strengthening communities
through innovation and education
Milken Archive of American Jewish Music
6
David's Quilt Performance
From left to right: Collected cover art from the Milken Archive's twenty musical volumes; a live Klezmer band performance at UCLA; and an archival image of composer Herman Berlinski speaking with Archive Founder Lowell Milken.
Milken Archive Albums
Lowell Milken and Herman Berlisnki
From left to right: Collected cover art from the Milken Archive's twenty musical volumes; a live Klezmer band performance at UCLA; and an archival image of composer Herman Berlinski speaking with Archive Founder Lowell Milken.
From left to right: Collected cover art from the Milken Archive's twenty musical volumes; a live Klezmer band performance at UCLA; and an archival image of composer Herman Berlinski speaking with Archive Founder Lowell Milken.

The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music (The Archive) was founded in 1990 by Lowell Milken to record, preserve and disseminate a body of music that had helped shape the American Jewish experience. After assembling an editorial board comprising experts from diverse fields, the Archive commenced a recording project which over two decades now encompasses more than 600 pieces of music by over 200 composers. The Archive creates and preserves for posterity the fullest possible context of Jewish life in America over the past 370 years.  Many of the world’s greatest musicians and conductors are participants in the work of the Archive. The Archive’s virtual museum website is organized into 20 thematic volumes and includes essential oral histories based on hundreds of hours of interviews. A catalog of 50 Milken Archive CDs on the Naxos American Classics label is available worldwide. Producer David Frost won a GRAMMY© as Producer of the Year, Classical, for his work on five Milken Archive recordings, and a radio series, "American Jewish Music from the Milken Archive with Leonard Nimoy," continues to air. The Archive demonstrates that virtuoso performances of great works of music—from symphonies to synagogue services, Yiddish theater to opera, chamber works to cantorial masterpieces—can touch people of all faiths and cultures while providing Jews with an invaluable link to their heritage.

Find out more at www.milkenarchive.org/

“The Milken Archive, which began in 1990 with a dream and a vision, has grown exponentially. With the spiritual and worldly experiences of so many extraordinary and diverse talents, the project continues to provide new insights and meaning. These remarkable contributions will ensure that the Milken Archive outlives my own generation and be very much alive for my children's children and on into the future.” - Lowell Milken

close