Rivka Amado, our lead singer, performs with Achi Ben-Shalom at the Nigunim Chorus “Afternoon of Song” concert at the JCC East Bay, May 26, 2019. This video is a snippet of the overall performance.
The Preservation of Sephardic Music – a Women’s Story
While not a musical event, strictly speaking, Rivka Amado will be speaking about Sephardic Music at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, CA, on Jan 14, 2019. See the event page for details. An excerpt:
Rivka Amado, PhD, is a musician and lecturer specializing in Judeo-Spanish music, culture and history with a focus on Sephardic women’s songs and spiritual experience. Join Friendship Circle for lunch and learn about the courage, endurance and recovery of the Sephardic Jews from 1391 (when the first major pogroms occurred in Spain), through the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula – first from Spain in 1492, and then from Portugal in 1497. Learn about the Sephardic diaspora tracing to the Netherlands, France, Italy, North Africa, and eventually throughout the Ottoman Empire. Rivka Amado will accompany her talk with a musical Sephardic experience of traditional ladino music. We hope you join us for this unique and culturally enriching presentation! RSVP by January 9
Studio Session Video Popular on PEG Media
While Blue Hills hasn’t been very public recently, our hour-long concert video has been downloaded almost 50 times from PEG Media. PEG Media is used by public television broadcasters to share interesting content world-wide — while we’d love to know when and where we’ve been seen, all we know is that we’re out there. Somewhere.
Our download on PEG Media is available to anyone with a PEG Media membership. Check it out!
Blue Hills Studio Session Video Wins WAVE Award
Karen Adams, our producer at the MIdpeninsula Community Media Center, won an award at the Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) awards last week for our Blue Hills Studio Session show! The Media Center won five WAVE awards overall, with 16 finalists in the list.
The WAVE Awards are part of the Alliance for Community Media fall regional conference, which occurred this year on October 24-26 in San Jose, CA. The awards honor the best local cable programs from the Western Region, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico and Nevada.
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Category: Music Programming ProfessionalProducer Name: Karen AdamsCo Producer: Rivka AmadoEntry Title: Media Center Studio Session: Blue HillsProgram Video Link: http://youtu.be/axGHr1xBia8Category: Educational Access Community Producer
Congratulations Karen!
B’nai Shalom Show on Sunday, June 2
Our next show is coming up on Sunday, June 2, at B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek. We’re still working out the setlist; more info as we get closer to the date. Interestingly, they have a webcam with streaming video; it might be possibly to watch the performance from your desktop. From their site:
An Evening of Israeli and Sephardic Music featuring Rivka Amado and Blue Hills Band
Sunday, June 2 in the Social Hall
Middle Eastern Hors D’oeuvres at 4:30pm; Concert from 5:30pm-7:00pm
We hope you will join us for a very special cabaret evening of Israeli and Sephardic music and food. Our Israel Engagement Committee is sponsoring the event, which features Rivka Amado and Blue Hills Band. The cost is $18 for members and $22 for the public. No charge for youth under 18. Tickets will be available at the door for $25. Please RSVP by May 28 either through the online form or by calling Barbara at 925-934-9446.
Bnai Zion Foundation Benefit Concert
Blue Hills was part of an extended performance last night in San Francisco, organized in part by Nathan, as a benefit and auction for Ahava Village for Children & Youth in Kiryat Bialik, Israel. We did a selection of Ladino songs, and a separate set with singer/songwriter Jody Yeary and guest vocalist Elissa Stevens, mostly songs from Jody’s album Fast Horses and Beautiful Women (also available on iTunes). Nathan was a busy guy last night- he also played in the Capriccio Chamber Orchestra earlier in the program, and directed his three-part arrangement of Russian, Yiddish, and Ladino Jewish songs.
This was also our first show using a new-and-improved stage setup, with real monitoring. The stage was more of a tangle of colored cables running hither and yon than probably necessary, but the sound for both the performers and audience turned out great.
Fun Valentines Show in SF
Our Valentines Day show came out great in San Francisco on Thursday. The Humanities Building is a nice little venue that would seat about 60 if the band weren’t filling up a chunk of it. Nathan came down with a cold two days before the show, though, and wasn’t able to sing the Russian love songs, so we did a few as instrumentals. Lee got a laugh from his Willie Nelson routine while singing Always On My Mind, and we got a request for Avraham Avinu as an encore.
Many thanks to Irv Abramowitz for putting together a professional and welcoming show for us.
Valentine’s Day Show in San Francisco
We’ve been invited to play a Valentine’s Day show of love songs in Hebrew, Ladino, and Russian. Details from the flyer:
GREATER SAN FRANCISCO LODGE
B’NAI B’RITH
proudly presents
Cabaret Night of Music
featuring the
Blue Hills Group
Traditional Jewish Love songs in
HEBREW, LADINO, RUSSIAN, and GREEK
Thursday, February 14 at 7:00 PM
San Francisco Humanities Building
1185 Vicente St, at 23rd Avenue
COVER only $10 per person
Reserve your seats right now!
Send mail by February 10 to:
Irv Abramowitz
766 23rd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121
Or reserve by phone!
415-752-9304
Refreshments will be served following the performance.
Individual Song Videos Posted
We’ve sliced and diced the Media Center video production and uploaded individual songs to YouTube and Facebook. A few of the YouTube ones are here:
Our MC Studio Session starts showing this Thursday
We’re on the air! Woohoo! Well, almost- the Media Center is going to start broadcasting our show this Thursday on their channel 27 MC Studio Session show. Current dates:
Thu, Sep 20th 1:30am
Fri, Sep 21st 9:00pm
Sat, Sep 22nd 10:00pm
More dates are coming up- check their show schedule for additions. The Media Center also streams each channel as they broadcast it, so you can watch our show on your device of choice if you aren’t in the Bay Area.
Some of the tunes came out great, best we’ve done. We’re going to pull some favorites out as separate videos; more news when they’re available.