Congregation B’nai Israel of Fayetteville, a reform synagogue serving the Jewish population on the southside of Metro Atlanta, will present a concert Jan. 28 by the award-winning, faith-based musician, Beth Schafer.
The concert will be held at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary of the synagogue building on Ga. Hwy. 54 near Corinth Road, east of downtown Fayetteville, and will be open to the general public.Tickets are $18 each and may be reserved by telephoning the synagogue office at 678-817-7162. After making the reservation, purchasers are asked to mail a check within three days to Congregation B’nai Israel, P.O. Box 142481, Fayetteville, GA 30214.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to offer this musical event to the community,” said Mike Edison, congregation president. “Beth Schafer’s infectious energy, well crafted songs and intelligent lyrics have made her a leading presence in the Jewish music world. But her audiences span many faiths who have found that her messages and music touch them.”
Schafer — often billed as a spiritual tunesmith, singer and guitarist — came to wide notice in the music world when she won the 2006 American Idol underground faith-based competition and began to create new music for interfaith communities. She has degrees in music theory and composition from the University of Miami School of Music and is a trained and much sought-after guitarist in styles ranging from classical to blues, folk to jazz. The worship experiences that Schafer creates have been called everything from “exhilarating” to “incomparable,” frequently combining liturgical sensitivity and textual insight with humor.
Other highlights of her career include performing in center court for a halftime concert during an Orlando Magic game and being asked to perform for an event during the 2008 presidential campaign. For the past 12 years, she has been “guitarist in residence” at the Union for Reform Judaism’s national convention, and also has appeared at folk festivals and conferences nationwide. More recently she has served on the faculty at the Union for Reformed Judaism Scheidt Leadership Seminar for temple presidents.
Schafer has produced seven CDs that have become favorites in synagogues, churches and spiritual radio stations of many traditions. Her first acoustic rock album, “Raise It Up, Bring It Down,” combined her secular and spiritual creations and has been met with critical acclaim.
The music web site broadjam.com has this to say about Schafer: “Combine Natalie Merchant’s clean soulful voice with Eagles’ harmonies, a mixture of pop/rock grooves and a light dose of inspiration and you have a sense of Beth Schafer’s music. Schafer is not your typical recording artist. In fact there is nothing typical about the direction of her career or her writing. Her fan-base has stretched beyond the contemporary Jewish music roots that drove her early releases, and has crossed into the mainstream writing rock with spirit, carefully avoiding both the dogma and fluff that comes with much religious music.”
