WEST HARTFORD – Beth El Temple’s 2019 BEMA (Beth El Music & Arts) music season will close on June 2 at 7 p.m. with “The Power of Music”, a concert that will take the audience on a musical journey – from an early 20th century piano masterpiece, to the swinging hits of the 1930s, to the get-on-your-feet rock of the 1970s.

Israeli pianist Tomer Gewirtzman will lead off with a performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in G minor op. 16. 

Gewirtzman will be followed by vocalist Alan Piacenta and Frank Sinatra’s version of “It Was a Very Good Year” and a tribute to Benny Goodman – “Sing, Sing, Sing” with Chris Bonito on drums, Daryl LaTorra at the guitar, and John Mastrianni on saxophone. 

The New Remains

Finally, “THE NEW REMAINS” will perform “Beginnings” by Chicago, “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry that Weight,” and “The End” by The Beatles, and “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions” by Queen.

Each performance will be accompanied by the Beth El Symphony Orchestra, led by BEMA artistic director and conductor Cantor Joseph Ness.

This is Beth El Temple’s second “genre-hopping” concert, conceived and coordinated by Elisa S. Wagner. The first – held on Dec. 3, 2017 – was an eclectic musical program that kicked off with classical, slid into Big Band, and climaxed with a mind-bending tribute to rock n’ roll.

Tomer Gewirtzman started his musical education at the age of 8, at the Rubin Conservatory in Haifa, and continued his piano studies with Prof. Vadim Monastirski from the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. From 2008 to 2011, he served in the Israel Defense Forces, in the “Outstanding Musician” program, where he combined regular military service, with extensive music studies at the University. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the Buchmann-Mehta school of music in TelAviv, in the studio of Arie Vardi.  He earned his Master’s degree and Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School, where he received the prestigious Kovner Fellowship award.  

His performances have taken him from New York’s Carnegie Hall (the Bartok Concerto No. 3 with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by David Robertson), to Israel with the Israel Philharmonic, Israel Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israeli Chamber Orchestra and New Haifa Symphony Orchestra, to St. Petersburg, Russia with the Mariinsky Orchestra, to locations throughout the U.S. Gewirtzman was selected to perform at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall for the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic, and at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater in the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Gala honoring the memory of Vera Stern. 

John Mastrianni

At the 2015 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he was awarded First Prize as well as five performance prizes. Other accolades include the Piano Prize and Audience Prize at the 2013 America – Israel Cultural Foundation’s Aviv Competition, Third Prize at the inaugural Midwest Piano Competition in Iowa in 2014, First Prize and a special prize for a commissioned piece at the 2010 Clairmont Competition in Israel, and First Prize at the 2010 Piano Forever competition in Ashdod, which gave him a full scholarship to attend master classes in the U.S. and an opportunity to perform as soloist with the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra. 

The New Remains musicians have been providing the “Classic Rock Experience” throughout New England since 2003. The band was initially conceived as an “Acoustic Rock Trio” but soon expanded into a full-fledged act that became known for its musicianship and creative interpretations of some of the best-known and occasionally unheard classics from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. This will be THE NEW REMAINS second performance with the Beth El Symphony Orchestra. 

Visit betheltemplemusic.com for information and tickets.

CAP: Tomer Gewirtzman