THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 at 7:30 p.m.
RAMSEY CONCERT HALL
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Ramsey Concert Hall
UGA Performing Arts Center
Anne Slovin, soprano with Andrew Voelker, piano
PROGRAM
Roni v’simchi
opus 1: Six Songs in Folk Tone
I. Pada dišč
II. Lietala, gágala
III. V mikuslášské kompanii
IV. Ty falešná falešnica
V. Zapadá slniečko
VI. Bodaj by vás…
Ben Steinberg (1997)
Pavel Haas (1919)
Adonai Roi Gerald Cohen (1992)
Yiddishe Nightingale
Tzind on di mames licht
Irving Berlin (1911)
Mikhl Gelbart (1921)
Shtile licht Lazar Weiner (1956)
Shain lamterne maine Gelbart (1932)
New York Gelbart (1932)
Sadie Salome Berlin (1909)
Lakol z’man (To everything there is a season) Steinberg (1979)
Ruth’s Song
Where’ere you go
Ruth, from Women of Valor
Simon Sargon (2001)
Myron Silberstein (2019)
Andrea Clearfield (2000)
Oseh shalom Silberstein (2020)
Roni v’simchi
Ben Steinberg
For my granddaughter Sara Berger on her Bat Mitzvah (November 28th, 1997)
Zechariah 2:14-16
Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! Now, I am coming to dwell in your midst—oracle of the Lord.
Many nations will bind themselves to the Lord on that day. They will be my people, and I will dwell in your midst. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion of the holy land, and the Lord will again choose Jerusalem.
Six Songs in Folk-Tone
Pavel Haas
Pada dišč
Rain is falling, Pouring from high heaven. How I love him
When he laughs at me!
Rain is falling, Morning will soon awaken, I don’t care–My beloved is near!
V mikuslášské kompanii
The Nicholas Company lies, cut down, killed, Covered in rosemary. Bells ring all around, My beloved is dead. My rose has no bloom. The whole world will weep.
As long as I live, from now on, I will dress in black.
I will wear black to mourn my lover.
Zapadá slniečko
The sun is setting
Over faraway mountains, And my heart burns for my love.
The little moon in heaven
From behind the mountain rises, And my heart sighs for my beloved.
Lietala, gágala
The wild geese fly and cackle over the water. Cry, maiden, cry over your lost freedom. Crying bitterly, She mourns her youth that has flown.
Ty falešná falešnica
You false girl, False are your eyes! You look at every man You meet in the street. You false girl, False are your eyes!
Yesterday you spoke to me, Today you don’t know me.
In the sky, the stars blink, And in my heart, love is aflame. Little stars, nightly sisters, Dove-like, bring light to my love.
Under your protection and help, Wish her “goodnight” from me.
Bodaj by vás…
So help me, God, to hell with you, boys, When you didn’t care to invite me to the dance. I would have danced with you Even spared a penny for the cymbal player And given all of you a kiss.
What my mother suffered this night
Just to please you boys. She used three bags of flour to bake kolaches for you, Just so she could dance at the party!
Adonai roi (Psalm 23 )
Gerald Cohen
In memory of Marcia Scharf
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness For his name’s sake.
Now it’s amen! Now it’s the end, dear boys, The dance is finally over. When a dance is planned, Remember me, boys— I’ll come even if it’s late at night!
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, They comfort me. You prepare a table before me In the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life, And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
Tzind on di mames licht – Aflame with Mother’s Light Poet unknown
(translation assistance from Jardena Gertler-Jaffe)
The mothers kindle the two blessed lights, From the window that looks out to the field, May they shine virtuously out For holy Shabbat over the entire world.
Cover the lovely brown head of your child with your apron, Cover your eyes with your pale hands, And like your old mother, bless the lights.
And every hurt will go away Around your head will sit a shining crown Your child will look, stunned, in your tear-filled eyes. “May you be like Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.”
Shtile Licht – Quiet Light Poem by Mani-Leib To Sarah-Naomi
Quiet light, eyes hidden in silence. Lips that murmur a prayer, silent. Bowed before your radiant glow, From my soul I pray, Silently my heart will murmur, Only you can hear me.
Lord, grant me my beloved one, If thou wilt but grant him, I’ll bear many children for him, Beautiful and gracious, And their eyes will be black as midnight, Just as his are.
I can see him steeped in Torah, Famous and exalted.
Oh, I pray Thee, holy God, Wilt Thou grant it? Amen.
Shain, lamterne maine – Shine, my lantern Poem by A. Liesin
(translation assistance from Jardena Gertler-Jaffe)
Shine, my lantern With love, shine.
As once in childhood, When it used to take away my fear Late at night in my room.
I go screaming away into the night, With no good anger around into the night. With hadows everywhere, A song makes me brave Let loudly out a sound From my voice, from my own heart
Shine, my lantern, With love, shine.
Shine, my lantern, In my unhappiness, shine. As the gloom presses me
To weep heavily Still the night will not even See my tears.
And I bite my lips, Bite until there is blood, And I stick my fear deep in my spirit. I go hopefully with faltering step, With a loud song, With faltering step I fight the darkness And with pain.
Shine, my lantern In my, shine.
Shine, my lantern, After a while, shine. Home is already near, Rest is near. I come soon
And I close my tired eyes. How I fall into sleep Away into deep sleep.
And I sink, already far from everything, In peacefulness.
The Angel Michael watches over me on my right side.
The Angel Gabriel watches over me on my left side.
And they still my fears. Shine, my lantern, For a while, shine.
New York
Poem by Aaron Glantz-Leyeles
(translation assistance from Jardena Gertler-Jaffe)
Metal, granite, uproar, racket, clatter, Automobiles, elevated train, subway, Car.
Burlesque!
Grotesque burlesque!
Cafés, cinema posters, Electric lights
And harsh noisy chaos.
Strange faces and hostile glances, No friendly “good morning,”
Only loneliness and uncomforted sorrow.
In the midst of the rushing, chaotic wilderness: New York!
Lakol z’man (To Everything There Is a Season)
Ben Steinberg
Written for the Bat Mitzvah of Lori Steingart
Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build.
Ruth’s Song, Simon Sargon
Commissioned by Irv Rosen as a tribute to his beloved wife Diane
Where’er you go, Myron Silberstein
For Michelle, on our wedding day
Ruth 1:16-17
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth, from Women of Valor
Andrea Clearfield
Dedicated to my mother, Louise Clearfield
Excerpted from “The Book of Ruth and Naomi,” Marge Piercy
…Where you go, I will go too, your people shall be my people, I will be a Jew for you, for what is yours I will love as I love you, oh Naomi my mother, my sister, my heart.
Show me a woman who does not dream a double, heart’s twin, a sister of the mind in whose ear she can whisper, whose hair she can braid as her life twists its pleasure and pain and shame. Show me a woman who does not hide in the locket of bone that deep eye beam of fiercely gentle love she had once from mother, daughter, sister; once like a warm moon that radiance aligned the tides of her blood into potent order.
At the season of first fruits, we recall two travellers, co-conspirators, scavengers making do with leftovers and mill ends, whose friendship was stronger than fear, Stronger than hunger, who walked together the road of shards, hands joined.
Oseh Shalom
Myron Silberstein
He who makes peace in His heights May he make peace upon us and upon all Israel. And let us say, Amen.
Anne Slovin, soprano, is a versatile performing artist, researcher and voice pedagogue who earned her doctorate from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in 2025. Passionate about crossing genres and exploring new vocal repertoires and styles, she has recently performed as Eve in Haydn’s The Creation at the University of Notre Dame, collaborated across universities for Tom Cipullo’s A Visit With Emily, and joined the Raritan Players in Bloomington and New York City of a concert of 18th-century Jewish music.
Slovin has distinguished herself as an interpreter of contemporary opera, having originated the title role in Shulamit Ran’s Anne Frank in 2023 and performed the role of Clara in the collegiate premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life in 2017 at the IU Jacobs School of Music. In 2015, she created the role of Mica Segal in The Property, a klezmer opera with music by Wlad Marhulets and a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other favorite roles in opera and operetta include Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Micäela in La Tragédie de Carmen. Not one to box herself into a single genre, Slovin is an active cabaret performer who debuted a solo show at Don’t Tell Mama NYC in 2019 and participated in the St. Louis Cabaret Conference in 2022. She made her South Bend Symphony Debut in December 2024 as part of their holiday pops program, Home for the Holidays.
Andrew Voelker joins the faculty of the University of Georgia’s in 2025 as Vocal Coach and Music Director of Opera Theatre at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Andrew is in demand as a vocal coach and pianist, specializing in lyric diction and contemporary score analysis, with a particular love of art song and all things sung. As an avid performer, Voelker brings a spirit for innovation and collaboration to UGA.
In April 2023, Andrew made their Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts with tenor Andrew Lunsford. The duo performed at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium as guest artists for Choirs of America, then appeared in recital at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Masterworks at Lincoln Center series.
Andrew previously served on the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam as the music director of the award-winning Crane Opera Ensemble. Highlights included the workshop and premiere of Computing Venus (Takach/Vincent), the winner of the 2024 Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize, as well as stage productions including Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon and Milton Granger’s Bluebeard’s Waiting Room.
While serving as Associate Instructor of Collaborative Piano at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Voelker coached productions of Le nozze di Figaro, La traviata, Little Women, Serse, and L’incoronazione di Poppea. In 2023, they assisted in preparing vocal roles for the premiere production of Shulamit Ran and Charles Kondek’s opera Anne Frank. Andrew also spent three years as the music director for the graduate opera workshop directed by internationally renowned soprano Heidi Grant Murphy.
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