Teens Soul-Stirring Kol Nidrei Duet

Gavriel Eagle, 14, of Baltimore and Pinchas Antal, 15, from Montreal, met for the first time last summer. Both young men are talented and dedicated musicians, practicing their art for several hours daily.

Gavriel’s mother had read an article about Pinchas and thought, “these are 2 boys with much in common.”

She then phoned Pinchas’s father, Mordechai Antal, to discuss the idea of their collaborating. It was a pleasure to discover that these two families had such similar experiences to share and the trip to Montreal was planned.

This summer, it was the Eagle Family’s turn to host Pinchas, in Baltimore.
The teens have been diligently working on new pieces, got a gig playing at a Sheva Brochos and have simply enjoyed each other’s company, having typical summer fun.

The audience at the Sheva Brochos, raved about their playing, exclaiming that is was “spectacular!!” They each performed solo pieces as well as a couple of numbers together, including last year’s Tzoma L’cha Nofshi, which was published on COLlive.

Currently, Pinchas is working on Mozart Concerto, No. 24, which he is preparing for Zubin Mehta, conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, whom he met in Montreal last year. Usually Maestro Mehta will have a very limited amount of time to hear music played by aspiring musicians. However, Pinchas’s encounter with him lasted for a half hour. Following their get together, he requested that Antal learn the Mozart to send to him. Other highlights of his visit included his meeting Klara Berkovich, the famous violin teacher of Hilary Hahn, who enjoyed his rendition of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata immensely and an outing to the George Peabody Library whose enormous collection impressed him.

For Gavriel, this stay has been a satisfyingly musical fine to a musical summer.
In July, he participated in the Master Players Festival, held at the University of Delaware, where he played in orchestra, a piano trio, which performed the famous Beethoven Ghost Trio, and had private lessons with UD professor of cello, Larry Stomberg and American cello virtuoso, Jeffrey Solow, who teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. Gavriel has found that having the opportunity to connect with another Chabad teenager, who appreciates music as much as he, is refreshing and is glad that he’s made a good friend through these two summers of musical journeying together.

As they ready themselves for Elul and the Yomim Noraim, they chose to study Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei whose first theme is taken from the traditional melody, chanted in shuls worldwide. We hope you enjoy this performance and that it inspires you as much as it inspired them.

Kol Nidre from Richard Mackenzie on Vimeo.