Chutzpah Choir
venue
Ralli Hall (near Hove station), 81 Denmark Villas, Hove, East Sussex BN3 3TH; 1st floor, room 12. There is a small parking area on the left of the building and down the slope.
schedule
Wednesdays, 7 – 9 pm weekly with summer and winter breaks plus performances.
Chutzpah ( חֻצְפָּה, Hebrew) is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It is also the name of a Choir based in Brighton & Hove. It is made up of a diverse group of people who enjoy singing and performing Jewish folk songs. The members are not exclusively Jewish, and the Choir spans an age range of five decades.
Chutzpah sing Jewish songs in Yiddish, Ladino (Judaeo–Spanish), Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian. Another large part of the choir’s repertoire are niggunim, the age old Jewish songs without words. There is also much improvisation in Jewish modes. Most of the material is taught by ear, as in the tradition, although musical notation is also available for music readers. Songs and repertoire are taught in a relaxed, informal and friendly atmosphere.
The choir performs several times a year both for Jewish and non–Jewish audiences. Amongst its recent performances have been “Musica Sacra” at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings the World Sacred Music Festival in Brighton and Hove Town Hall for the Brighton & Hove People’s Day, Brighton Fringe and others.
Choir members:
Polina leads us with such infectious enthusiasm. I realise it has made me do something I never thought I could.
Cecile Levine
Every Wednesday at Ralli Hall in Hove something unexpected and rather wonderful has been going on. A group of around 20 members of a recently–formed choir have been gathering to sing Jewish songs.
And what’s more, these people – some Jewish, some not, some naturally musical, some not; and spanning a five–decade age range – are beginning to sound rather good.
The choir’s blossoming repertoire – songs sometimes joyful, sometimes brimming with sorrow – includes “Moshe Emes”, “Esn Est Zikh”, and “Volt Ikh Gehat Koyekh”. Since the early days of the choir, which began last September, members have been singing in rounds, harmonising and singing in several parts, and embellishing these songs with quirks such as the “krekhtsen” – you’d know them if you heard them – which help to give them their quintessentially Yiddish sound.
The Yiddish music revival wave that has washed over much of Eastern and Central Europe in recent years has finally reached the shores of Brighton and Hove. The city now has a Yiddish music choir to add to its “Yiddishe” treasures. Chutzpah is breathing life back into a fascinating, fading language and a rich, beloved musical genre.
Mel Poluck, a former choir member and a journalist living and working in Brighton, 2006.