Fresno Famous

KFCF Radio, 88.1 FM in Fresno, will present a two hour special of the music of the High Holy Days on Tuesday, October 7th at 8 PM. Among the featured music will be a one hour special of the liturgy of the Kol Nidre Service (Eve of the Day of Atonement) as sung by the choir and the late Cantor Emeritus Michael Loring. The program was recorded on October 7, 1981 at the Temple Beth Israel in Fresno.

KFCF recently found the recording in its' archives while working on the KFCF Archives project which is restoring and digitizing hundreds of hours of recordings from KFCF's archives of tape that is deteriorating and at risk of being lost forever due to bad audio tape manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s. Funding for the Archive restoration project has been supplied by the Robert Billings Foundation and the Fresno Regional Foundation.

The music in the Kol Nidre portion of the program consists of choral numbers and solo chants of traditional, folk and contemporary styles. The choir members are: Sorpranos Sue Benner and Carol Neilsen, altos Gladys Peters and Jean Vavoulis; tenors Paul Andersen and Arthur Huff; and bass Roy Klassen. The organist is Richard Cencibaugh. Cantor Michael Loring comments on the musical selections with selections with translations of the Hebrew and notations on the sources of the musical numbers.

The second hour of the broadcast will contain a variety of Jewish music traditional and contemporary hosted by GJ Thelin.