Meira’s Music Featured in February Environmental Programs in Columbia

Sunday, February 9, from 4-6 PM, at Beth Shalom Synagogue, 4827 N. Trenholm Road in Columbia, SC, Meira will present Ahavah in the context of the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, which is considered the New Year for Trees, and offers an opportunity to celebrate the earth. Ahavah is especially appropriate for this holiday, since the pervasive chant on the word “ahava (love)” came from Meira’s encounter with a tree. Read the story at her website. The first two movements will present the recorded music (Albany Records CD) for orchestra, chorus, and mezzo soloist. The last movement will feature a live performance, in an arrangement for mezzo soprano, cello, and piano, with Metropolitan Opera Soloist Janet Hopkins, mezzo soprano; UofSC Professor Emeritus Robert Jesselson, cellist and the composer as pianist. The event includes discussion about the text from Deuteronomy used in this work, and its relevance for the Climate Crisis we are facing now.

RSVP date for the February 9 event is Thursday, February 6. Call 803-782-2500 for more information.

Then, on Monday, February 10, at Cutler Jewish Day School in Columbia, Meira will present Ahavah(Love) as part of the CJDS celebration of Tu B’Shvat and teach the students the Ahavah chant that she learned from the above mentioned tree! It carries a message of love from the tree and all of creation. Can we return this love in how we live on the earth?

Here’s a letter from the school after Meira presented there in September 2019.