Marking the Tenth Anniversary of His Death – A Discussion and Film Clips Accompanied by Live Music
The International Days of Jewish Music, the November event of the Usedom Music Festival, will open with Leonard Cohen:
Hardly any songwriter has shaped pop music as much as Leonard Cohen—and hardly any has brought as much of the synagogue into it. “Who by Fire” sets a Yom Kippur prayer to music, while “Hallelujah” became one of the most covered songs in pop history. He recorded his final album with the cantor and choir of his Montreal synagogue—two weeks before his death.
On the tenth anniversary of his death, novelist and screenwriter Norman Lebrecht and Jascha Nemtsov, holder of Europe’s first chair in Jewish music history, will discuss Cohen and the power of biblical imagery in pop music. The program will also feature scenes from Lebrecht’s film “The Song of Names.” Paul Brody will accompany the evening on the trumpet—inspired by Cohen, in whose synagogue he himself once played.
