The Thurnauer Symphony Orchestra is under the direction of Louis Kosma, a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Courtesy Kaplen JCC

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music, New Jersey’s leading community music school, named a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, offers its 2012 Winter Orchestra Concert, on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m., at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly.

The free concert showcases the Thurnauer Symphony Orchestra, which will perform favorites from the symphonic repertoire by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Dvořák, and Brahms; and The String Camerata and Philharmonia.

Call (201) 408-1465 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Veteran Israeli performer David Broza figured that if you can buy a Picasso on the Internet, you can also finance an album on the Internet.

So he took the highly unconventional route of producing his first Israeli album in nine years, “Safa Shlishit” (“Third Language”), entirely via the site Kickstarter. Released last summer, his 28th CD became one of the top five music projects ever kick-started online.

“I am a very down-to-earth singer-songwriter and not a techie, yet I went for the highest technology to do this project and I succeeded,” says Broza, 56, “despite the fact that it’s an album in Hebrew by an older artist, so it’s against all odds. It just shows you that you need to have a focus.”

“Don’t you have any jolly books for me to review?,” I plaintively ask this newspaper’s editor. The books he has sent my way in recent weeks are all about the Shoah, and none of them are brilliant enough to make up for their grimness.

Then I have a happy — you could say a jolly — thought. Why must a book column focus on new books? Why not reread — and recall to the reading public — delightful older books, giving them a longer (book)shelf life?

Many gifted artists have died all too young, their enormous promise not entirely fulfilled. Among the most famous: the poets Keats and Shelley, composers Mozart and Schubert, singers Fritz Wunderlich and Kathleen Ferrier, and violinists Ginette Neveu and Michael Rabin.

Thursday, Jan. 19, was the 40th anniversary of Rabin’s tragic death at the age of 35. His authorized biography — authorized by his surviving older sister, Francine — was just revised and updated: “Michael Rabin: America’s Virtuoso Violinist,” by Anthony Feinstein, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Matthew Fishteyn Courtesy Wayne Y

The Wayne Y continues its Sundays Backstage at the Y series with pianist/composer Matthew Fishteyn, 18, performing “Mystery Man,” on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 1 p.m. (973) 595-0100, ext. 237.

The Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer performed at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music’s 2011 Gift of Music Gala Benefit Concert in February. Eugene Parciasepe, Jr.

The Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer, the student choir of the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, will perform its winter concert on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. The concert will include the Prelude (ages 6 to 9) and Concert (ages 10 to 18) choirs, as well as the Grieco and McCloud choirs. The latter two ensembles are part of the Music School’s Music Discovery Partnership – a collaboration with Englewood Public School District since 1997. Admission is free. Repertoire is listed below. For information, call (201) 408-1465 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein Courtesy Chabad

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, author of the award-winning “Up, Up and Oy Vey!” will be at Chabad of Fort Lee on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. His latest book is “Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century.”

Weinstein has appeared on CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight” and NPR, and has been profiled in publications including The New York Times, The Miami Herald, and The London Guardian. He is a contributor to The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and chairs the religious affairs committee at the Pratt Institute. He was recently voted “New York’s Hippest Rabbi” by PBS affiliate Channel 13. Call (201) 886-1238 or http://www.ChabadFortLee.com.