Sound & Spirit Shows

Live Shows: Ellen Kushner performs 45- to 60-minute live re-creations (with script and music CD’s) of several Sound & Spirit programs, usually followed by discussion and Q&A with Ellen.

Sound & Spirit Lectures: Nearly any of the “live” programs can also be presented as a lecture without music; two other shows (noted below) are available as lectures only.

Topical Lectures: Ellen also is happy to give a more personal talk tailored to your group’s interests. She enjoys reflecting on the power of art to express and develop what is best in the human spirit, both “around the world and through the ages” and in her own life. She can discuss aspects of her personal philosophy as it pertains to the Sound & Spirit show and to her work as a writer and performer, touching on subjects that can include Judaism, public radio, music, literature, and world culture — or simply describe how Sound & Spirit was created and what it’s like to produce it!

Community Programs: Some communities have chosen to create their own live Sound & Spirit style concert program, with Ellen acting as commentator and Mistress of Ceremonies. Picking a theme, such as “Divine Love” or “Meditations on Peace,” the community invites members of different religious and cultural traditions to come together for a live concert where each presents music from their own tradition expressing the theme. Working with information given by the performers — and with her own broad knowledge (and sense of theatricality) — Ellen weaves together a meaningful running commentary throughout the concert.

Live Sound & Spirit Shows

While all these programs are appropriate for year ‘round presentation, we have noted some that tie in nicely to a particular holiday season.

Fairy Tales

Ellen Kushner seeks out the deeper meanings to be found in fairy tales featuring musical settings by composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky, Philip Glass and Loreena McKennit engaging with tales — including “Beauty and the Beast” and “Cinderella” — that have been a source of wisdom, amusement, and powerful transformation for people through the ages.

Listen to the radio version of this show at the Sound & Spirit Web site, where you'll also find the playlist and other interesting background material.

The Human Family

Explore what people around the world and through the ages believe about birth . . . death . . . the afterlife . . . and in between! Featuring music and observations from India, West Africa, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Tibet and contemporary America, as well as wisdom from the Jewish, Sufi (mystic Islam), Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

Jonah

Every year on Yom Kippur, Jews read aloud the famous story of a man running from God who is swallowed by a whale. Ellen Kushner takes a deeper look at the Book of Jonah, with the help of artists as diverse as comedian Lord Buckley and composer Alan Hovhaness, and the words of rabbis Harold Kushner and Larry Kushner (no relation!), as she explores the music and meaning of the Biblical tale, and consider the implications of ignoring responsibility and one's inner voice.

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can listen to the original radio program or read interesting background material about Jonah.

[Can tie into: Jewish High Holiday season programming]

The Making of Sound & Spirit's “The Lord of the Rings”

(55-minute lecture/demo) Ellen Kushner explores how musicians, artists and writers have been inspired by Tolkien's masterwork — through music ranging from sweeping symphonies to sassy satire — and investigates how Tolkien found his own inspiration in our world's mythic traditions.

Hear selections from the original broadcast, interspersed with Ellen's personal comments on the making of this popular radio show.

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can listen to the original radio program or read interesting background material about the program, The Lord of the Rings.

The New Klezmorim

From its Eastern European roots, Klezmer music followed Ashkenazic Jewish culture around the world, transmuting as it encountered other traditions. Ellen Kushner follows Klezmer from its earliest days of cross-fertilization with Balkan Gypsy dance music, to America and its meeting with African-American Jazz, and on into the 21st century as new Klez bands hit fusion with a techno bang. She also uses Klezmer's journey to explore what it means to be a Jew in a changing world.

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can listen to the original radio program or read interesting background material about The New Klezmorim.

[Can tie into: Chanukah programming]

Sacred Spaces

(20 minutes) Music opens and fills sacred space, be it a Gothic cathedral or a clearing in the rainforest. Listen to the power and acoustics of sacred spaces as Ellen Kushner plays sacred music from around the world, and talks about what makes a sacred space in our lives.

Listen to the radio version of this show at the Sound & Spirit Web site, where you'll also find the playlist and other interesting background material.

The Song of Songs

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine...” It’s from the Bible's greatest love poem, the book known as The Song of Songs — a chronicle of passion — but is it the love of human beings, or the song of the soul, yearning toward perfect mystic union with the Divine...? Over the centuries, its potent words have been set to music by many remarkable people, including Italian Renaissance master Luigi da Palestrina, Colonial American tanner William Billings and Yemenite singer Ofra Haza. Ellen Kushner rounds them all up in a celebration of both divine and human love and partnership!

Listen to the radio version of this show at the Sound & Spirit Web site, where you'll also find the playlist and other interesting background material.

[Can tie into: Sabbath or Passover season programming]

Walking the Path

A journey on foot — in a meditative circle, through a complex maze, to a sacred destination or just a long walk in the woods — can be a profound experience. From medieval pilgrimages and the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral, to a Navajo “walk in beauty,” Thoreau’s rambles in Concord, Buddhist walking meditation and a baby’s first steps, trace some of these paths with the music and insights they have to offer.

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can read interesting background material about Walking the Path.

Women Mystics

Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Shaker leader Anne Lee, Indian poet Mirabai, Sufi mystic Rabia... These women from different traditions shared an uncanny language of sacred ecstasy. Over the centuries, they wrote and sang as if they sensed that their rapturous visions would be for all time. Ellen Kushner presents the poetry, music and remarkably good sense of women mystics — Christian, Muslim and Hindu — whose vision still has great meaning for us today.

Listen to the radio version of this show at the Sound & Spirit Web site, where you'll also find the playlist and other interesting background material.

The World Turned Upside-Down

Around the world and through the ages, people have created traditions that take our everyday, hum-drum reality... and turn it on its head! From the Jewish Purim “Feast of Masks” to the English tradition of a Christmas “Feast of Fools,” from Victorian nonsense poetry to the Hindu Festival of Colors, people have been turning the World Upside Down for centuries — taking a walk on the wild side in one giant flipping of social order that almost every society engages in once a year's ritual silliness that somehow manages to reassert that order when all is done.

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can listen to the original radio program or read interesting background material about The World Turned Upside-Down.

[Can tie into: Yuletide, Purim, & Spring “Carnival” season programming]

Lectures

Nearly any of the “live” Sound & Spirit shows can be presented as a lecture without music; these two are available as lectures only:

The Day of Rest

Observed on three different days by Muslims, Christians and Jews, a weekly day of rest and prayer has given rise to rich traditions of poetry, art, ritual and music. Ellen Kushner discusses the ways in which the three Abrahamic religions “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy...”

At the Sound & Spirit Web site, you can listen to the original radio program or read interesting background material about this program (titled Sabbath online).

Friendship

What makes a true friendship? How do we build, nurture, and sustain it? Ellen Kushner examines what Twain and Thoreau have to say about friendship, as well as the passionate friendship of David and Jonathan in the Bible, the literary friendship of Aubrey and Maturin (Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander), the childhood friendship of West African musicians Mansour Seck and Baaba Maal, and the Divine friendship of the Sufi mystics.

Listen to the radio version of this show at the Sound & Spirit Web site, where you'll also find the playlist and other interesting background material.

Musical Theater & Storytelling

These dramatic performance pieces feature Ellen and from one to four musicians.

Beyond 1492: 500 Years of Jewish Song & Legend

Expelled by the Spanish rulers in 1492, the Jews who had lived in Spain for centuries were forced to find refuge in many lands around the Mediterranean and beyond. To this day they have kept their language, Ladino (a mix of Hebrew and medieval Spanish), and their traditions of song, cuisine, romantic tales, and a deep longing for lost Spain.

Ellen's one-woman show covers five centuries of Sephardic Jewish experience. Ellen plays all the parts in this five-century family drama, beginning in Spain in 1492 with a teenage girl, Rachel, who sees her joyous wedding plans destroyed by Ferdinand and Isabella's dread edict expelling all unbelievers from Spain. Her descendant, Reuben, a boy living in the Balkans, introduces us to the rich trickster folktale and riddling traditions of the Sephardic Jews. After he leaves Bulgaria for the New World, we meet his granddaughter, another Rachel, a modern American woman with a romantic conundrum that is resolved at a family Chanukah party.

Songs of the Sephardim fall naturally into the stories as they are told: young girls sing of romance as they sew in a courtyard. . . a boy and his mother pray for a good Sabbath and a good week to come . . . and of course, there are songs for the holidays!

Music is provided by Sephardic scholar and stellar vocalist Lauren Pomerantz and friends: the distinguished early music ensemble of Kit Higginson (recorder, psaltry), Shira Kammen (vielle, rebec), and Peter Maund (percussion).

The performance runs about 90 minutes and is usually broken into two halves, with an intermission and a few extra songs thrown in!

Esther: the Feast of Masks

In her one-woman dramatic show of multicultural monologues, Ellen takes on the roles of five different modern characters, each one illuminating a different aspect of the story of the biblical Queen Esther, all built around the issues of hiding and revealing one's true identity in the face of oppression in modern society.

She is joined by a powerful and versatile vocalist and two other musicians, playing fiddle and piano, guitar, mbira and accordion. Songs range from African chant and Hebrew folk tunes to '50s pop and blues. The music augments and comments on the action of the stories.

This program originated as a Sound & Spirit radio broadcast. You can hear the original 60-minute radio program.

The live stage version runs approximately 75 minutes. It may then be followed by a discussion between Ellen and the audience about the sometimes provocative, always moving issues that the show brings up for people there. We also recommend a panel discussion of the show featuring your own local clergy, scholars, and activists to discuss the show's issues.

This program is recommended for multifaith audiences as well as Jewish ones. While it refers to the spring holiday of Purim, it can be enjoyed at any time of the year. Due to some sophisticated and adult content, it is not recommended for children under twelve, but has been recommended as an educational tool for high school and college students.

Detailed information about Esther can be found at the Sound & Spirit web site and at the new Esther webpage.

Printed information about the show and the performers is also available from Kushner.Ellen@gmail.com.

Esther: the Feast of Masks was awarded a 2004 Gracie Allen Award by the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.

The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer “Nutcracker” for Chanukah

Ellen offers programs to fit all budgets for this enchanting children's story.

1) Ellen narrates her original story of a young girl's magical Chanukah adventures, accompanied by the 6-piece Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, playing their unique original adaptation of Tchaikovsky's holiday Nutcracker Suite in this award-winning family entertainment. The story is about 45 minutes long. The performance usually includes 20 extra minutes of the band playing a lively assortment of klezmer tunes. This program is especially recommended for children ages 5–12 and their families. It is also available on CD from Rykodisc. Ellen and the band are always happy to sign albums and chat with audiences after the show.

The fully-narrated stage show is also available with a scaled-down band of 3 players.

Bookings for the live music version of The Golden Dreydl with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra are handled by Eric Rosenthal of Shirim.

2) Ellen presents a lively lecture/demonstration, beginning with how Shirim's music inspired the story of The Golden Dreydl, and reads selections from the chapter book, followed by a Q&A with young readers about how a book gets written. This program is easily adapted for smaller venues and younger children, and can run as a 20-minute (for ages 4-8) or a 45-minute program for ages 8-12 and their families. Options include:

*Recorded music from the original Shirim album
*One musician, providing live music to help explain the creative process
*Colorful peacock puppet for younger audiences

Bookings for lecture/demo events are handled by Kushner.Ellen@gmail.com.

Thomas the Rhymer

Ellen reads from her award-winning novel based on Scottish legend, and sings the traditional ballads that inspired it.