Listen Up! delivers warmth and sheer knock-your-socks-off vocal power through a love of Judaism and Israel. Freddie Feldman, Kadi House, Eli Taylor, and Steve Singer bring considerable talents as a professional ensemble—with a confident, easy manner during performances that wins the hearts (and ears) of audiences of all ages. With multi-generational wit and humor, Tzioni sensibilities, and an impressive artistic palette drawn from diverse Jewish musical traditions, Listen Up! leaves no audience unaffected by their performance.
The Chicago Tribune writes, "What comes across in every moment of their performance is an adoration for singing — turning melodies and harmonies on their heads to come up with something unique and full of freshness and appeal. When redefining musical rules, it helps to be good — and Listen Up! is very good, lacking nothing in imagination and the ability to sell their vision of a song.”
After every show, one young audience member invariably approaches the stage and asks Steve Singer, "How do you make all those sounds?" Steve pauses for a moment, smiles and replies, "I had way too much time by myself as a child." Indeed, part of the difficulty in describing Listen Up!’s sound resides in trying to understand what founder and musical director, Steve Singer does in performance and in the studio. Steve is a baritone/bass who would rather deliver stand-up than sit down (and be quiet). Doctor Singer (think Doctor Strange) was trained as a molecular neuropharmacologist, but in the band, he is simply Chief Noisemaker. Steve is a percussionist who loves experimenting with new sounds that give Listen Up! its eclectic flair and rhythmic soul. Steve's award-winning vocal arrangements speak for themselves.
All told, Steve is so thankful that this uncommon vocal band has provided a home for his creative energies since 1992. When not making noise on stage, Steve lives in Skokie, Illinois with his wife (and founding member-vocalist) Rebecca Klein Singer, and their 3 musical kids.
Freddie has been immersed in the world of a cappella for over twenty years. He got his start with his high school group, The Coppertones. He started the college group, Five O’Clock Shadow at Northwestern University. After graduation, he toured nationally with his professional a cappella group, VOCOMOTION. After the group split up, Freddie opened VOCOMOTION Studios.
He has produced over 130 a cappella albums at VOCOMOTION, winning several Best Of College Acappella (BOCA) Awards and Contemporary Acappella Recording Awards (CARA). He served an album reviewer for the Recorded Acappella Review Board (RARB), reviewing over 40 albums for the online publication. He is the creator of The Thumper, the world’s only throat microphone designed specifically for vocal percussion.
Freddie recently presented a TED talk at TEDxVienna on his unusual journey from beatboxing to helping people with neurodegenerative diseases [Watch here].
Freddie toured as the frontman of the hard-rock band Gaskit for four years. He is a two-time winner of Songs Inspired By Literature Songwriting Competition (SIBL). Gaskit opened for national acts Godsmack, Tantric, Drowning Pool, SOiL, and Dark New Day. Gaskit did a world-record national tour in 2004, playing in 50 states in 50 days. Their single "Peel This Away" featured on television show Jake 2.0 on UPN Network.
Freddie holds both a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Northwestern University.
Kadi is so excited to be "The New Lady Singer" of Listen Up! Kadi moved to Chicago from her native Los Angeles in 2014, looking to explore a new city and meet new people. She works at Am Shalom in Glencoe as the Director of Youth Engagement.
Kadi’s love of music began in Kindergarten when she started taking piano lessons and singing in kids choirs. She spent her time in high school and at UCLA involved in choir and musical theatre but never joined an a cappella group. It wasn’t until she moved to Chicago and was looking for a way to meet new people (and sing!) that she became a founding member of Lakeshore Dynamics, a recreational a cappella group based in Chicago. Kadi has been singing with Lakeshore Dynamics as a mezzo-soprano and serving as the business manager since it all began in fall of 2014.
Ever since Kadi became a Bat Mitzvah in 2003, she’s had a passion for Jewish music. She attended and worked at Jewish summer camp for many summers (shout-out Camp Kalsman and Camp Newman!) where she discovered her love of songleading and learned to play guitar. Today, Kadi continues to song lead at Am Shalom, and loves any opportunity to use Jewish music as a means of creating community among her peers at a Shabbat dinner.
In her free time, you can find Kadi catching a Cubs game, at CorePower Yoga, or at various Jewish events in the city. Kadi is so excited to bring her love of a cappella and Jewish music together in Listen Up!
Eli Taylor is incredibly proud to be a part of such a wonderful and talented group of musicians. He had been searching for an opportunity to combine his passion for music with his love for Judaism and Israel and found a home in LU!
Eli first discovered his love for performing when he received his first substantial role as lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at age 16. From then on he looked for every opportunity that would allow him to sing. Eli attended a non-musical degree program at The Theatre School at DePaul University, but still managed to find opportunities to perform. He even attended a few rehearsals for the school's gospel choir.
When he is not creating with LU!, Eli works as an Events Manager for the Jewish National Fund's Midwest Center of Excellence where he coordinates event operations for events throughout the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States.
Eli received a BFA in Theatre Arts from The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Eli's soulful voice adds warmth to the group's sound and he is thrilled to work with such an amazing and talented group of people.
All of our videos are on YouTube.com/Jewishsong
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Get ready for a great musical journey with Listen Up! when you take an engaging and collaborative deep dive into extraordinary songs that connect us with our Judaism and with Israel. Begin planning your #jewishsong journey by contacting us via the form below.
Hakshivu Na! (“Listen Up!” in Hebrew) is an online educational program that combines active learning, storytelling, mind-blowing trivia, history, and—of course—amazing harmony, to bring Jewish music to life in a novel, unforgettable way.
Working closely with educators and planners, Listen Up! will develop a plug-and-play program that will fit your needs. Here are a sampling of 10-15 minute educational webisodes that can be combined with interactive learning and a live “talk back” session with Listen Up! vocalists.
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Episode 1: Golda, The Beatles, and the Grand Apology The year is 1964. At the height of "Beatlemania", the Fab Four were about to make debut performance in Israel. What happened next spurred a 44-year debate and an eventual apology from the State of Israel to John Lennon’s family. Get the whole scoop, Baby! |
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Episode 2: Two Men and Two Songs to Bring Us Together
What makes a song so universal that it reaches around the world to inspire us and help us to see a better future? Explore how two songwriters, one who rose beyond racism and adversity in America, and the other, who drew upon the diversity of his own Israeli town, created anthems of peace that guide us today. |
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Episode 3: The Case of the Hebrew Hit Parade Israel’s War for Independence in 1948 was quickly followed by another epic battle -- over a song -- that spanned the globe and created a viral hit on the Billboard pop charts. |
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
We’re happy to announce the release of our latest music video: Say Shabbat Shalom/Geronimo. It was shot in the beautiful sanctuary of the Chicago Loop Synagogue by Sean Strimple and Walk On Media. We had such a blast shooting this video, we hope you enjoy it. Warning: We have found that everyone who has seen the video gets the song stuck in their heads for hours at a time. You have been warned!!
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