Generations United—The Culmination

On Mother’s Day, May 13, at 2 p.m., will present a special concert featuring fourteen Mishkan Torah classically trained artists. This concert marks the culmination of Mishkan Roah’s nearly two year commemoration of “From Generation to Generation."

During that time, the Synagogue has presented a Young Performers Series, starring college age professional music students, and a series of other intergenerational events. The concert brings together fourteen extraordinary Mishkan Torah performers, whose ages range from 19 to the early 70s.

The cast includes two of the Young Performers, and six participants from the recent Purim Spiel, the cast of which spanned seven decades. The name of the concert is synonymous with its theme - Generations United! 

The program includes a performance by mother and daughter, Diana and Darelynn Fung, of a bassoon duet by O. Blume. Darelynn was the recipient last September of Mishkan Torah’s first-ever Young Leadership Award for her selfless work with young people, along with her husband, Bret Goldstein.

Two fathers will share the stage with their sons, although performing separately. Baritone and Mishkan Torah Resident Composer, Don Juran, will appear on the program with his son, tenor Adam Juran. Comic baritone Jeffrey Rosen will share the stage with his son composer and French hornist Joshua Rosen, who was a Young Performer last May.

Don Juran and Joshua Rosen, although half a century apart in age, are united as Mishkan Torah composers, and will perform original works. Joshua Rosen will premiere his Concerto for French Horn. Don Juran will sing, “The Cherry Tree,” a setting to music of a poem by Don’s son, Joshua. Don will also perform “Rise Up, My Love,”  with a text from Song of Songs, written for his wife, Carol, on the occasion of their 40th wedding anniversary. Don will be joined for that number by the father and son team of cantor Phil Greenfield, baritone, and his son, tenor Ben Greenfield.

Phil and Ben Greenfield will join in singing the ethereal duet from Georges’ Bizet’s opera “The Pearl Fishers,” accompanied by Phil’s wife and Ben’s mother flutist Carolyn Sonnen. Ben commenced the “From Generation to Generation” program by giving the first Young Performers concert in 2010. Ben’s fiancée, flutist and Mishkan Torah Choir Director Rachel White, who is also a youth adviser at Mishkan Torah, will keep it in the family by performing a Telemann flute sonata on the program. 

Another featured performer, cantor Yael Fischman, mezzo-soprano, is in the forefront of her generation as the designee for the next Young Leadership Award in December with her husband Yoni Charry. The three remaining performers are all Mishkan Torah veterans of over a quarter of a century, beginning with soprano soloist and recording artist Nadine Wobus.  

The final two long-time performers are pianists Don Anderson, who is returning to his first love, the piano, after years as a tenor soloist, and David Charney, recitalist, piano teacher, and the man who has kept Mishkan Torah’s pianos tuned for well over a generation.

Tickets for the grand event are only $15 for adults and $10 for children if reserved or purchased in advance, and will cost $18 at the door. Tickets may be purchased on Mishkan’s Torah website or ordered directly from the Synagogue at 10 Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Enjoy the concert after your Mother’s Day brunch or before your Mother’s Day Dinner!