San Diego Spotlight : Religious Musical Groups to Stage Interfaith Concert

Though the United States demonstrates a higher level of religious tolerance than, say, Ireland or the Mideast, little is actively done to broaden that basic tolerance into deeper understanding.

Cantor Sheldon Merel, however, has established an enviable track record of drawing divergent religious traditions together through the medium of music. During his 11-year tenure at San Diego’s Congregation Beth Israel, where he just became cantor emeritus, Merel has regularly joined forces with choirs from other faiths to perform major works from the Jewish liturgical and concert repertory.

“Blended Voices II,” a choral and orchestral concert to be given Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Copley Symphony Hall, is Merel’s latest interfaith project. Three San Diego church choirs, the professional vocal ensemble from Congregation Beth Israel and the Jewish Community Center Orchestra will join forces in this unusual collaboration.

“This concert gives individuals a chance to hear how each other worships,” Merel explained. “After all, how many people go to different churches and temples? You might attend, for example, if you are invited by a friend whose son is having a bar mitzvah. But it’s rare. When we sing together or listen to the music on these programs, we get insight into one another.”

On Sunday’s concert, choirs from First Presbyterian Church, Calvary Baptist Church, and First United Methodist Church will sing short selections from their own musical traditions. Then the Beth Israel ensemble and Merel will sing three liturgical works accompanied by the J. C. C. orchestra under music director David Amos. And, for the concert’s finale, all groups will join together in three choral works with orchestra, “May the Time Not Be Distant, O God,” by William Sharlin, “Hiney Ma Tov,” by A. Jacobsen and Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”

This marks the second year Merel has organized the “Blended Voices” concert, which is underwritten by Morris Wax, a member of Beth Israel. The Ecumenical Council of San Diego County also sponsors the interfaith presentation.

“At last year’s concert, 2,000 people attended who would never get together otherwise,” Merel noted. “Unfortunately, there is very little interfaith activity in this city,”

Wax and Beth Israel’s senior rabbi, the Rev. Michael Sternfield, came up with the idea for the interfaith musical event, and the first “Blended Voices” concert was held in May, 1990.

“They came to me with the concept, and I made it happen,” Merel said. “Originally, it was to be a one-time affair, but Wax was so pleased with the result of first year’s program that he and his family wanted to sponsor another one.”

If you still need tickets ($5 adults, $2.50 seniors and children), some will be available at the symphony hall box office an hour before the concert. Proceeds from the concert will go to the St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center.

Multicultural message. About 1,400 music educators, all members of the American Orff-Schulwerk Assn., are learning to integrate world music into their traditional teaching methods. The association’s 25th annual conference has been meeting at the Town and Country Convention Center in Mission Valley since Thursday. In tune with the times, the Orff educators invited musicians and teachers from Africa and Asia to broaden their perspective.

In the assembly’s keynote address, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, a music professor from Ghana, gently chided his American audience for assuming the inherent superiority of Western musical traditions. He demonstrated that in some ways, especially in terms of rhythmic complexity, music from Third World countries exceeds the sophistication of European and North American music.

According to Linda Noah, Orff educator from Portland, Ore., this emphasis on non-Western music is urgently needed, especially in urban school systems.

“The mix of races in our classrooms is incredible. We have to address that diversity, and that means going beyond the traditional white, Eurocentric music we have been teaching.”

Among local contributions to the conference, a troupe of students from Skyline Elementary School and Solana Highlands Elementary School staged a pageant titled “The Sea and Me” for the opening assembly Thursday morning. The singing and choreography of the Solana Beach students was warmly received by the visiting educators.

Today, conventioneers travel to San Diego State University for a performance and demonstration of the music department’s Indonesian gamelan orchestra.

Hoosier composer. David Ott, whose Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra will be performed by the San Diego Symphony Friday and next Saturday, has been named composer in residence for the Indianapolis Symphony. Professor of music at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., Ott begins his three-year residency with the Indianapolis-based orchestra this month. San Diego audiences will hear more from the 44-year-old composer next season, when principal trombone Heather Buchman and the local orchestra premiere his Trombone Concerto.

Instrumental donations. Music education locally seems to be caught in a good news-bad news syndrome. Despite the current budget crunch, instruction in instrumental music is gradually increasing in San Diego elementary and junior high schools. But a shortage of instruments threatens to make a moot point of this improvement.

The Community Council for Music in the Schools is sponsoring a drive to collect unused instruments to be used by eager young students. Trumpets, violins, flutes, and clarinets are among the desired instruments. Contributions may be made by phoning 594-5404 to arrange a pick-up.