The Jewish Book Community Festival opened on September 2 in the house-museum of Naum Shafer. It has become our tradition to hold our first meeting with Naum Griroryevich. Remarkable events should start with remarkable people. The topic for discussion was the 110th anniversary of Isaak Dunayevskiy, composer who had written music for most of our favorite Soviet movies.
Naum Grigoryevich is doing a research on Isaak Dunayevsky’s biography and his creative achievements. He has found materials not known to the public before. It includes his music, songs, information on meetings with interesting people. These findings are very important for a better understanding of the great composer.
Currently the museum working group is transferring all music recordings to digital format. Thus our heritage will be preserved for future generations. Some music has been issued on CDs already.
We were lucky to listen to several rare recordings issued in 1947 on a gramophone! We were listening to the wonderful voice of Mikhail Alexandrovich singing in Yiddish. Some guests - Anna Lobchenko, Faina Svetchinskaya were translating for us the meaning of the songs. They know the language from childhood.
Young people and children learned a lot of new things. Everybody felt at home in the friendly atmosphere.
Before leaving we made plans to meet again because there will be many interesting events and meetings during the Festival.