Milken Archive of Jewish Music


The Milken Archive of Jewish Music is a collection of material about the history of Jewish Music in the United States. It contains roughly 700 recorded musical works, 800 hours of oral histories, 50,000 photographs and historical documents, an extensive collection of program notes and essays, and thousands of hours of video footage documenting recording sessions, interviews, and live performances.

History

The Archive was founded in 1990 by businessman Lowell Milken, with the stated mission to "document, preserve, and disseminate the vast body of music that pertains to the American Jewish experience." It was originally established as the Milken Family Archive of 20th Century American Jewish Music, with composer Michael Isaacson as its Artistic Director In 1993, Neil W. Levin of the Jewish Theological Seminary became the Artistic Director and the Archive became known as the Milken Archive of American Jewish music. Between 2003 and 2006, it released a series of 50 CDs on the Naxos label, which have sold nearly 300,000 copies. In 2005, Producer David Frost was awarded the Grammy award for Producer of the Year, Classical, for five of the albums in this series. At present, the Archive's website serves as the primary vehicle for the Archive’s music, and the access point for its other media. The material is organized into 20 thematic groups.

Recent Media Coverage

In its remembrance of Dave Brubeck after his Dec. 5, 2012 passing, PBS Newshour featured footage of the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing Take Five at a 2007 Milken Archive concert and recording session in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Milken Archive footage of Dave Brubeck was featured in the documentary "Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way" directed by Clint Eastwood that aired on December 6, 2010 on Turner Classic Movies.
In September 2010, Milken Archive Artistic Director Neil Levin was featured on televisions stations across the United States in the documentary 18 Voices Sing Kol Nidre discussing the Kol Nidre, a declaration recited or sung in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur.
On May 26, 2010, the NPR program “All Things Considered” featured Milken Archive music in its broadcast about clarinetist David Krakauer, “Abraham Inc.: Klezmer with a funky hip hop beat.”

20 Volumes

The Milken Archive's collection is organized according to the following 20 thematic groups, known as volumes. As of May 2013, the Archive released 16 of the 20 volumes.
  1. Jewish Voices in the New World: The Song of Prayer in Colonial and 19th-Century America
  2. A Garden Eastward: Sephardi and Near Eastern Inspiration
  3. Seder T'fillot: Traditional and Contemporary Synagogue Services
  4. Cycle of Life in Synagogue and Home: Prayers and Celebrations Throughout the Jewish Year
  5. The Classical Klezmer: Rebirth of a Folk Tradition
  6. Echoes of Ecstasy: Hassidic Inspiration
  7. Masterworks of Prayer: Art in Worship
  8. Sing Unto Zion! In Praise of a Jewish National Home
  9. The Art of Jewish Song: Yiddish and Hebrew
  10. Intimate Voices: Solo and Ensemble Music of Jewish Spirit
  11. Symphonic Visions: Orchestral Works of Jewish Spirit
  12. Legends of Toil and Celebration: Songs of Jewish Solidarity, Social Awareness, and Jewish Americana
  13. Great Songs of the American Yiddish Stage: Yiddish Theater, Vaudeville, Radio, and Film
  14. Golden Voices in the Golden Land: The Great Age of Cantorial Art in America
  15. Swing His Praises: Jazz, Blues, and Rock in the Service of God
  16. Heroes and Heroines: Jewish Opera
  17. Odes and Epics: Dramatic Music of Jewish Experience
  18. Psalms and Canticles: Jewish Choral Art in America
  19. Out of the Whirlwind: Musical Reflections of the Holocaust
  20. L'dor vador: A Celebration of Children’s Voices

    Composers

The Milken Archive has recorded or licensed music by the following composers:
A - FG - LM - RS - Z
Joseph AchronMoshe GanchoffWill MacfarlaneLazare Saminsky
Hugo AdlerMordechai GebirtigMeyer MachtenbergMordecai Sandberg
Samuel AdlerMichl GelbartSamuel MalavskyJacob Sandler
Bruce AdolpheMiriam GideonUrsula MamlokSimon Sargon
Aminadav AloniLouis GilrodMana-ZuccaNicholas Saslavsky
Israel AlterLeib GlantzJakov MedvedieffHeinrich Schalit
David AmramPhilip GlassHenry MendesWalter Scharf
Solomon AncisAbraham GoldfadenDavid MeyerowitzDavid Schiff
Daniel AsiaRabbi Israel GoldfarbJan MeyerowitzBenjie Schiller
C. AttenhoferMaurice GoldmanDarius MilhaudSigmund Schlesinger
Aaron AvshalomovJack GoldsteinAaron MillerRalph Schlossberg
Morris BarashRaymond GoldsteinIssachar MironArnold Schoenberg
Steve BarnettOsvaldo GolijovDouglas MoorePaul Schoenfield
Robert BeaserSolomon GolubRichard NeumannRuth Schonthal
Sidor BelarskyJack GottliebAlexander OlshanetskyIsrael Schorr
Ofer Ben-AmotsJacob GottliebLeo OrnsteinWilliam Schuman
Paul Ben-HaimMorton GouldCharles OsborneAbe Schwartz
Aaron BensoussanS. GozinskyMoishe OysherGerard Schwarz
Jean BergerMax GraumannThomas PasatieriSholom Secunda
Irving BerlinHelen GreenbergArnold Perlmutter & Herman WohlHarold Shapero
Herman BerlinskiTodros GreenbergFrederick PiketRalph Shapey
Leonard BernsteinEmily GresserPierre PinchikMichael Shapiro
Thomas BeveridgeRoy HarrisSergei ProkofievWilliam Sharlin
Abraham BinderVladimir HeifetzJan RadzynskiJudith Shatin
Ernest BlochMax HelfmanShulamit RanBen Zion Shenker
William BogzesterJerry HermanJacob RappaportNathaniel Shilkret
Victoria BondJoel HoffmanKarol RathausSolomon Shmulowitz
Yehezkel BraunMichael HorvitMaurice RauchBonia Shur
Martin BresnickMichael IsaacsonSteve ReichElie Siegmeister
Murray BrodyFrederick JacobiStephen RichardsMark Silver
Dave BrubeckMax JanowskiSid RobinovitchSheila Silver
Samuel BugatchPinchos JassinowskyGeorge RochbergMoses Silverman
Shlomo CarlebachTzipora JochsbergerDavid RoitmanLeo Smit
Mario Castelnuovo-TedescoOscar JuliusEmanuel RosenbergRay Smolover
Julius ChajesAlois KaiserYossele RosenblattRobbie Solomon
Gerald CohenSholom KalibMorris RosenzweigMax Spicker & William Sparger
Gustave CohenMartin KalmanoffSalomone Rossi/FreedRobert Starer
Aaron CoplandIsaac KaminskyBruce RoterEdward Stark
Doug CotlerFischel KanapoffJoseph RumshinskyLeon Stein
Mario DavidovskyAbraham KaplanFrederic RzewskiBenjamin Steinberg
Charles DavidsonAdolph KatchkoRobert Stern
A. J. DavisAaron KernisDavid Stock
Paul DessauGershon KingsleyRobert Strassburg
David DiamondFrederick KitzigerIgor Stravinsky
Paul DiscountJonathan KleinDavid Tamkin
Rubin DoctorJeff KlepperAlexandre Tansman
Jacob DruckmanHenech KonCraig Taubman
Haim ElishaJerome KopmarAaron Tishkowsky
Abraham EllsteinErich KorngoldErnst Toch
Shaye EnglehardtMoshe KoussevitzkyIlia Trilling
Charles FeldmanLeo KraftJoelle Wallach
Irving FineLeon KramerDonald Waxman
Vivian FineMeyer KupfermanFranz Waxman
Meir FinkelsteinDavid KusevitskyC. Weber
Lukas FossEzra LadermanKurt Weill
Isadore FreedPaul LamkoffJacob Weinberg
Avraham FriedMarc LavryLazar Weiner
Debbie FriedmanHenri LazarofHugo Weisgall
Dan FrohmanBenjamin LeesDavid Werdiger
Herbert FrommMarvin LevyRichard Wernick
Jorge LidermanHerman Wohl
Joshua LindJuliusz Wolfsohn
Leo LowStefan Wolpe
Yehudi Wyner
Herman Yablokoff
Judith Zaimont
Herman Zalis
Eric Zeisl
Alexander Zemlinsky
Zavel Zilberts
Solomon Zim
John Zorn