My friend, Naomi Katz Cohen, leads choirs at the SAR Academy in Riverdale, NY. She's been after me to write a piece for "her kids" for as long as I've known her. This past year (2009), I finally obliged her with something suitable.
I was looking for a psalm text that would lend itself to an up-tempo setting, and I found it in Psalm 47. My original intention was to write a piece for solo voice, but the more I looked at Psalm 47, the more I realized that it would work best as a choral piece, and particularly a piece for a young chorus. The text begins "all peoples clap hands and sing praise to the Lord," so rhythmic clapping would have to be an integral element in the piece, and who can bring that off as convincingly as a bunch of kids?
Naomi and her combined choirs gave "Tiku Kaf" its world premiere May 22, 2009, at a Yom Y'rushalayim assembly at the SAR Academy. My friend Jon Burr was on hand with video and audio equipment, and we have a splendid recording of the event to share with you. Enjoy!
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