JewishVocalMusic.com

Composer Biography

          Judi Lamble writes music to fill a need - for a beloved, an occasion, a special service, a liturgical or social theme, or a specific voice or instrument.   A lifelong choral singer, including eight years with the Grammy-winning Chicago Symphony Chorus (1989-1996), she has always loved the unique gifts of choral music - rich musical textures and harmonies combined with the power of language.  Though self-schooled in Giuseppe Verdi’s voice-leading, Salamone Rossi’s polyphony, Yehezkel Braun’s fealty to open fourths and fifths, and the works of other choral masters, she has enjoyed the gracious support of the Twin Cities Jewish musical community.   The then-choir at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, under the guidance of Cantor Barry Abelson, performed some of her earliest works (“B’nei Yisrael,” “And the Children Dance”).  Temple israel’s “Nefesh” band incorporated her congregational “Shehecheyanu" into its monthly all-music service.  The Twin Cities all-community choir, assembled for S’lichot, premiered her “Lishmo’a El Harinah,” which Bet Shalom (Minnetonka) later incorporated into its High Holy Days repertoire. The Twin Cities Jewish Chorale, which she co-founded and chaired for its first six years, performed her “Oseh Shalom” and later “The River,” setting poetry by acclaimed liturgist Ruth Brin. 
           While creating a portfolio of Jewish choral music, Judi has continued to write for solo voices.  To fill out a recital of Jewish Art Song, she composed a song cycle using the keen observational poems of Isadore Century.  For friends in need, she wrote “Lovesick” (from Song of Songs) and “I Was a Son” (from Proverbs); for aging parents, “Malachei Seivah,” celebrating gray-haired wisdom. 
          Judi is continually seeking challenging themes to wrestle with musically.  The interactive audience-choral “Christmas Cacophony (Christmas for the Rest of Us)” humorously struggles through the “December dilemma.”  A comparative religion class resulted in a feminist reinterpretation of Torah text in “Eve.”  “Adam in Eden” was written to support a High Holy Days focus on climate change.  And for the teens in a confirmation class fed up with what adults have done to the world, she wove spoken newspaper headlines into a rocking “If Not Now, When.”
          In between her day job and Jewish composing, Judi has composed scores for two musicals by the talented librettist Rachel Winton and a jazz/classical flute solo for the gifted Sarah Winton.  Judi’s next musical adventure is bound up with her search for new and “undiscovered” texts by female poets.