Rare Photograph of the Children of the Odessa Choir with Cantor Yehoshua Chomat and the Famous Conductor, Moshe ...

Rare Photograph of the Children of the Odessa Choir with Cantor Yehoshua Chomat and the Famous Conductor, Moshe Bik. Russia, Beginning of the 20th Century

Group photograph of the children of the Odessa Choir aside Cantor Yehoshua Chomat with well-known conductor Moshe Bik in his youth. Russia, Beginning of the 20th century.

Moshe Bik [1899-1979] was born in Charson, in the south of Russia. He moved to Odessa in his youth, where he studied conducting. He already participated in the choir when he was only six years old, and began conducting it at 12. He later met the great composers Yoel Angel and David Schorr, and the folk singer Aryeh Friedman-Lvov, who shaped his musical career. He immigrated to Israel in 1921 and settled in Haifa. He began conducting choirs in the Land of Israel while still doing his pioneer work, establishing choirs in the road-building camps, with the goal of providing a kabbalat shabbat program. Bik developed broad musical activity in Haifa, he ran the first course for choir conductors in the Land of Israel in the 1930s, served as a singing teacher in elementary schools, directed public sing-alongs, and conducted orchestras in Haifa and surroundings. His famous song, Anachnu, is counted among the most important Hebrew songs composed in Israel, and was suggested a number of times to be the anthem of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. Before us is a rare, unknown photograph depicting Bik with a children's choir - in his youth, early in his career as a conductor in Russia. [Handwritten description on the reverse].

Size: 17x23 cm. Attached to an original stiff board from the photographer: 30x36 cm. Creases and tears in the upper part of the photograph. Crack across the width. Tears in two of of the board's corners. Moderate condition.