Post concert

My dear Friends
Well, in the end it was a great evening! We had a modest turnout, but the people got very involved. First to arrive were 2 women, who came because of a leaflet I gave out in the street-they turned out to be very musical and enjoyed the Jewish music, as did everyone!

Speaking of which, next to arrive were 2 Jewish women, who added their own songs in Hebrew and Yiddish, and who ended up teaching everyone the Horah! This is an Israeli circle dance, danced to the tune of Hava Nagila, so we pushed back the chairs and got on with it.

In between I sang many folk songs and popular numbers such as 'You've got a friend' and I got a lot of pleasure letting the audience sing the chorus on their own and a verse or two as well!

Liesel, my friend to whom I owe a big thank you for coming from London and supporting me and taking my stuff to the venue, comes from South Africa and requested 'Swing Low, sweet chariot' which I have just added to my repertoire and which I sang twice. But it was definitely the Jewish music which won the evening. I had to sing more when a friend called Jonathan arrived with six foreign language students from France, Switzerland, Japan and the Czech Republic - I sang the Lorelei in German but the students did not seem to know it!

Jonathan was moved by Psalm 23 in Hebrew. I learned the tune from a Japanese nun on the top of the Mount of Beatitudes; apparently it was composed by a survivor of the Shoah.

Anyhow I enjoyed the informality of it all (venue was similar to my wild youth) and it must have been successful because the Israeli manager has asked me to repeat it all sometime.

Ole! And Shalom
Sister Gila