Noah Lehrman

DIVINE INSPIRATION NOAH LEHRMAN MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

by Adam Kluger

WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SPIRITUALITY AND MUSIC? For me, both music and spirituality are about experiencing seeming oppositions - self and other, sound and silence, the holy and the mundane, the left hand and the right hand, flow and form - and integrating them to create meaning. Ultimately, they both are practices aimed at making oneself a vessel to bring down the divine flow and send it out to others and the world. And they both make you want to dance!

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS DIVINE INSPIRATION? When Moses asked to see G-d, the response was, “I will show you My back.” In Hebrew this can also be read as “I will show you Myself backwards”. The word we commonly use for G-d in Hebrew is HaShem, meaning “The Name” and spelled with the Hebrew letters “H-Sh-M”. Spell HaShem backwards and you get “M-Sh-H”, which spells Moses’s name in Hebrew (“Moshe”). Divine inspiration isn’t something that comes from outside - it resides inside us all and is revealed when we can see the divine both within ourselves and in others. As with spirituality and music, divine inspiration comes when we transcend the duality of self and other to become vessels for the flow. MUSICAL INFLUENCES? My maternal grandfather Arthur was a classical pianist as well as a physician, and as a young child I spent many hours next to him on the piano bench as he played Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Bach and Brahms. My paternal grandfather Naftali and his brother Sol were actors who instilled a love of musical theater from Brecht and Weill, to Kander and Ebb, to Bock and Harnick, in whose shows they performed everywhere from Berlin to Broadway.My parents are jazz lovers who raised me steeped in the American Songbook, the arrangements of Johnny Mercer, the vocals of Sinatra, Clooney, and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, as well as the time signatures of Dave Brubeck, to which I was conceived..My folks also lived in London before I was born and brought back a complete catalog of Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Who vinyl, along with Dylan and Baez. As a young teen I discovered Jane’s Addiction, Pavement, and the Grateful Dead, before my life’s course was set by Phish in high school and university. All this gave me a deep appreciation of composition, variations on a theme, emotional interpretation, and structured improvisation. Leonard Cohen and David Byrne showed me lyrics as liturgy and, along with Phish, existential imagery as well as the power and reach of art pop. As a drummer my greatest influences have been Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Steve Gad, Kenny Arnoff, Babatunde Olatunje, Max Roach, Dennis Chambers, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzman. Religiously, as a youth I was inspired by cantorial complexity, and later the prolific simplicity of Shlomo Carlebach’s work. Carlebach’s guitar teacher called him both her best and worst student - worst because he never practiced and only really knew four chords, but best because he took those chords and made so much moving music from them!

FUTURE PLANS? Last year I was fortunate enough to perform across the US, Ireland, the UK, Mainland China, and Hong Kong - I speak and write some music in Chinese - and I can’t wait to get back out on international tour and experience that immediacy of energy and connection with a live audience again.In addition to my solo work, I perform in Terrapin Chamber Ensemble - an acoustic project with members of Grateful Dead side projects Phil Lesh & Friends, RatDog, and JGB, as well as Dark Star Orchestra and a string quartet - which brings the music of the Dead’s cannon into unique sacred spaces. Our last pre-pandemic performance was in the main sanctuary of the National Historic Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue Museum, which was an amazing spiritual experience for me playing on the bimah right in front of the Ark of the Torah, and I long to continue that journey.

ADRIANNA MATEO

By Adam Kluger

Adrianna Mateo is a unique triple threat artist: solo violinist, singer-songwriter, and actress based in NYC. Elegant and edgy, her talent has led her to open for Alicia Keys, record her music at Jungle City Studios (courtesy of the studio), perform for more than 40,000 people at MCU Park, sing on MTV and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, premiere a violin concerto written for her backed by a 50-piece orchestra, and even act onstage at the Metropolitan Opera with Anna Netrebko and perform solo violin at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in concurrent performance runs. For more info: linktr.ee/ adriannamateo & on all social media @adriannamateo

Artist Statement:

Whether performing on MTV, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Broadway, or at Carnegie Hall - or conversing with my medical, frontliner family about the similarities between surgery, playing violin, and songwriting - I’m always excited to harmonize seemingly unrelated worlds with my voice, mind, and heart.