››P'nai Or Singing Group

The P'nai Or singing group is under the expert direction of Eric Stern, leader of the Portland caberet group, Vagabond Opera. The musical repertoire includes Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Yiddish songs, as well as new collaborative works between Reb Aryeh and Eric. Percussion is done informally, after the singing portion or before as a warm up. (If anybody wants more, Eric has offered to lead a workshop.)

Ability to read music is not required.

In Eric's words:

"I want this to be a very open environment. As a leader I expect to nurture AND hold out expectation and to really encourage as much of the congregation who wants to use their voice in service to G-d. Service and joy. As someone who struggled so much early on with singing I am deeply sympathetic to the vocal and musical journey and welcome people wherever they are in this proccess...in other words I am going to create as much as possible a supportive environment for us to make music in. And push you a little so that we sound good!"

››Practice Materials

This section provides various practice materials for members already participating in the P'nai Or singing group. Keep in mind that the singing group is just getting started, and so is it's web page. We will add more downloadable resources for our songs as they are ready.

Instructions for song samples:

• Select the appropriate file for your voice part (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass). Your part plays on the left channel. The other 3 parts play on the right channel.
• Download the file to your computer before playing it. This can usually be done by right-clicking on the link and selecting "Save As"
• You can learn your part by playing just the left channel (turn the balance knob all the way to the left).
• To practice singing your part against the rest of the voices, play just the right channel.
• If you have never sung in a multi-part situation before, try practicing with both channels playing, gradually increasing the right channel and reducing the left channel until you don't need help from the left channel at all.
• To hear what the song sounds with all 4 parts, play both channels together.
• Don't make fun of Bruce's soprano voice. Yeah, he knows it's flat in places.

Yah Ribon

• Bass practice track
• Tenor practice track
• Alto practice track
• Soprano practice track

Bambelela

• Bass practice track
• Tenor practice track
• Alto practice track
• Soprano practice track
• Caller (leader) practice track

A snippet of a professional recording of Bambelela can be found here. Click on the "Listen" icon to hear the recording.