Sing Hallelujah returns to Verizon Hall for the 4th time at The Kimmel Cultural Campus. This year’s program will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel and feature singer, songwriter, and humanitarian, Noa. Noa will perform alongside congregational and community choirs from synagogues throughout the Delaware Valley, presenting 175 singers! Cantor David F. Tilman returns to Verizon Hall to lead the assembled choirs, from congregations throughout the Philadelphia region, in music highlighting 75 years of Jewish musical tradition. Audiences can sing along to beloved tunes such as the Eurovision winning song “Hallelujah,” Naomi Shemer’s “Yerushalayim shel Zahav,” Ani V’Ata by Arik Einstein, and the immortal Oseh Shalom, written by Nurit Hirsh. We are excited to let music be the force that brings Jewish communities together for an evening of voices raised in harmony!
“Majestic and intimate at the same time … joyous and introspective."
-Cantor David Tilman
Noa, Featured Artist
Gil Dor, Musical Director & Guitar
Cantor David F. Tilman, Music Director and Conductor
Eric A. Schnitzer, piano
Rabbi Jeffrey Schnitzer, percussion
Andy Lalasis, bass
Udi Bar-David, cello
Antonello DiMatteo, clarinet
Participating Choirs
Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County - Uwchland, PA
Cantors Assembly of the Delaware Valley
Congregation Beth El - Voorhees, NJ
Congregation Kol Ami - Cherry Hill, NJ
Congregation Rodeph Shalom - Philadelphia, PA
Main Line Reform Temple - Wynnewood, PA
Old York Road Kehillah Choir - Elkins Park, PA
Sharim v’Sharot: People of Song - Lawrenceville, NJ
Temple Beth Sholom - Cherry Hill, NJ
About Featured Artist Achinoam Nini aka Noa
With roots and upbringing spanning Yemen, Israel and the United States, Achinoam Nini aka Noa, is Israel’s most highly acclaimed international singer, songwriter, percussionist, speaker and activist.
Together with her longstanding musical collaborator Gil Dor, accomplished musician and co-founder of the Rimon School of music, Noa has released 16 critically acclaimed albums, performed hundreds of concerts the world over, graced some of the most important and prestigious stages like Carnegie Hall and the White House, and performed for three Popes. She has been produced and mentored by Pat Metheny and Quincy Jones and shared the stage with a long list of international musical icons, including Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli and Sting.
Noa is considered Israel’s most prominent cultural advocate of dialogue and co-existence, her “Voice of Peace”. Noa was the only major artists to agree to perform in the fateful Peace Rally where Yitzchak Rabin was murdered, a shattering event that changed her life. She was the first Jew to perform in the Vatican for an audience of millions, singing her own lyrics to Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria, a song that has become an intrinsic part of her career and mission: building bridges and breaking walls between cultures and religions.
Noa’s historic participation the 2009 Eurovision song contest stands out, representing Israel together with Israeli-Palestinian artist Mira Awad with her original song “There must be another way”, in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Noa’s lyrics and performance of the theme song of Roberto Benigni’s academy award winning film, “life is beautiful” have earned her international acclaim and the love and admiration of millions.
Among her many awards is Commander of Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, one of Italy’s highest honors, Pilgrim of Peace from The Franciscan order in Assisi (awarded in the past to Bill Gates and Mother Theresa), and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum. Noa is Israel’s first Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and is active as board-member and public advocate of a score of Human Rights and Peace organizations in Israel and abroad.
Currently Noa dedicates much of her time to the relationship between cultural diplomacy and leadership and the Climate Crisis. She has been selected by Israel’s President Herzog to be part of the presidential Climate Forum, and is involved in a groundbreaking project related to the critical preservation of the unique coral reefs of the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat. She has also established her own festival, called Noa’s Ark that debuted in Italy summer of 2022.
Noa is married to Dr. Asher Barak. Together they have three children, Ayehli, Enea and Yum.
Cantor David F. Tilman Accomplishments and Accolades:
- Graduate of Columbia College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Juilliard School, earning the Master of Music degree in choral conducting
- Became Cantor of Beth Sholom Congregation (Elkins Park, PA), where he created four choirs (Aug 1975). Beth Sholom received the Solomon Schechter prize from the United Synagogue of America four times for excellence in Jewish music and performing arts programming.
- Cantor Tilman created the Annual Beth Sholom Music Festival, combining choirs with symphony orchestra and outstanding soloists, including Leonard Nimoy, Stephen Schwartz, and Theodore Bikel.
- Cantor Tilman and the Beth Sholom choirs participated in the World Gathering of Choirs in Israel (1979, 1987,1992)
- Led both choirs and the Philly Pops Symphony Orchestra at the Academy of Music (Dec 1988)
- Cantor Tilman was a columnist for the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent for 12 years. His column, "In Record Time", featured 200+ articles on Jewish and classical music and concert reviews.
- Chorus Master for the "Hear 'O Israel" concert in honor of Israel 50, featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic (1988)
- Led a 340-member chorus who sang under the batons of Wolfgang Sawallisch and Zubin Mehta, performing for over 20,000 people.
- Cantor Tilman became Hazzan Emeritus of Beth Sholom Congregation (Jul 2011)
- Became choral director of Shir KI-adult choir, and pastoral outreach professional at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (Elkins Park, PA)
- Began the Old York Road’s Leonard Bernstein Centennial with an all-Bernstein concert (Jan 2016)
- Cantor Tilman and the Kimmel Center created the first Sing Hallelujah concert (May 2018) featuring Jewish choral music for Cantorial soloists, 175 volunteer singers, and the Fred J. Cooper Organ, featuring Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (2017)
- Led the second Sing Hallelujah concert, featuring a chorus of 165 singers. Cantor Tilman was a major participant in the Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration (Mar 2019)
- Spoke in advance of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of the Bernstein “MASS,” the Jeremiah Symphony, and the Kaddish Symphony, in Verizon Hall.
- Consultant to the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, and the preparation of the Bernstein Centennial Exhibit (2017)
- Cantor Tilman returns to Verizon Hall to conduct Sing Hallelujah celebrating Israel 75, with the Israeli star, Noa, and 175 singers (2023)
In partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
Lead support for this concert is given by Bryna and Joshua Landes and Family in Honor of Israel 75 and our Dear Life-Long Friend, David F. Tilman
Additional support is given by Rabbi Gary and Laya Charlestein, Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s Raphael-Sacks, and Carl and Shelley Hittinger.