Mr. Kats Leaves For Sabbatical For Rest of Year

Mr. Amir Kats has been on sabbatical for the past few weeks and will be away for the rest of the year. He will travel to and research the many different musical styles of Israel. Once back, Mr. Kats will arrange pieces for school orchestras, bands, and choirs.

Mr. Kats will start by doing remote research. Then, in early March, he will travel to Israel for on-site research. “I’m excited to do a deeper dive into the variety of musical styles that exist there that I’ve never been able to do before,” says Mr. Kats. One way Mr. Kats will conduct research is by visiting musical archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, and near Tel Aviv. Mr. Kats will also visit synagogues, and a variety of towns and villages, some of which are home to certain ethnic groups of people. Many of Mr. Kats’ relatives and friends who live in Israel have connections to these groups.

Once back in Minnesota, Mr. Kats will begin writing arrangements based on the melodies he discovers in Israel. “So for instance, [I’ll take a] melody, and they’re really great tunes. And I think, this could be a great piece for Chorum to sing. So [I] write out an arrangement for higher voices or lower voices, voices with piano, that [Mr. LeJeune] could use,” says Mr. Kats. He goes on to say that he isn’t going to limit his arrangements to just a middle school level. “Maybe I find something I think would work really well for an upper school group or a younger group.” “[Israel] is where I was born and where I have a lot of family and friends so I’m excited about reconnecting with them. I’m excited about the food. And I’m very grateful that the school is giving me this opportunity.”