TBE had a great discussion about music club with it’s leaders, Don Drourr and Marty Sleeper.
TBE: What is Music Club?
Don: Music Club is an offshoot of TBElle, Temple Beth Elohim’s Lifelong Learning Experience. Art Gerstenfeld taught a couple of TBElle music classes. His forte was mostly classical music, Mozart or Beethoven. They were very popular. If you had 10 people in a TBelle class, that was considered good-sized. When Art taught, we’d have 20–25. I joined the temple about six years ago and was approached by Richie Stellar and Jerry Goldberg, (who are both longtime friends) who asked, “Would you like to teach a course on Broadway?” I said, “Well, if it’s going to be at the temple, I suppose we ought to call the Jews on Broadway!”
My class was getting the same 20–25 people. Rabbi Bob Orkland from Israel also had a huge class; and we began to worry about scheduling them around each other. Rather than make people choose, I ran my class in the spring and Art ran his class in the fall. And, neither one of us would go up against Bob!
Marty: Art got me involved. Alan Siegel met me at the temple one day and said, “The Music Club and Richie Stellar are presenting about jazz and you might like it!” I thought that sounded good and I went. I introduced myself during the class and said, “Rock and roll music is my favorite, particularly 50s and early 60s. Real Rock and Roll!” Richie jumped in and said, “Great–—this guy knows everything about rock and roll (Richie was a little prone to exaggeration). I have an opening in June for a music club. Would you present on rock and roll?” I did and it went over very well, I have to say! I was asked to teach a TBElle course on rock and roll that was scheduled at the same time as Rabbi Orkland’s class. People were actually sneaking out of Bob’s class to see me! I went to Bob at one point and said, “Look, sorry– I don’t want to take people out of your class.” He was very gracious and said, “The main thing is we’re getting people to the temple.” From then on, I made it clear that my class shouldn’t be scheduled at the same time as Art and Bob’s classes.
Don: Shortly thereafter, we had all of these big music things going so I suggested starting a Music Club. I was new to the temple at that point and was just getting involved.
Marty: Art’s vision was that there would always be a music group that would meet in the Beit Midrash. It would be a discussion, like a book club.
Don: We picked a musical piece that everyone listened to and then we talked about it.
Marty: Art was always coming up with new ideas. Incredible guy. He came up with one during the pandemic when everything was canceled and everyone was home. He said, “Why don’t we have a piece of music that goes out every Monday morning? We’ll take turns! I’ll do one, Don will do one, and Marty will do one. Share a piece of music that people can listen to start their week off, and write a little paragraph about it.” That’s where the Monday Musical Moments came from. After Art passed on, Don and I continued it, alternating weeks.
Don: Art was instrumental in getting TBElle to the point that it’s at now, formed the Music Club, and created the MMM. He’s the man! But Marty and I, we couldn’t just let this thing dwindle, so we took it over.
TBE: What has the Music Club been up to lately?
Don: We started this season with folk music led by Marty. Jerry Goldberg (who is a great photographer) led a visual arts to Jewish music class. Jodi Sufrin and Roy Einhorn did a concert on the Jewish influence on pop music.Cantor Zell continued a course that she’s been running for a couple of years, What is Jewish music? Josh Rosenberg ran a class on Maurice Ravel. Rabbinic Intern Ryan Leszner is going to look at secular music through a Jewish lens. Beginning on March 29, Gloria Rose is running a program that guides us through Americana music.
TBE: Who’s your Music Club dream guest?
Don: I had a very famous Broadway actor, Judy Quinn, join us on Zoom and talk about her career, which was just wonderful. I’m trying to get Michael Riedel again, a theater columnist for the New York Post. He’s longer writing, but his sister is a member of the temple!
Marty: We had Jerry Slavet for a couple of years. He put together the “From The Top” NPR program, featuring young performers and musicians. Jerry brought one of the kids to perform and talk about how he composed the program. Don has also been interested in getting different instrumentalists to play. We’ve had people play the flute and the violin.
TBE: How can people join the Music Club?
Don: Anyone can join any of our events. And, since we’ve been on Zoom we’ve been recording our programs to watch at any time
