Chai Lights: Musical spring

Among the events of RUACH’s Milwaukee Jewish Arts Festival, the festival’s chamber orchestra, conducted by Carter Simmons, performed Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” for more than 250 students from diverse Milwaukee schools on March 30. The festival was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and The Helen Bader Foundation, Inc., and it addressed and explored the question, “What are the ties that bind the Jewish artistic tradition?” The festival’s public events, held March 27-April 3 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, surveyed works with connections to Jewish artists and/or themes. Photo from RUACH.