DATE: April 17, 2007

Lullapalooza! New community-centred arts initiative celebrates the opening of its first exhibition

The Emet Gallery will celebrate the opening of its first exhibition, Israeli artist Shuli Nachshon’s latest video-art installation entitled “Numi, Numi: Collecting Cradle Songs, Connecting Cultures,” with an afternoon of festivities on Sunday, April 29, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. that will bring together participants and presenters of all ages and cultures.  The program is designed to build bridges among communities and stimulate dialogue on universal themes. 

From 2:00 – 3:00, two events start things off:
Pajamarama.  Children, ages 2-8, are invited to come to a pajama party dressed for bedtime fun.  Their favourite bedtime buddy (any stuffed animal or blanky will do) is welcome, too, to enjoy a lullaby sing-along, storytelling, and milk and cookies.

The Cradle of Culture ~ A Panel Discussion on the Significance of Lullabies
Guest speakers explore the universality of lullabies in communicating cultural values.  The artist, Shuli Nachshon, will recount stories of her journeys and the people behind the lullabies in her video-art installation, beginning with her first recordings in 2000 in Dusseldorf, Germany, to her experiences in Montreal.  Julia Soto Lebentritt, an arts educator and performer from Troy, New York has been dedicated to preserving the lullaby as an important cultural tradition for more than twenty years. Lebentritt will share her work on the use of nonverbal communications and spontaneous song in care giving for people of all ages.  Montreal’s Debbie Carroll, a music therapist, will explore the singing of lullabies from a therapeutic perspective and the role of lullabies on the child’s emergence of self and overall social, emotional and intellectual development.

The festivities continue at 3:30 pm with Lullabies without Borders ~ A Multicultural Performance. Inspired by the Numi, Numi installation, the concert for the whole family will offer a journey through Montreal’s diverse communities with lullabies in many languages and tales from the world’s only “lullabologist,” Julia Soto Lebentritt.  Performers include Judith Cohen, an ethnomusicologist specializing in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) songs, Dragana, a Balkan women’s a capella choir, Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir, an Icelandic music educator who specializes in collecting and teaching lullabies, and Annette Jacobs,a Mohawk educator who has participated in the development of programs for the preservation of the Mohawk language. Several other parents and grandparents round out the event, singing lullabies in many languages as they have experienced them in their youth or sung them to their children. 

DETAILS:    Lullapalooza, Sunday April 29
Pajamarama, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
The Cradle of Culture: A Panel Discussion on the Significance of Lullabies 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Lullabies without Borders (performance) 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

The Emet Gallery, Congregation Dorshei Emet
18 Cleve Road, Hampstead, Quebec H3X 1A6
For more information on the Emet Gallery and its programs,
(514) 486-9400, info@emetgallery.org, www.emetgallery.org

MEDIACONTACT:    Leanore Lieblein, Lullapalooza Committee Chair
E-mail: leanore.lieblein@mcgill.ca
Phone: (514)489-5651