Danny Maseng and Paul Winter hope to connect with listeners in Central Jersey when they perform at the Festival of Faiths concert in the Princeton University Chapel Feb. 19.
There are many kinds of callings in life, from religion to the arts. Singer-songwriter Danny Maseng combined both spirituality and music to craft his original songs. He stuck with his dedication to the spiritual aspect of his music, too, even when colleagues tried to point him in a different direction.
"Without a question, the response of the audience has been overwhelming, and it’s been a great affirmation for this journey," says Mr. Maseng, speaking by phone from Florida. "I was told at the beginning of this project that this was not commercial music, that it wouldn’t work, no one would be interested, no one would listen. The truth is that it’s been quite amazing. The connection with the audience was almost immediate."
Mr. Maseng hopes to connect with listeners in Central Jersey when he performs at the Festival of Faiths concert in the Princeton University Chapel Feb. 19. Grammy-winning saxophonist, world-music pioneer and environmentalist Paul Winter also will be part of the grand finale of the 2003-2004 series. The two musicians will perform individually and in collaboration, creating a synergy between Mr. Winter’s blend of ethnic influences and Mr. Maseng’s passionate songs.
Just in the last decade, Mr. Maseng has become one of the most popular and respected composers of what is formally described as contemporary liturgical and synagogue music although he begs to differ from that terminology.
"It’s not all from the prayer book and it’s not all Jewish," he says. "(We do) music by Loreena McKennitt for example. The Jewish music we do is varied as well, from Yemenite to Sephardic Jews from the Spanish exile to Hassidic music from Eastern Europe. We also do a lot of my own stuff.
"The interesting thing is that about 25 years ago I started a group in Israel and we were doing religious music that ranged from the 16th century to contemporary times," adds Mr. Maseng, who came to the United States to pursue a career in acting. "Half of the group were classical musicians and the other half were all pop and rock singers. We didn’t last for very long, and then I left the country but the (singer-songwriter) bug never left me. Soul on Fire, the group I put together about five years ago, is dedicated to the same principles, doing spiritual music from a variety of backgrounds and giving it a live, contemporary feel and relevance."
In addition, Mr. Maseng mixes in a bit of kabala, which he says is not unusual in spiritual music.
"Kabala is the bedrock of Jewish mysticism," he says. "It’s really an umbrella name for all different forms of Jewish mysticism through the millennia. But yes, there are elements of it in (my songs) there have to be when you’re doing spiritual music. Most Jewish people, including those who go to synagogue regularly, probably don’t know the mysticism or kabalistic roots of certain hymns or prayers that they’re singing. The hymns have been there for at least 300 or 400 years and they’re pretty much entrenched into synagogue prayer by now. But most people would not even know they were written by kabalistic masters with very specific ideas in mind."
Born in Israel to American parents, Mr. Maseng came to the U.S. in 1971 to star on Broadway in Only Fools Are Sad. A playwright, actor, singer and composer, he’s served as evaluator of New American Plays/Opera-Musical Theater for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the director of the Spielberg Fellowships for the Foundation for Jewish Camping, and has most recently been named artistic director of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in California, a center for Jewish culture and learning.
Mr. Maseng has been the invited guest of the American Conference of Cantors, the Cantor’s Assembly as well as the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he is a frequent faculty member of the Wexner Heritage Foundation in New York, the Whizin Institute in Bel-Air, Calif., and many other national institutes and conferences. A sought-after scholar and artist-in-residence, Mr. Maseng travels the world, inspiring, teaching and rekindling the love of Judaism through Torah, kabala, Jewish culture and the arts.
One thing Mr. Maseng has not done, however, is share a stage with Paul Winter.
"It’ll be an honor," Mr. Maseng says. "Paul Winter is truly amazing."
In addition to combining elements of African, Asian, Latin and Russian music with American jazz, Mr. Winter was one of the first to incorporate the sounds of nature and wildlife into his compositions. Signed by John Hammond to Columbia Records in 1962, Mr. Winter and his sextet recorded a self-titled debut album the same year. In 1967, Mr. Winter formed the Paul Winter Consort, naming the group in the manner of the house bands of the Elizabethan theater. The first studio album, Icarus (Living Music), was released in 1970 and produced by George Martin, former mentor and studio wizard for the Beatles.
The sounds of nature fascinated Mr. Winter, who first heard the songs of humpback whales in 1968. After hosting a whale-watching/music-making workshop in Baja, Calif., in 1977, Mr. Winter and the Consort combined the sounds of whales, wolves and birds with their acoustic improvisations on their next album, Common Ground (A&M,
function popUp(URL,NAME) {
amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,"location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10");
amznwin.focus();}
document.open();
document.write("Buy from Amazon.com);document.close();