Amidah A Silent Prayer
An interwoven live performance of spoken word and song cycle responding to October 7 and its aftermath. Deeply moving in scope, the work layers tragedy with overtones of Jewish wisdom, spirituality, transcendence, and hope.
Artists
Anna Hirst Friedman
Composer & Director
Anna Hirst Friedman is a commissioned Australian composer and producer whose collaborative song cycle The Fire Always Says Yes, with librettist Jessica Chapnik Kahn, recently received its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House. Since returning to composing in 2023, Anna has achieved numerous successes.
In 2024, she won the Sydney Jewish Museum Musical Portrait Prize for a work about Rabbi Ninio, which was later re-transcribed for her Silver Jubilee event. She has since created several new works, including Amidah A Silent Prayer, premiered at the Goethe-Institut following a grant from Shalom Collective.
Anna was a runner-up in the inaugural Nexas String Quartet Saxophone Quartet Competition in 2025, and in January 2026, she recorded this work. Her choral work MADRE, words by Jessica Chapnik Kahn, was featured at TEDx Sydney in 2025 at the City Recital Hall and premiered at a Poetica event hosted by Woollahra Council.
2026 continues to mark a period of growth and recognition. Anna has been selected to compose new works for Chorus Ecclesiae and is collaborating with Spanish percussionist David Moliner to premiere her works in Germany and Spain.
Joanna Weinberg
Performer Spoken Word & Co-Director
Joanna Weinberg is a Sydney based musical theatre lyricist, composer, director, and performer. She created the musical La Luna, the story of Conversa Dona Graca Nasi, which was mounted at Emanuel Synagogue in 2023 and is returning in 2027.
Her one woman show Brief Tales premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2025 to rave reviews. She was commissioned in 2024 to write and compose The Millers Point Songbook, the musical story of the suburb of the same name.
In 2025 she performed an adaptation of The Chutpah Girls by Tammy Schlossberg and Julie Silverstein in conjunction with director Ruth Fingret, for the National Council of Jewish Women.
She is the composer, director and lyricist of Dangerous When Wet, the new musical about Australia’s first Olympic female swimmers which opens in Randwick in October 2026. Joanna’s autobiographical song cycle Unveiled premiered at North Shore Temple Emanuel in 2025 and returns in 2026 to the Sydney Fringe Festival.
Michael Kaufmann
Tenor
Michael Kaufmann is an Australian tenor, currently based in Sydney. Originally from Canberra, he began singing in children’s choruses of touring opera productions at the age of 10.
Michael graduated with a Masters degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Opera School in 2024, receiving multiple awards and scholarships over his studies, including the Greenberg-Gurney-Jensen Fund, the Kevin and Margaret Duffy Scholarship, and the George Henderson Traveller’s Fund.
Michael’s performance credits cover multiple genres, encompassing opera, oratorio, cabaret, and musical theatre. In 2023 Michael took part in the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Festival in the Czech Republic, making his role debut as Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.
In Australia, Michael originated the role Bill in BellBonTom Productions’ site-specific pastiche opera Trackworks, and sang the role of Arnalta in the Australian premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s reorchestration of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.
A seasoned concert singer as well, Michael has appeared as a soloist with multiple ensembles, including the Macquarie Singers, Jubilate Singers, and the Sydney Youth Orchestra.
In 2025, Michael joined Pacific Opera Studio as a young artist, receiving the Philip Bacon Scholarship. He sang the title role in Pacific Opera’s presentation for Handel’s Samson in collaboration with the Muffat Collective, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème.
In 2026, Michael joins the Opera Australia Chorus for the centenary production of Puccini’s Turandot, and returns to Pacific Opera Studio as an Alumni Artist for the NSW premiere of Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra.
Natalya Valentyna
Pianist
Natalya is a pop culture pianist and a highly sought after collaborative pianist, orchestrator and arranger, and an award nominated MD based in Sydney. Born in Estonia under the former Soviet Regime, Natalya studied classical piano from the age of five, eventually going on to complete her LmusA while still in high school.
Most recently Natalya has performed concerts and recorded musicwith the SSO and the ACO, played in orchestra pits for musicals including Hamilton (Sydney Lyric), In the Heights (Sydney Opera House), and West Side Story on the Harbour (Opera Australia), and performed a number of films Live in Concert with symphony orchestras, including The Nightmare Before Christmas, Love Actually and Batman.
In 2022-2023 Natalya has toured Europe, Asia and Australia performing solo piano concerts playing music from the Final Fantasy video game franchise. Natalya has also featured as a soloist on the Emmy award winning Netflix film ‘Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance’.
Natalya has produced and toured her own successful solo piano concerts across Australia based on video games and anime music, also performing numerous times as a soloist with the popular Candlelight Concert Series. Natalya works extensively in musical theatre as a pit musician, repetiteur and MD. As an educator and collaborative pianist, Natalya regularly works with performing arts colleges including NIDA,Brent St, TDP, and ED5 International.
As a versatile musician, Natalya also collaborates with a wide variety of schools, choirs, orchestras and cabaret performers, as well as performing at weddings, corporate and private events. When not busy doing all of the above, Natalya spends time nurturing her YouTube channel ‘Natalya Plays Piano’ and recording new albums.
