Naama

Presented with a University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Award in 2016, saxophonist Idit Shner chose to invest that award in the creation of new compositions for saxophone. Participating in both individual and group commissioning efforts, this recording was programmed from that collection of ten new works by long established composers, such as Chicago's Stacy Garrop, to several more diverse and emerging voices, including Ziv Slama from Israel and the Oregon-based Andrea Reinkemeyer and Evan C. Paul. With pianist EunHye Choi, Shner performed several concerts with each of these pieces to enthusiastic response, forming the belief that while obvious audience favorites, they also represent a substantial contribution to current saxophone literature.

The inspiration for this album was the way in which the double bass has entered Arabic music in the 1940's and 50's, the days of great artists like Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab - a western instrument that found another side in it, and an eastern orchestra that found its fulcrum, on the low frequencies that it brought into it for the first time.

For many Jews, the meal is the holiday

17 year old Naama Barash enjoys alcohol, drugs and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a home where her parents always fight, and a rebellious, army-enrolled sister, who, one day, disappears. As a new girl shows up at school, Barash falls deep in love for the first time, and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning.