Jewish choirs ease immigrant experience

By: Sharon Chisvin

WINNIPEG, ON — Lina Streltsov arrived in Winnipeg in 2007 and
has already contributed to a rich musical legacy.

It has been 100 years since Cantor Moses Jacob created the
Winnipeg Jewish Folk Choir. Composed of as many as 80 community
members — both children and adults — the choir performed at
community events and synagogue services, often accompanying
world-class visiting cantors such as Pierre Pinchik and Gershon
Sirota.

In those days, as the fledgling community was taking shape, the
choir was viewed as a unifying entity, an ensemble of immigrant
voices that had found a common home.

In the decades since, numerous Jewish choirs have come and gone
from the city’s stages, some of them representing the community as
a whole and others representing specific schools, synagogues,
agencies and ideologies. The left-leaning Workman’s Circle, the
Zionist youth group Habonim, and the traditional Talmud Torah
School, for example, all sponsored their own choirs.

In spite of ideological differences, however, each of these
ensembles shared a common inspiration and a common purpose — to
give Winnipeg Jewry a way to self-identify and to unite Winnipeg
Jewry through songs that celebrated both the present and the
past.

This choral tradition continues today through several community
and synagogue-based vocal ensembles, three of which are conducted
by a gifted newcomer to the city.

Choral music and conducting have always been integral to
Streltsov’s life. In Ukraine, where she was born and raised, she
studied to be a vocalist and a conductor. In Israel, where she
immigrated in 1998, she worked as a vocal co-ordinator at a musical
conservatory and conducted a children’s choir and a renowned
classical women’s choir.