Eli Begun is about to release his debut album, in which he says he aims to continue the family legacy

A composer and singer in his own right, ELI BEGUN is also the son of Miami Boys Choir founder and composer Yerachmiel Begun. With music composition and performance running in his blood (some of those original compositions include, “In Our Darkest Times,” “We Must Go On,” “Shabbos Hayom,” and “Lema’alah Min Hateva”) he’s about to release his debut album, in which he says he aims to continue the family legacy of meaningful Jewish music with a neshamah-feel.

MY MUSIC ROOTS

People ask me if I was ever in Miami Boys Choir, and the answer is no. I never even considered asking my father to join, because my father liked to keep a distance between his work and his family, and he wanted us to focus on yeshivah. Still, we went to all the concerts and always went backstage to get that experience, and we each forged our own path in music. I express myself musically today, my brother Chananya has a Young Talent Initiative, bringing out Jewish kids’ talents in music, and my sister composes and produces a successful girls’ choir called Regesh.

MY MOST MEMORABLE CONCERT

I was a young kid then, but I remember very clearly my father’s Light Up the Nights concert in Nassau Coliseum. He was the first one to put on shows on such a grand scale, starting with Miami Experience 5, when people thought he had gone crazy. Brooklyn College, which was the standard venue for frum concerts before that, holds about 2,400 people, and Nassau has up to 16,000. When my father felt that he had something special, he made that jump, and successfully sold out the whole place. I don’t remember Miami Experience 5, but I remember Light up the Nights. There was a rotating stage, and our family sat six or seven rows back, which was our preferred spot, where we didn’t have to crane our necks. Another standout was the recent Chol Hamoed Succos concert. In addition to my son seeing his zeidy on stage, it was the first time he saw me on stage, too, so it was a really special moment.

MY PICK OF AN ORIGINAL AND DIFFERENT MIAMI SONG

One of my favorites, and maybe one of my father’s most original songs altogether, is “Shalom,” from the Simcha Song album. That’s “Shalom, shalom, goodbye, ki besimchah tzeisei’u….” It’s creative in the way it changes keys from the first part to the second, taking it from one “feel” to another.

AN ALBUM THAT TAKES ME TO A SPECIFIC TIME AND PLACE

There was a time when people used to actually sit and listen to albums, and I associate the albums with when we listened to them as a family. I remember Revach, for example, playing for three hours straight when we were on a road trip.

MUSIC I UNWIND WITH

I can’t! I’m always analyzing it professionally. Also, I grew up with music as a creative art, and not for relaxing.

TWO LINES OF ENGLISH LYRICS THAT I LOVE

“Can we bring the world its only sunshine? / Only Torah yields a hope for mankind….”

It’s from the song “Sunshine” on the One by One album, and my mother actually wrote those lines. My father would come up with the concepts and tunes for his songs, but the English lyrics were generally my mother’s contribution. The only exception I know of is “Besiyata Dishmaya,” where Yocheved Reich brought the lyrics to my father and he wrote the music.

AN INSTRUMENT I’D LOVE TO PLAY

As a kid I played the drums. At the moment I don’t play an instrument, but I’m fine with that. My father told me that as a composer, this actually gives me more freedom, because when you’re composing on an instrument, you think more mechanically about the next chord progression. Without an instrument, you’re not tied down and can compose more creatively.

A SONG THAT GETS ME INTO THE SHABBOS MOOD

“Shabbos Yerushalayim.” with the siren sound and “Oy oy oy Shabbos” motif, it’s a real Shabbos energy.

AN ALBUM I’D TAKE ON A LONG ROAD TRIP

One Voice, my father’s latest album. I can’t stop singing “Kavei” and “We Stand with Israel.” If we’re talking about an album from the past, Miami Experience 4 – Shiru Lo stands out. It’s one of my favorites.

A SONG I WISH I COULD BRING BACK

I think a lot of the older songs could be redone with an up-to-date feel. They actually do this when they play old Miami songs at weddings. You can hear the younger wedding bands playing the Miami “Adon Olam” or “Hinei Mah Tov” with an updated arrangement. The songs live on, but the arrangements are often outdated. In general, it’s hard to find an old Miami song our family doesn’t remember. The only fan who can rival us is Avrumi Berko, who knows every Miami song ever.

STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

I can’t really share the stories behind my father’s songs, because he composes in his office, with his keyboard, not in front of us. But because he composed many hundreds of songs, he always had to narrow down the choices to just ten or 12 for each album. When I was growing up, he would put 40 or 50 songs on a CD, give it to the whole family, and then ask us all to rate the songs so he could see which ones we liked and narrow down the choices.

THE JEWISH MUSIC ARTIST I MOST CONNECT TO

Besides my father? I’d say MBD. The power in his voice is unique and very rare. I also gravitate toward Ira Heller’s style, and Yaakov Shwekey has definitely made an impact on me.

THE PRINCIPLES THAT GUIDED MY FATHER’S MUSIC

My father has made a huge impact in the Jewish music world, yet he’s always lived by his ideals, making sure the music stayed Torahdig. Over the past 50 years, since his first choir in Toronto in 1974, he’s shown the ability to move with the times, while always maintaining a Yiddishe taam. On a personal level, his first love is learning, which he’s always engaged with when he’s not working, and im yirtzeh Hashem when he finishes with his music career, he wants to learn all day.

A few years ago, my brother Chananya suggested putting up some Miami videos on a social media platform that has a very wide reach, to touch the hearts of unaffiliated Jews. Somehow those clips went viral, so much so that a non-Jewish distributor reached out to buy the rights, and a popular TV show asked the choir to perform. But my father turned it all down, because although he initially thought that distanced Jews might be touched by the music, he has very strong hashkafos about keeping far away from the non-Jewish music world.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1040)