Ding (Dovid Nachman Golding) shares his personal top-ten HASC musical moments

One of the highlights of the recent HASC 34 virtual event was the preshow, where previous HASC singers took a walk down memory lane. It was a treat for the hundreds of thousands in the virtual audience, and an indication that nostalgia is becoming ever more popular. With that in mind, veteran producers Suki and Ding have released a compilation of the greatest moments of HASC through the years. HASC — The Ultimate Collection: 30 Amazing Years is a double DVD with a full six hours of highlights of great concerts, selected based on requests from the public, and then digitally remastered.

Ding (Dovid Nachman Golding) shares his personal top-ten HASC musical moments in 34 years of A Time for Music shows:

10. Diaspora Yeshiva band, in an unrehearsed segment, joined the entire cast of HASC 27 and blew the audience away with their hit rendition of the vintage “Ivdu Es Hashem B’simchah.”

9. Yaron Gershovsky’s exquisite rendition of a classical version of Abie Rotenberg’s “Hamalach Hagoel” at HASC 5.

8. Abie Rotenberg’s tribute to Shlomo Carlebach, which took place a mere two months after Shlomo’s passing in 1994.

7. MBD’s impersonations of various performers, starting with Yossele Rosenblatt, continuing with Benzion Shenker, his father Chazzan Dovid Werdyger, and then getting more contemporary with Shlomo Carlebach, Jo Amar, the Rabbis’ Sons, and Yigal Calek. It had the audience in stitches.

6. Hasc 22, when Yaakov Shwekey performed “Mi K’Amcha Yisrael” together with Abie Rotenberg.

5. Ohad’s incredible performance of “Birkat Habanim” with Yonatan Shainfeld at HASC 24, A Time for Duets.

4. MBD and Fried, performing all their hits together at the opening medley of HASC 26.

3. The finale of HASC 25, where the entire cast, comprised of over 50 singers and performers, sang Abie’s “Candles” song.

2. Shlomo Carlebach’s surprise appearance at HASC 2 in 1990, which floored the audience.

And the number-one moment? For the longtime producer, it’s a tough call, but Ding acknowledges that the most elevated moment of all the HASC performances was Abie Rotenberg’s “Who Am I?” (from Journeys 3) which he performed at HASC 29 in 2016, making it clear what a HASC child goes through every single day.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 856)