The end-of-the-year recital by Ronit Debowey’s voice students on Saturday 8.6.2013 in the Southern Arava Auditorium.
Vocalists:
Kai Avital • Ola Garnovskaya • Gal Katz • Mika Shlomi • Ilai Ron • Hagar Kugler • Shir Chayim • Tzlil Chayim • Sivan Berkovich • Shoshan Eden • Roi Sela • Elian Roth • Vika Solzhetz.
Musical accompaniment:
Mike Harris: Drums • Shai Ramos: Percussion • Yahli Librach: Classical Guitar • Eyal Tapash: Electric guitar • Lior Lin: Bass guitar.
Piano, accordion, arrangements, and artistic direction: Gideon Efrati.
In addition to the technical work, the entirety of what we call the performing arts encompasses deep channels of emotional expression. Nurturing the musical instrument that we call the voice, or song, in contrast to the other instruments, demands intense and unending searching for one’s personal, inner voice. This is done by means of an entire system of images and guided imagination that cannot be played on the delicate vocal chords by external means, but rather solely via the emotions.
Furthermore, voice students need to learn development and control over the various components that link their breathing to the placement of the note and its emission. It is a process that once begun, never ends:
Even professional vocalists and voice coaches themselves continue to work with their own voice coaches in order to obtain proper feedback.
When the groundwork has been laid for vocal work, next comes the stage of conferring the singer’s voice with his or her unique imprint, color, and personality that the musical sentence requires; and to the emotional experience we add the building of confidence that comes from the ability to express deep emotion by means of the magical link between word and sound.
About Ronit’s educational-artistic philosophy and the special and fascinating process that she has chosen to undergo with her voice pupils–a path that speaks to me–I already spoke at last year’s end-of-the-year recital. Now I can only reiterate how much Ronit is a true partner, loyal and candid, collaborating on levels whose fruits we enjoy on this, our third such recital. With undying faith, Ronit placed her pupils under my tutelage in preparation for this recital.
Our outlying region of the Southern Arava is graced with talent, the artistic bar having been set quite high. We’ve built a tradition of nurturing this talent from an early age, so that more and more performers are welcomed into the circle of artists at various ages and stages, exemplified by the Ranot Vocal Ensemble (in which Ronit is soloist) over the years welcoming Ronit’s former pupils and other graduates of our local school, where they are further trained in the art of vocal music.
Like Ronit, I believe that young people blessed with talent, who engage in the performing arts, deserve a warm, nurturing, supportive launchpad that spurs them on to hone their skills.
Tonight you heard students perform who just began voice training this year, and here they are, on stage, surrounded by experienced accompanists, blinded by the lights, and coping confidently with total exposure and vulnerability–all under time constraints despite which we managed to undergo a process of advancing from singing one-on-one in a room with nothing but the coach and a piano, to center stage before an audience–and in this case, the process is no less important than the outcome. Moreover, this recital was rehearsed only once, immediately before the performance, again, no less important than the actual recital.
With us this year too–and here we continue another Southern Arava tradition–we have the incomparable Mike Harris on drums; Shai Ramos on percussion, Yaheli Librach on classical guitar, Eyal Tapash on electric guitar, and Lior Lin on bass, all of whom gave of their time and their talents on a voluntary basis.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to Limor Katz for her design and execution of the amazing backdrop; and to Dima Chizik for his dedicated assistance to Limor. Everyone gave of themselves; everyone involved gave us indescribable enjoyment, and filled out hearts with pride in their collective accomplishment.
Gideon Efrati, June 2013