Meet our Artist of the Week, the rockin’ Gilad Paz, headliner of our special “Effer Ve’Avak” concert for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, January 27th at Yeshiva University Museum’s Center for Jewish History.
MusicTalks’ own Maya Ben-Meir recently sat down with Gilad to talk about his musical journey and hear about his connection to rock music.
MT: How did you become a singer? Did you always know you wanted to perform?
Gilad: I always knew I wanted to be a performer and I love being on stage and giving audiences a great show!
Growing up in Israel I started singing at a very young age, and always loved performing and being the center of attention. Since the age of 7 I’ve sung in choirs, kids’ groups, youth singing groups, the IDF’s Armored Corps band, rock bands, concerts, opera, and musical theatre productions, and big events.
Singing has always been a part of my life and a driving force behind many decisions I’ve made, like moving to the U.S. almost 15 years ago right after my release from the Israeli army, in pursuit of becoming the best singer I could be. This goal drew me to get my classical singing degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, where I learned to love opera more than I ever did before and where I learned the tools that make me the kind of crossover performer who can sing opera and rock in the same show (sometimes in the same song!) with seamless transition between genres.
MT: How does it feel to perform material that speaks about the Holocaust?
Gilad: I feel very honored to take part in this concert. Both my paternal grandparents were in Europe during World War II. At 17 years old, my grandfather fled to Ukraine about 3 weeks before the Nazis invaded his home of Lodz, Poland, leaving behind his parents and two brothers, as well as the rest of his extended family. He never saw them again, and to his last day, he regretted not defying his parents’ requests and taking his younger brother out of Poland with him.
I never met my grandmother, but she was a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and was reunited with her sister (who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp) after the war. This sister, my father’s aunt, is over 90 years old and still participates in Holocaust commemoration events in Israel every year. The stories she tells about her experiences during this period of her life are hair-raising, and really make one think about how and if they would survive that horrific time in human history.
Diving into Efer Ve’Avak, and listening to some of these songs for the first time, has helped me take another glance into the experience of being a survivor. That horrible feeling of going back home after the war only to find that nothing has changed for the people who used to be your neighbors, while you and your family have been fighting for your lives. It also shed more light on the experience of being the child of Holocaust survivors who refuse to talk about that time, but for whom the feelings of guilt and shame, as well as all those terrible memories, are very much a part of daily life.
MT: What kinds of music did you grow up listening to?
Gilad: When I was young my parents used to have me listen to light classical music (I distinctly remember playing a record that included Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and flipping it over to listen to Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain) as well as Israeli popular music from classic performers like Yehoram Gaon and Rivka Zohar. Later I remember long drives to Eilat where we listened to the likes of Boaz Sharabi, Gidi Gov, and actually a lot of Yehuda Poliker. I also loved Ethnix, Tipex, and Aviv Geffen.
Like every other kid without older siblings, I had to discover a lot of music on my own through radio, TV, and friends and was drawn to the popular dance music of the late ’80s & early ’90s. But then, when I was 12, my father played me a Deep Purple greatest hits album in the car, and this began my lifelong love for rock music! I started listening to rock bands like Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam, along with classic rock gods like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The hard rock scene in Israel was also flourishing at the time and I immersed myself in bands like HaYehudim, Monica Sex, Avtipus, Eifo HaYeled, HaChaverim shel Natasha, Mofa HaArnavot shel Dr. Kasper, and many more.
MT: Who are some of the artists that inspire you?
Gilad: Singers like Ian Gillan, Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury, and Roger Daltry, were the reason why I wanted to study singing to become a great rock singer and are still a major influence on my performance style.
Freddie Mercury is the best performer of all time in my opinion, and his combining of rock and classical elements definitely inspires a lot of what I do musically.
In my late mid-teens, I was introduced to Progressive Rock, which brought in a lot of classical music elements into rock music, and I was hooked! Bands like King Crimson, Gentle Giant, YES, Genesis (in the Peter Gabriel era), and Jethro Tull, really spoke to me and helped shape my musical taste and ideas I hold today.
MT: What is your favorite career performance so far?
Gilad: My favorite is probably the first production in which I sang Tony in West Side Story, with the St. Petersburg Opera company in Florida in 2014. Bernstein’s music is absolutely superb, and this was a bucket list role that I’ve dreamed of singing for years. My parents flew in all the way from Israel to come to see this show along with my in-laws who came down from NY. I distinctly remember singing “Tonight” in the balcony scene, looking down at the audience, and seeing my wife Lisa there. I had to look away so I wouldn’t start tearing up and not be able to sing it. This was a uniquely special moment, and all six of those performances were some of the best I’ve ever had!
MT: What are some of your hidden talents?
Gilad: I’m a pretty good producer and have produced several projects from idea to performance. Two of my favorites are VOCE NOVA and OPROCK. The first is a duo act with my dear friend and business partner Natalia Tsvi, geared towards corporate events, fundraisers, gala dinners, and private parties. VOCE NOVA (“a fresh voice” in Latin) combines the luxury of opera with the excitement of pop music, with new takes on audience favorites like “Libiamo”, “Besame Mucho“, and “We Are the Champions”. OPROCK is a concert experience that pairs a 5-piece rock band with full symphony orchestras, for a concert that brings together the best of classic rock and classical music.
