New York Celebrates 25 with Avrohom Fried

Photos By COL.org.il

An exciting concert honoring 25 years of Avrohom Fried’s public performances was celebrated in the Queens College Colden Center for the Performing Arts this past Motzoai Shabbos. World renowned singer, Avrohom Fried, a resident of Crown Heights, has recently released a new single titled “Ani Choshev Aleichem”, which is believed to be dedicated to the evacuees of Gush Katif. The event was chaired by broadcaster, Nachum Siegel. The show also featured the “Kinderlach” Choir from Israel and singer, Ohad Moskowitz. The concert was arranged by the Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills and the proceeds will be contributed to “Chicken for Shabbos”.

Fried, who had the merit to sing Chabad songs and Nigunim for Rebbetzin Chana, mother of the Rebbe, has recently denounced the growing trend of rejection of authentic Chassidic music. “Not everyone is capable of deciding what he can elevate to holiness. Only holy Tzaddikim like the Rebbe are authorized to “convert” songs”. In this spirit Fried is planning to release a new album of Chabad songs to append the Baal Shemtov Nigunim series that was enthusiastically embraced by the public.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

(L-R) Ohad Moskowitz and his Choir, Avraham Fried and the Kinderlach
The Kinderlach
(L-R) Avraham Fried and Yishay Lapidot singing the song “My Little Leaf”
(L-R) Avraham Fried and Ohad Moskowitz

21 Comments

  • bored OT bochur

    I was not by the concert, but I saw the Kinderlach perform on Sunday night’s telethon via internet (as was announced on CrownHeights.info) and the more I watched them the more I believed that they where “lip singing!”
    For a few reasons, 1, the song they sang (“everybody wants Moshiach") sounded exactly as the way it’s on their CD. 2, the live band did not play while they sang (as well as by the concert), so the music was definitely recorded before. 3, it was the same soloist as on the CD when on the cover of their CD they show a picture of "different" boys then those that performed. 4, at one point when one of the boys spoke, he spoke into a “different microphone”, not the one that they all held in their hand.
    5 as the soloist voices change, I’m not sure if they always match with the same kids.
    And 6, I heard that by the concert the Kinderlach did not sing at all with Avrahm Fried, maybe because it’s not on their CD!
    At any rate they definitely dance quite well!

  • Confused

    How come they didn’t sell tickets in CH if its celebrating 25 years of Avraham Fried and hes from CH !!!!

  • confused(shmuly)

    question:to quote the article:
    "Fried, who had the merit to sing Chabad songs and Nigunim for Rebbetzin Chana, mother of the Rebbe, has recently denounced the growing trend of rejection of authentic Chassidic music. "Not everyone is capable of deciding what he can elevate to holiness. Only holy Tzaddikim like the Rebbe are authorized to "convert" songs".
    sorry if im a bit slow today but does this mean that he is against matisyahu, or against people listening to non-jewish music? (or both?)
    someone please answer me
    thanks

  • some girl

    confused(shmuly}:
    umm how exactly is he against matisyahu?? matis is the best. nobody doesn’t like him!
    and whoever does, well i guess thats b/c u didn’t listen to his cd’s. lol
    and can u please be alittle bit more clear about ure questions? thanx!

  • confused(shmuly)

    again, my question basically is: what did avraham fried mean when he said

    "Not everyone is capable of deciding what he can elevate to holiness. Only holy Tzaddikim like the Rebbe are authorized to "convert" songs."

    anyone know?

  • other guy

    bored: i also watched them in the telethon and you might have a point. nontheless i think they were awsome! those kids were cute! i watched it 3 times already! (you can watch the whole -or part of the- show over at chanukahtelethon.com)

    confused: maybe hes talking to meshichistim…

  • bored OT bochur

    how did that smiley get in my earlyer comment?
    anyone else feel the same way about the "lip singing"?

  • Shmuli

    My guess is that Avraham Fried does not hold of Matisyahu to be one who sings Chassidic music. As a matter of fact I don’t believe Matisyahu considers his own music Chassidic. As he’s stated in many interviews that in his own time he does not listen to this style music rather he listens to ‘niggunei hisvaadius’.

    Matisyahu, on several ocasions even recomended that Lubavitchers should not listen to his music as we have the real stuff =Chabbad Niggunim.

    And talking about authentic Chassidic Niggunim, I wouldn’t call Avraham Frieds songs ‘authentic Chassidic’ either.

  • Anonymous

    as it so happens i work in the music industry and i’ve worked with the kinderlach at previous events and i know that they have playback music like alot of other performers but that doesn’t include the vocals, the vocals at the show were actually live and if you took a video of the concert and hear the album you will hear that one of the kids makes a mistake with words

  • bored OT bochur

    thejewishsinger,
    What about their performance at the telethon sunday night, was that also live vocals?

  • bored OT bochur

    thejewishsinger,
    What about my first comment, particularly the 3rd reason that I wrote?
    & if you have the answer to the 6th question would be even better.

  • yinglish

    isnt miming like when you MIMIC something? (like those guys with white makeup on their face by the boardwalk)

  • from kingston ave.

    Thanks for the wonderful pictures!

    I’m wondering where the quote came from. Who did AF say this to? Jewish Singer, do you know?

    There’s nothing like sitting in a farbrengen and singing niggunim but AF does bring in a feeling that you’re almost like being a farbrengen but he also sings many niggunim differently and the arrangements are often different, etc.

    I love his series of Chabad niggunim so I’m very excited to hear it. There’s an interesting interview on the jamintheam.org website in their archives section and he clarifies this sentiment more.

  • other guy

    dudes! who cares?! miming, lip singing, lip synching, moving lips to pre-recorded music, whatever!

    but can one of the "dancing rabbis" please clarrify this issue for us? did they do it?