We’ve heard of Brokelyn and Crooklyn, but this is the first we’re hearing of Baroquelyn. And it’s truly something to hear. The baroque-themed concert — complete with violins as well as an oboe, trumpet, cello, bassoon, recorder, and even a countertenor — is the brainchild of our music director, Aleeza Meir; the project’s first concert, on Sunday, November 12, was performed in the Upper Hall […]
“They said, ‘Do the scariest thing in the world for you.’ For me, it was singing in front of other people. But I think that experience propelled me.” That prophetic statement comes from our favorite countertenor, Jeff Mandelbaum, as he recalls his early days at a Wesleyan summer program at The Center for Creative Youth. Yep, he faced his fear and the rest is history. […]
April 9: 11:00 am, Palm Sunday Festival and St. Matthew’s Passion We bless the palm branches and celebrate the Triumphal Entry, and we follow that with our annual readers’ theater presentation of the whole Passion of Christ. April 13: 7:00 pm, Maundy Thursday – “A Passion” by Theatre Group Dzieci Theatre Group Dzieci has refined their text from the earliest existing translations, relying heavily on the Aramaic Peshita, […]
The Seed is the Word: Old First Arts and Yoga Week for Kids The Old First Summer Arts Week was founded in 2004 with generous grants from the Reformed Church Regional Synod and Brooklyn Classis by dancer Jenny Burrill and artist Celilia Whittaker-Doe. Continuing support has enabled this uniquely inspired arts week to be offered (mostly) free of charge to the community at large. More recently a registration […]
Charles Wesley wrote six thousand Christian hymns, but this is arguably his best known. Composed in 1738, he often worked in collaboration with his older brother, John, while they were both studying at Oxford. As part of a study group called The Holy Club, they were known to approach prayer, hymn writing and Bible study in an extremely methodical manner. As a result, their classmates […]
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was as long and as agonizing as it sounds. Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran minister, spent a good part of it in the walled city of Eilenburg, Saxony, where he wrote this hymn (circa 1636) amidst great distress and destruction. The walls did little good; armies had overrun the city three times, and pestilence, famine and overcrowding added to the pain […]
Aleeza Meir – Old First’s organist and pianist for the last decade – contends that musicians who come to New York to make a living must have more than just talent; they also have to have a little bit of luck. Looks like she’s been blessed with both: she is able to keep herself busy – actually extremely busy – working as a full-time musician. In addition […]
The artwork of Brooklyn-born painter and muralist Archie Rand is the first showing at Cecilia Whittaker-Doe’s SRO Gallery (1144 Dean Street). His work: Eugenio Montale: Men Who Turn Back is based on the work of Montale, an Italian poet. Archie created a painting for every line of the poem — all 24 of them — fitting perfectly into the showing space. Cecilia says the gallery […]