Ben Apfelbaum

SHIR MADNESS MUSIC FESTIVAL @ BONDI PAVILION

Despite constant rain, some of it torrential, music lovers were not deterred last Sunday from attending what was the 7th Shir Madness Music Festival at the Bondi Pavilion.

Spread over four stages, thirty five acts over tehours performed musical genres including classical, world, choral, cabaret, musical theatre, klezmer, ladino, disco, zydeco, rock, pop, hip-hop, jazz and more.

Each stage was named after songs written and made famous by Jewish songwriters. The marquee was called Beautiful Noise (Neil Diamond), the Seagull room was became the Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) stage, the theatre became the Summertime (George and Ira Gershwin) stage,and the function room became the Tapestry (Carole King) stage.

The range of talent on show ranged from high school kids to top headline acts. Well known musicians such as Dave Faulkner of the Hoodoo Gurus, Mahalia Barnes, Steve Kilbey of The Church and Tina Harrod were prepared to support the Festival such that each sang only one song before coming together to form a choir to sing the finale, The Song Of Songs. This was fitting as the Festival began with the sweet voices of the Sydney Jewish Choral Society singing traditional and popular Jewish songs.

This Festival has been the baby of Gary Holzman, the Festival Director who last year successfully expanded it to Melbourne.

http://www.shirmadness.com

All images by Ben Apfelbaum (c).

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.