Album Notes

Pizmon is the co-ed Jewish a cappella group of Columbia College, Barnard College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Since its inception in 1986 as the first Collegiate Jewish a cappella group, Pizmon has traveled to hundreds of communities in the New York metropolitan area, across the country, and around the world, to offer Jewish music as a source of inspiration and community outreach. While Pizmon is a student-run group, our main focus is off campus, centered on Jewish communities around the world. During a typical academic year, Pizmon will perform for more than fifty audiences ranging from Jewish day schools to homes for the elderly to entire communities. We are particularly proud of our diversity, with members originating from nearly every imaginable background and Jewish denomination.

History

Pizmon was started in 1986 by four members of the Columbia
University community who sought to bring Jewish music to homes for the elderly. Over the years we have grown to a group of fourteen and significantly expanded our audience and mission. Although the group changes every year, as old members graduate and new members arrive, the spirit and energy of the group continues to grow. Ultimately, the original spirit of the group remains, whether we are performing in front of a concert hall of a thousand or a group of 10 Hebrew School students.

In the early 90's Pizmon added its now annual Musical Outreach Initiative during the University Spring Break. Every year we travel to different communities across the globe, bringing our spirit, song, and love of Judaism wherever we go. Past Musical Outreach Initiative destinations have included Poland, Hungary, Israel, England, France, Germany, Argentina, and various regions of the United States. In 2006, Pizmon had the wonderful experience of traveling to the Ukraine and celebrating Purim with the Jewish community there. We traveled to three cities and brought Jewish culture to many who had not seen the spirit of Jewish youth since before the Soviet era. In 2007, we were fortunate to visit Los Angeles and New Orleans. These trips are funded exclusively by our regional concerts, CD sales, and donations, as we are a strictly not-for-profit group. As such, all donations we receive go directly towards subsidizing the group's future travel.

Performances

Pizmon continually strives to have a community-wide impact. As such, we gladly perform at any and all public community events and venues, including, but not limited to Jewish Day Schools, homes for the elderly, Synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers. Due to our busy performance and academic schedules and our particular desire to impact communities as a whole, we are unfortunately unable to perform for personal weddings or bar/bat mitzvahs.