Sidor Belarsky

External audio
You may hear Sidor Belarsky performing Judaic songs Here on fau.edu

Sidor Belarsky was Born to a Jewish family in Kryzhopil, Ukraine.[7] He emigrated to the United States in 1930[8] or 1931.[9]

Belarsky first pursued musical studies at the Odessa Conservatory and in Berlin.[10] He later graduated from the State Conservatory at Leningrad end soon emerged as a leading basso with the Leningrad State Opera Company.[11][12] After arriving in the United States in 1930 while on a concert tour, he taught vocal music at Bringham Young University and the University of Utah from 1930-1933.[13][14] He soon established residency in Los Angeles from 1932-1936 where he concertized with the Los Angeles Symphony and founded the American Opera Company.[15][16] He later acquired a faculty position as Professor of Music at the Jewish Teachers Seminary - Herzliah Institute in New York City while continuing to concertize in Europe, the Middle East, Canada and South America.[17] [18]

Throughout his career, Belarsky concertized extensively in the United States as a leading basso with several operatic companies including: Chicago Civic Opera, San Francisco Opera, the American Opera Company of Los Angeles and the New York City Center Opera.[19] In South America, he also appeared at Teatro Municipal in Rio De Janeiro and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.[20] He appeared as a concert soloist at New York City's Carnegie Hall in over 22 solo concerts between 1931 and 1961.[21] By 1944 he Belarsky also emerged in the Broadway Theatre as a member of the cast in the revival of several operas by Giacomo Puccini at the Center Theatre including: La Tosca and La Boheme.[22]

In 1948 Belarsky performed in Israel while celebrating its founding and contributed to the documentary film Shalom Israe in 1951.[23] His recording of "Dem Milners Trern" ("The Miller's Tears"), a Yiddish folk song composed by M. M. Warshavsky, was featured in the Coen brothers's film, A Serious Man. The song's subject is the expulsion of Jews from hundreds of villages in Czarist Russia.[24]

During the 1940's Belarsky also recorded several popular Ukrainian/Russian folk songs in collaboration with the accordionist John Serry and the Mischa Borr Orchestra for the RCA Victor label which included: "Dark Night (# 26-5037, 1946) by Nikita Bogoslovsky, "By the Cradle" (# 26-5035, 1946) by Aleksandre Alekseevich Olenin, "Katusha" (# 26-5035, 1946) by Hy Zaret and "Hobo Song" (aka "Mother") (# 26-5037, 1946) by Valerii Viktorovich Zhelobinsky.[25]

Sidor Belarsky died at the age of 77 in 1975 at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island in New York.[26][5]

• Forward 70th Anniversary: Sidor Belarsky Sings of the Hopes and Dreams of the East Side, Lazar Weiner, piano. Artistic Enterprises, Inc. (c. 1967) (presented by the Forward Association and The Workmen's Circle)

• Several master recordings of performances by Sidor Belarsky collaborating with the accordionist John Serry and the Mischa Borr Orchestra are archived within the catalog of the Discography of American Historical Recordings at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[27]

• Several of Belarsky's performances of music for Chanuka have been archived at the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive at Dartmouth College.[28]

• Several of Belarsky's performances of Judaic songs have been archived within the Special Collections Department of the Florida Atlantic University Library and are accessible through online streaming in the university's Recorded Sound Archives [29]

• Dem Milners Trern - Sidor Belarsky (with lyrics translation) on YouTube
• Official website