JIVE is a groundbreaking music group celebrating the depth and diversity of Jewish musical traditions while bringing fresh perspectives to cultural storytelling. Co-founded by internationally acclaimed Grammy Award–winning countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, baritone and cantorial soloist of Congregation Sherith Israel Simon Barrad, and pianist and impresario Ronny Michael Greenberg, JIVE presents performances spanning Yiddish and Sephardic song, opera, jazz, musical theater, contemporary works, and new commissions.
JIVE’s programs explore themes of Jewish holidays, Jewish history, and Jewish life, offering audiences an imaginative, nuanced, and deeply human interpretation of Jewish culture. Our work reaches Jewish and non-Jewish audiences alike, including families, young professionals, students, and seniors across the San Francisco Bay Area and an expanding national footprint. JIVE has presented performances in partnership with organizations including the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center, and the Cincinnati Song Initiative in collaboration with the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, among others.
IT’S NOW OR NEVER:
SONGS OF HOPE AND RESILIENCE
In 2026, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum will complete a major expansion, including a newly built theater space designed for educational presentations and cultural programming. JIVE has been invited to inaugurate this new venue with It’s Now or Never: Songs of Hope and Resilience, a special tribute concert honoring Holocaust survivor Renée Firestone. The program will feature a newly commissioned song cycle by acclaimed composer Jake Heggie with lyricist Gene Scheer, alongside a concert program drawing on a wide range of music written during and around the Holocaust. Performed by JIVE’s artists with a versatile chamber ensemble capable of moving across classical, jazz, Sephardic and Ladino song, It’s Now or Never marks a landmark moment in the Museum’s cultural and educational mission, affirming music as a powerful vehicle for memory, testimony, and resilience.