SHEPHERD Polina VOCAL EXPERIENCE
Baym Taykh

RIENCD 64

4025781106426
Oriente

 

Singer and pianist Polina Shepherd, of russian-jewish descent, lives and works in Brighton/UK with her husband Merlin Shepherd. They both are among the most innovative musicians in the Jewish Music scene - be it New Yiddish Song or Classic Klezmer.
Listening to “Baym Taykh” one will appreciate Polina as a gifted composer, too. Here is an original writer giving voice to a wealth of ideas, with vigour, and with originality.
The Quartet Ashkenazim is the perfect interpreter of these ideas. Ranging from beautiful unison to skilfully executed four part harmony, often within the space of a single bar, the members all both strong soloists and wonderful ensemble singers, draw the listener into a musical world that is both unknown and yet strangely familiar. The traditional ornamentation and modes of the songs are known and yet the melodies, new and unheard suggest that the tradition has never been broken. The selection of songs cover many themes and are settings of wonderful Yiddish poems, a variety as diverse and as intricate as can be expected from the canon.