The UPJ has a core of people ready to assist others in enhancing the music in their congregations.  It is not necessary to have people who can sing, read music or carry a tune.  They only need to bring their enthusiasm and commitment to Jewish worship.

You may choose to partake of any of the following musical opportunities:

• A music clinic for your congregation focusing on your particular needs and talents
• A region wide seminar enabling you to become an effective service leader
• A choral workshop for those congregations that have choirs or the potential for choirs or small groups of singers.

Music Clinics

The Union for Progressive Judaism is committed to providing all of our affiliated bodies with the means to function effectively with their constituencies.  To that end, we are initiating Music Clinics.

What is a Music Clinic?

A Music Clinic is a program that is tailor made to help you enhance the music for your worship service and Jewish celebratory events in your congregations.  Our trained facilitators come to your community for a weekend and work with a group of people who are interested in enhancing the music in the congregation.  They assist with service leading and hold workshops designed to addressing your specific needs.

The goal of a Music Clinic is to have your members be more comfortable with the music of the liturgy of Shabbat and holidays.

Who may participate?

Any member who is interested in, or responsible for leading, or taking an active role in worship services, leyning Torah, or just enjoys participating actively in the community.

What skills are necessary for participation?

• Interest and enthusiasm are the main elements.
• Knowledge of Hebrew, reading/decoding, is helpful, but not essential.
• An ability to read music is a plus, and a good ear for music will add a lot.
• Playing a musical instrument is an added bonus

How much does it cost?

The cost to your community is $500 per Music Clinic.

In addition you have the following expenses:

• Accommodations, meals and transportation for the Music Clinic team
• Half the air fare or other transportation costs for the team to come to your community.
• Copying of materials and CDs.  One master copy of all materials and a CD will be provided to the congregation

The UPJ pays

• Half of the airfare or other transportation costs for the Music Clinic team to come to your community.
• A stipend to Music Clinic Team members.
• Initial production costs for materials and CDs.

For more information contact:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

REGIONAL UPJ MUSIC NETWORK ON THE WAY!
by Judy Campbell

At the Canberra Biennial, we were fortunate to have musical attendees from around the region. They joined together to form a ‘conference choir’, which helped to lead singing of the conference song, and also the anthems at the opening night function at Parliament House. The choir’s primary job, however, was at the Shabbat morning service, which gave the conference at large an opportunity to experience a range of musical options that would not usually be heard at a single Shabbat service at any one UPJ congregation. Perhaps more importantly, it offered the participants an intensive experience of preparing music for services. Hopefully, it will have encouraged everyone to return to their congregations, armed with some new music, with renewed vigour for the task of beautifying services through music.

With the presence of these musical attendees, another event took place at the Biennial, one with even higher potential impact on the region in the long term. Additional interested parties joined members of the conference choir at a session to discuss the establishment of an official music network for our region.

The desire among us for greater ongoing communication and more frequent musical sharing across the region is clearly high. This is a promising starting point. Informal discussions have taken place at UPJ conferences in the past, but we came away from this conference with two key outcomes that bode well for the future of this fledgling network: specific action items to address this year, and a higher level of support from UPJ management than ever before.

The agenda for 2011 includes exploration of:

Regional Music Network events as parallel sessions to the Moetzah sessions in May (Gold Coast) and November (Sydney);

Use of technology to connect members of the network on a regular basis, e.g. webinars, email group;

Organisational affiliation with the Guild of Temple Musicians, a wonderful organisation in the United States that supports music providers through resources, advice and collegiality – this will be pursued at the GTM plenary in Boston in June;

Project to assemble useful repertoire for use with Mishkan T’filah.

It will be interesting to see how things have progressed by the next Biennial!