News Releases

Raleigh, N.C. (Nov. 15, 2001) -- If you’re yearning for potato pancakes and spinning dreidels are filling your dreams, it can only mean one thing: Chanukah is nearly here. And there’s no better way to prepare to celebrate the Festival of Lights than with a festival of Chanukah songs and music at Borders.

Mishpacha, a Triangle-based quartet, will share its special blend of traditional and modern Jewish music at four Triangle bookstores this holiday season. You and your family can enjoy Chanukah music from Mishpacha (Hebrew for "family") on three occasions:

Borders in Chapel Hill: 
7 – 9 p.m., Saturday, December 1

Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh:
1:45 - 3:45 p.m., Sunday,
December 2

Borders in North Raleigh: 
7 – 9 p.m., Saturday, December 8

Borders in Cary: 
2 – 4 p.m., Sunday, December 9

From "Rock of Ages" and "Who Can Retell?" to "Ocho Kandelikas" and "I Have a Little Dreidel" (as you’ve never heard it before…), Mishpacha will help put you in the Chanukah mood with an array of Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and modern holiday songs.

To sample Mishpacha’s music (described by The News & Observer as a blend of Claude Debussy, the Everly Brothers and Eric Clapton), visit them at www.mishpacha-music.com. The group’s first CD, InSight & Visions, is available at numerous locations in the Triangle and at www.mishpacha-music.com

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Media Contact:
Roger Friedensen
info@mishpacha-music.com
919.877.0877 (work)

For Immediate Release

Mishpacha Releases InSight & Visions

First CD Features Traditional, Progressive Jewish Music

InSight & Visions features 23 songs from the Jewish Sabbath service, including “V’shamru,” “Sh’ma,” “Eili, Eili,” “Oseh Shalom” and “Shalom Aleichem.”  Many selections are derived from traditional Jewish liturgy, interpreted by Mishpacha for voice and guitar.  Others are fresh arrangements of contemporary compositions by modern Jewish musicians, including Debbie Friedman, Arik Einstein and Julie Silver.  Performed by Mishpacha, these songs join a new path in Jewish music that lies amid folk, classical, acoustic rock and popular music.   

The CD also includes the first-ever commercial recording of the “K’dusha” by world-renowned composer, Bonia Shur.  Shur, director of liturgical studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, visited Raleigh in the fall of 1999 especially to arrange and personally conduct Mishpacha’s recording of his beloved piece.  Until now, Shur had refused all requests to record his “K’dusha” which was written in 1981.  

InSight & Visions is available in gift shops, bookstores and CD shops as well as through Jewish music and general music Web sites.  The CD can be purchased directly from Mishpacha via the group’s Web site at www.mishpacha-music.com.  Mishpacha was formed in 1994, emerging from the volunteer choir at Temple Beth Or.  Since then, the quartet has shared its special version of liturgical music at Shabbat services, b'nai mitzvot, holidays and community events.  This fall, the group performed at Meredith College with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, at the 1999 International Festival of Raleigh and at the opening of the "Raleigh 2000: Interpretations of a Place" art exhibition, sponsored by Artsplosure of Raleigh.

The members of Mishpacha are:  Bonnie Nichols (low alto), Gale Touger (high alto), Steve Katz (classical guitar) and Roger Friedensen (acoustic guitar).  

InSight & Visions was recorded at InSight Productions in Durham, N.C.  Produced by Mishpacha, LLC, the CD was engineered by Greg Shriver and mastered by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen Mastering in Carrboro, N.C. (www.kitchenmastering.com).  The group’s Web site was designed and is hosted by Digiton Corp. (www.digiton.com), a leading management and Web technology consulting firm based in Research Triangle Park.