By Diana Brement,
JTNews Columnist
Daniel Asia wasn’t in town to hear his Breath in a Ram’s Horn performed at Music of Remembrance’s free Sparks of Glory outreach series on April 18. It wasn’t the first time, however, that MOR has presented a piece by the Seattle-born composer.
“They’ve done a couple of performances of works of mine,” Dan told me, and he’s very familiar with the program. “I’ve known Mina [Miller, MOR director] for 10 or 12 years…I’ve followed what they’ve done fairly closely…. It’s a marvelous project in which to be engaged.”
He points out that while the Nazis attempted to wipe out Jews and Judaism, “which they were not able to do,” they did manage to destroy artists “in the most fruitful part of their careers,” he said. So Dan finds it especially meaningful to participate in MOR’s mission to preserve the legacy of Holocaust musicians.
The son of the late Hilda and Ben (Bud) Asia, Dan grew up attending Temple Beth Am in North Seattle and says Judaism has a strong influence in his work.
“I’m a pretty devout Jew, so it’s hard for it not to come through in my music,” he says.
He’s had a number of commissions from synagogues and “I’ve written four or five pieces on Jewish texts.
“What a composer brings to a text is a particular reading or understanding” of the words, he says, giving them “a musical underpinning.”
Breath in a Ram’s Horn is one of a cycle of songs based on the writing of poet Paul Pines, who Dan met at an artists retreat a number of years ago. Pines’ work “goes all the way from Ecclesiastes to the blues…encapsulating the Jewish experience.”
A resident of Tucson for the past 20 years, Dan heads the composition department at the University of Arizona. He and his wife Carolee and their children, Shoshanna, Reuben and Eve, belong to Anshei Israel, “the big Conservative synagogue” in that town.
He travels a lot for his work, often for performances and to give talks on his music. When he’s not teaching, composing or traveling he is usually busy “doing things Jewish,” he says.
“I’m going to end up president of my synagogue,” he admitted, and he is also involved in Tucson’s High School for Jewish Studies, Hillel and Federation.
There’s more on MOR’s May 11 concert elsewhere in this issue, and readers will find in-depth information on both Dan and Paul Pines on their respective Web sites, www.danielasia.net and
www.paulpines.com.
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What better way to promote peace than through a game that fosters respect and cooperation?
Moses Rifkin went to Israel recently as a volunteer for Ultimate Peace, an organization that promotes friendship and understanding through the sport of Ultimate Frisbee.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Ultimate Frisbee is played by teams of seven who pass a disc down a field, attempting to score a goal. There are no refs — players call their own fouls and negotiate disputed calls.
Moses joined a large group of coaches on a trip that was “amazing and exhausting — really deeply exhausting — and fun and complicated,” all at the same time.
Ultimate Peace was founded by Bay Area player Dave Barkan, who Moses met at a tournament, becoming part of his all-Jewish team, Matza Balls
(www.matzaballsultimate.com).
Growing up in Atlanta, Moses started playing Ultimate 16 years ago as a high school freshman. He attended Brown University, played on their team, and four years ago moved to Seattle, an Ultimate hotbed.
“What’s going on in Seattle…is pretty phenomenal,” he says.
Ultimate Peace worked in Israel with the Peres Center for Peace, which runs a sports program that brings Israeli and Palestinian kids together, usually to play basketball. Coaches arrived on March 31 and on April 1 plunged into three full days of youth and adult clinics and a tournament.
“We were working with kids age 7 to 12,” and without official translators, which was tough, Moses says. “For the most part I learned to coach without using any words, which was challenging and sort of cool.”
Fortunately, he added, these very athletic kids were enthusiastic about the new game.
On the fourth day the coaches traveled to meet the kids in their home communities. Moses went to the West Bank city of Tulkarm, about 45 minutes from Tel Aviv, “armed with discs and drills.”
They expected to see the 15 kids they’d coached previously, but others “started coming out of the woodwork,” Moses says, and ultimately there were “50 or 60 kids playing on a concrete basketball court.” After the clinic they had dinner at the Palestinian coaches’ houses. Being able to talk to West Bank residents about their experiences was the most important part of the trip for Moses.
He made it to a few tourist sites, but there wasn’t much time.
“We just tried to soak up as much of being in this fabulous place as we could,” he says.
When he’s not playing Ultimate for Sockeye, a local men’s team, Moses teaches physics and astronomy and coaches Frisbee at University Preparatory Academy. “I love teaching,” he says.
He hopes there will be an Ultimate Peace trip to Israel next year, and that he’ll be involved. More information is at
www.ultimatepeace.org where you can make a donation to support this worthy effort.