San Diego-based mother/daughter team, Ruth and Emilia, launch a new album – I Had A Dream – in honor of their grandmother and great grandmother. The album releases November 12.
Mother/daughter team – previously known for children’s music and other collaborations – Ruth Hertz Weber and Emilia Lopez-Yañez venture off the beaten track to bring audiences a one-of-a-kind album that transcends generations. This project, described a mix of new age, folk, and classical music, began as a labor of love when Ruth set the poems of her late grandma, Betty Karon Hertz, to music so that the story of her impoverished childhood in Russia, her daring escape during the Bolshevik Revolution, and her life as an immigrant in the United States could be forever memorialized.
Listeners can follow along as Betty picks mushrooms in the forest at the age of eight to keep her family from starving; as she dreams of a life as a writer, “I Had a Dream;” and as she hides in a trench on her parent’s farm, “I Am a Tree,” during the numerous invasions of her town which occurred before the Holocaust. The journeys and struggles of each immigrant are fascinating and we hope you will enjoy this one, set in song.
“When I was a little girl, I listened intently while Grandma Betty told us stories of how she and her brother and sisters came to the United States during the Bolshevik Revolution,” said Weber. “They lived through the overthrow of the Tsar, the rise of the communists, and the Bolshevik Revolution. When the war broke out, soldiers entered the villages taking all the food the families had grown on their small farms, while the villagers hid in the protective trenches they had dug on their property.
“My grandma’s father decided it would be best for him to immigrate to the United States and later send for his family one by one. Each of his children, and his wife, faced dangers as they escaped from Russia and journeyed through other countries and across the ocean to join him. It was a miracle that all the family managed to reach safety. My grandfather’s family was not so lucky. Many of them were killed during the Holocaust. My grandma kept a book of poetry she wrote about her days in Russia, her journey out of Russia, and her marriage and life with my grandfather here in the U.S. She would often read these poems to us, some of which were written in Yiddish and others in English, her new adopted language,” said Ruth.
Ruth and Emilia are both classically trained musicians, and their music has appeared on television, in film, with symphonies, and in choral music arrangements. The two performed on several Billboard charting albums and won numerous awards including the prestigious Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition (children’s), The Grand Prize in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (children’s), A Parent’s Choice Award, The Mom’s Choice Gold Award, and many more.
I Had A Dream is available on Amazon for $14.99.
To learn more about Ruth and Emilia, visit www.ruthandemilia.com.
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