Slava kagan paley biography of albert

Countertenor Slava Kagan Paley will cover 300 years of vocal music, starting from Purcell and ending with Gershwin.

By MAXIM REIDER Taking time out from his concert schedule abroad, Russian-born, Israeli-based countertenor Slava Kagan Paley sings his new Smile program tonight at Tel Aviv Museum.

Accompanied by string ensemble and piano, he'll cover 300 years of vocal music, starting from Purcell and ending with Gershwin. The countertenor voice - that of an adult male who sings in an alto or soprano range - dates from the early Middle Ages.

After the Baroque era, countertenors remained only in sacred music until the 1960s, when the desire for authentic performances of the early material brought a revival of the countertenor. Nowadays, countertenors fill parts written especially for them in modern operas, along with parts written for castratos in Baroque operas.

Indeed, the countertenor repertoire even includes jazz - witness classically trained Israeli countert