“Since early in his career, Yotam Haber has grappled with what it means to be a contemporary Jewish composer,” writes Thomas May in last Tuesday’s (10/20) New York Times. “The tentative answers offered by his music—full of allusions, distortion and whispers of the past—suggest that the grappling itself is a vital part of that identity. Mr. Haber’s most recent work, ‘Estro Poetico-Armonico III,’ which juxtaposes a live mezzo-soprano and orchestra with decades-old recordings of Italian Jewish cantorial singing, dramatizes a subtle dialogue between creation and tradition…. Mr. Haber wrote the piece to fulfill the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music…. The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne of Montreal will livestream the premieres of all three works on medici.tv and the Azrieli Facebook page on Thursday evening. Mr. Haber, 43, refracts his exploration of Jewish musical identity through an ongoing attraction to Italian culture that began when he first traveled there at 18. Despite spending part of his childhood in Israel—he was born in the Netherlands but moved to the Middle East with his family when he was young—Mr. Haber became seriously interested in his Jewish heritage only after studying in Italy.”
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