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LIGHTS! CELEBRATE HANUKKAH LIVE IN CONCERT
DECEMBER 9 AT 8 PM
EIGHT/KAET-TV

– Internationally Renowned Performers Celebrate Holiday With Classic
and Contemporary Favorites –

Lights! Celebrate Hanukkau Live Concert, airing on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 at 8 p.m. on Eight/KAET, celebrates the holiday with a concert you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy. Host and internationally renowned Jewish musician Craig Taubman brings together an eclectic group of performers, many of them well-known in the Jewish music scene — as well as some surprises.

With high energy and old-country charm, the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics share songs from their hit Hanukkah album, featuring lyrics by Woody Guthrie, while Cantor Alberto Mizrahi — the “Jewish Pavarotti” familiar from the special Cantors: A Faith Song — wows the audience with his Middle-Eastern rendition of “Ocho Kandelikas.”

Michelle Citrin, whose YouTube videos “Rosh Hashanah Girl” and “Twenty Things to Do With Matzah” have received millions of views, gets the crowd singing along to Peter Yarrow’s “Light One Candle.” Emmy Award-winner Mare Winningham, a recent convert to Judaism, tells her unique story through “A Convert Jig,” while Grammy Award-nominee and top-selling saxophonist Dave Koz transforms “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” into a song about hope — and a potential new Hanukkah classic. Multi-instrumentalist Josh Nelson leads a children’s choir in the moving ballad “L’Dor Vador,” and gospel singer Joshua “The Prince” Nelson puts a new spin on “I Have a Little Dreidel.”

Rabbi David Wolpe (named the #1 pulpit rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2008) adds to the proceedings with touches of inspiration throughout the program. Taubman performs a number of songs, including his original compositions “Shehechianu” (with his sister, Cantor Caren Glasser), “Holy Ground” (with dance troupe BodyTraffic) and the traditional melody “Maoz Tzur” (a duet with multi-Grammy Award-winner Laurence Juber).

Lights! Celebrate Hanukkah Live in Concert offers a diverse and joyous new way of looking at the holiday for all generations.

Performances include:

  • “Hanukah Gelt” – The Klezmatics
  • “Mi Yimalel” – Craig Taubman, The Tribe and Alberto Mizrahi
  • “The Blessings” – Alberto Mizrahi
  • “Shehechianu” – Craig Taubman and Caren Glasser
  • “Od’cha” – Alberto Mizrahi
  • “Lights” – Rabbi David Wolpe
  • “Light One Candle” – Michelle Citrin
  • “I Have a Little Dreidl” – Joshua Nelson
  • “Ocho Kandelikas” – Alberto Mizrahi
  • “Hope” – Rabbi David Wolpe
  • “Holy Ground” – Craig Taubman and BodyTraffic
  • “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – Dave Koz
  • “Ale Brider” – The Klezmatics
  • “Hiney Ma Tov” – Joshua Nelson
  • “Hanukah’s Flame” – The Klezmatics
  • “A Convert Jig” – Mare Winningham
  • “Maoz Tzur” – Laurence Juber and Craig Taubman
  • “L’dor Vador” – Josh Nelson with Sinai Temple and Temple Aliyah Youth Choirs
  • “Hanukah ‘O Hanukah” – the cast



About Eight/KAET-TV
Eight, Arizona PBS specializes in the education of children, in-depth news and public affairs, lifelong learning, and the celebration of arts and culture — utilizing the power of noncommercial television, the Internet, educational outreach services, and community-based initiatives. The PBS station began broadcasting from the campus of Arizona State University on January 30, 1961. Now more than 80 percent of Arizonans receive the signal through a network of translators, cable and satellite systems. With more than 1.3 million viewers each week, Eight consistently ranks among the most-viewed public television stations per capita in the country. Arizonans provide more than 60 percent of the station’s annual budget. For more information, visit www.azpbs.org.

Eight is a member-supported service of Arizona State University.