Arts News

Crowd-pleasing rhythms, serious lyrics

At a glance, the scene in the Ari Grashin Memorial Gymnasium at Seattle Hebrew Academy on the afternoon of Sept. 17 seemed like a bit of a non sequitur. The assembled students and faculty swayed and clapped to the music being produced by a tanned and hip-looking keyboard player and a drumming rabbi. The music had a definite pop music beat, while the lyrics sang of moments generally not associated with the toe-tapping rhythms of popular music.
“I wasn’t there on the eve of Kristallnacht. I wasn’t there when they packed the trains. Millions were crying. Could nobody hear a sound? I wasn’t there, but I feel the pain,” he sang in the middle of one of his best known compositions, “Hineni.”
The 44-year old Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter has been a professional musician since his teenage years in southern California. While his initial foray into music was with a band that played original compositions and covers of the popular music of the 1980s, he has made his mark and his career with music that celebrates his Jewish heritage.
“I play in 50 cities a year across North America and in Israel,” he said between sets at SHA. He also has performed in Europe, Asia and Australia. “In a business that is very much “˜dog eat dog’ and where I have seen that many of my talented friends and colleagues no longer work in the industry, I have been very fortunate.”
The majority of his performances are in schools, shuls, youth camps, benefit and charity events, and other Jewish-centered venues. It has provided him with a living that sufficiently provides for him and his wife and their two children. His latest album has been picked up for distribution by a division of Sony, one of the largest music companies in the world. Within the Jewish community, he has found acceptance of his music across the religious spectrum.
Raised in a non-observant home, Glaser says he was always a Zionist and spiritual. After being invited to compose the theme song for Operation Exodus, the early 1990s rescue of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Glaser discovered both a renewed sense of faith and a niche for the music that is now a staple of his performances. Attending Shabbat services is now both a religious practice and often a working experience.
“I do a lot of Shabbatons and that is good,” he said. “Being an observant Jewish performer in a secular world is tough because Friday nights are big nights for bookings, and that doesn’t work.”
In addition to his 17 albums and his touring, he also owns and operates a recording studio and is active in his community, where he has emerged as one of the leaders of the Los Angeles music scene. He served as executive director of the Jewish Music Commission for five years, an organization that commissions and produces major Jewish works from composers across the country. He produces the annual American Jewish Song Festival, a prestigious songwriting competition, as well. In 1995, he was appointed music coordinator for the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Judaism, where he supervised the music curriculum and directed the Cultural Arts Program. For four years he also acted as musical director for the Yad b’Yad youth theater troupe and was music director for the Brandeis-Bardin Collegiate Institute in Simi Valley, Calif. He has also served as a cantorial soloist and is a teacher of a variety of classes on Jewish topics in communities nationwide, including the popular weekly workshop Seasons of Joy, which he teaches in Los Angeles.
Glaser came to SHA for a day of grade-level-specific performances, followed by the afternoon concert for all students and staff. His visit was arranged by SHA’s head of school, Rivy Poupko Kletenik, who had met Glaser a number of years ago.
“I saw him at an educators’ conference, and we became friends,” she said. “When I heard that he was available at this time of year, I thought it was important to have him come to the school.
“In an age when we are competing with video games, popular music, television and films, we need to get to our kids by all sorts of methods,” Kletenik added. “Sam connects with them through his music and impresses upon them their Jewish identity and spirituality in a way that they can understand. With the holidays approaching, this seemed like a wonderful opportunity.”
Glaser’s appearance at SHA was sponsored by the school’s PTO.