literary, art and theater events. But the music program is accessible to anyone, and features a great theme this year.
Nine Gates organizers put together two nights of George Gershwin’s music, marking 70 years since the composer’s death. The opening night (earlier this week, alas) featured popular favorites such as An American in Paris performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. And there’s an even better program June 16, the closing night of the festival: a concert version of Porgy and Bess, with a full orchestra and soloists under the baton of František Preisler, performed outdoors in the Wallenstein Gardens.
The other nights at Wallenstein Gardens this week will showcase different strains of Jewish music. On June 13, “Klezmer night” features The Flying Rabbi, a Czech klezmer group, and what is being billed as a “Romany music surprise.” The following night, there’s a program of Sephardic songs and klezmer music from Czech performers Vladimír Merta and Jana Lewitová, and the Polish group ELjazzER. On June 15, a “Turkish night” features the Czech group ReBelcantissimo and Turkish performer Okar Murat Ozturk. (All the programs in Wallenstein Gardens begin at 8 p.m.)
If that’s not enough Jewish music for the week, you can stop by the Jerusalem Synagogue at 5 p.m. June 17 to hear Baruch Finkelstein, the chief cantor from the St. Petersburg synagogue in that Russian city, singing Jewish songs.
What does Chalupa hope audiences will take away from this concentrated week of events? “A good feeling and an awareness about the existence of a living Jewish culture in music, theater, literature and the visual arts,” he says.
It’s not often that so many aspects of a culture are packed into such a tight-knit series of events. And it’s unheard of for them all to be free, which has become one of the hallmarks of Nine Gates. Take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity for enlightenment, enrichment and, most of all, some great entertainment.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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