Join us as we celebrate
our golden anniversary season
and honor Zamir’s founder
and artistic director Josh Jacobson!
In celebration of our golden anniversary, the Zamir Chorale of Boston will honor its founder and artistic director Josh Jacobson and showcase the best of Zamir’s repertoire. The premiere performances of commissioned works from composers Jeremiah Klarman, Ken Lampl, Jonathan Leshnoff, Charles Osborne, Nick Page, and Benjie Ellen Schiller will dazzle and delight. Plus you will hear some of Zamir’s all-time favorite pieces from the past 50 years performed by the 60 voices of our award-winning chorale, assisted by dozens of Zamir alumni who will join us on stage.
50 years of music with a mission
The Zamir Chorale of Boston is excited to announce that, in celebration of our 50th anniversary year, we created a first-ever virtual choir using Louis Lewandowski’s great “Halleluyoh.”
Upcoming Events
Zamir News
- Going Beyond Words (GBW) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Radio/ChoralNet host Stan Schmidt featured music from Judas Maccabaeus and Chanukah variations presented by Josh Jacobson and Zamir. A real honor to be heard on national radio! Listen to program.
- Josh Jacobson received the 2018 Chorus America Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes a member whose long-term service to the choral field significantly furthers Chorus America’s mission “to empower singing ensembles to create vibrant communities and effect meaningful change." Watch. Also, watch Josh's acceptance video...
- Josh Jacobson is interviewed in Hebrew on SBS Radio Australia by Nitza Lowenstein on January 13, 2019. Listen. Josh also is interviewed weekly by Hal Slifer, producer and host of "Chagigah," a Sunday-morning program of Jewish music aired from 8 to 11 am on WERS-FM 88.9 in Boston and worldwide on WERS.org. Here's a sample:
Zamir on Amazon and Youtube
Zamir Goes Baroque: full chorus
Who We Are
Performing on concert stages throughout North America, Europe, and Israel, the award-winning Zamir Chorale of Boston awakens audiences to the exotic rhythms of the Middle East to the majestic anthems of 19th-century European synagogues, from the romances of Spain to the chants of Yemen, and from contemporary American jazz to the much-loved Yiddish tunes of Jewish musical theater.
Founded in 1969 by Joshua Jacobson, one of the world’s leading authorities on Jewish choral music, the Zamir Chorale of Boston’s “music with a mission” brings the joy of Jewish music to audiences that transcend age, religious and ethnic background. Zamir sets the bar for musical excellence.
Founder and Artistic Director
JOSHUA R. JACOBSON, founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, holds a Bachelors degree in Music from Harvard College, a Masters in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory, a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati, and a Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa from Hebrew College. He served 45 years as Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University, including nine years as Music Department Chairman and six years as the Bernard Stotsky Professor of Jewish Cultural Studies. He is also Visiting Professor and Senior Consultant in the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College.
Prof. Jacobson has guest conducted a number of ensembles, including the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Symphony and Chorus, the New England Conservatory Orchestra and the Boston Lyric Opera Company. He has guest lectured and taught workshops for schools, synagogues, festivals and conventions throughout North America and in Israel, Germany and Australia. He has also written articles on various aspects of choral music, and compositions and arrangements that have been published and performed by choirs around the world. In 1989 he spent four weeks in Yugoslavia as a Distinguished Professor under the auspices of the Fulbright program. In 1994 Hebrew College awarded him the Benjamin Shevach Award for Distinguished Achievement in Jewish Educational Leadership, in 2004 the Cantors Assembly presented him with its prestigious “Kavod Award,” and in 2016 Choral Arts New England presented him the Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award. And in June, 2018, Prof. Jacobson received the Distinguished Service Award from Chorus America at its national convention in Chicago.
