His name is
Chaim Zippel, and he is fifteen years old.
I met Chaim when he was about two years old. It happened in London. At that
time, his mother Zina, was one of my clients when I worked as a personal
trainer with Orthodox women in the Jewish community.
I remember Chaim
sitting and watching us while Zina and I were engaged in our exercise routine.
He was generally quite talkative and always, always smiling. Little did I know
then that behind this smiling face was a well-hidden talent that this young
child was harbouring inside.
It was only about ten years later, earlier this year that I received a message
from Zina telling me to watch a T.V. programme entitled “School of Music,” a show
I had vaguely known. “You will see Chaim on it,” she wrote.
On the scheduled day, I dropped everything I was doing. What a wonderful
surprise awaited me. Chaim’s smiling face, the same beautiful face as I
remembered it, was staring at me from the T.V. screen. The voice, however, that
voice left me mesmerized. I felt my heart melting and my eyes welling. The song
was “Let it be,” by the Beatles, written by Paul
McCartney
“How long have you been singing?” I asked Chaim when I spoke to him several
days ago, “since I remember myself,” came the quick answer.
“And why did you choose this particular song?” I guess he could hear the hint
of surprise in my voice.
“I didn’t,” he responded. “It was selected for me.”
We both knew
why this begging to be asked question came up. McCartney’s lyrics refer to his
own mother Mary albeit is generally associated with the Christian Mother Mary.
Chaim took the liberty to change it into “Mother Rachel.” “There is no way in
the world,” Chaim retorted when I addressed it, “that I would sing about ‘mother
Mary’ on an Yisraeli T.V. Show.”
With your permission, dear readers, let me rewind here and take you back to how
and when it all started.
Chaim and his family made Aliyah from London about six years ago. Shortly,
thereafter, his maternal grandfather once mentioned the Yisraeli T.V. show, of
which, of course, Chaim knew nothing. His grandfather further suggested that
Chaim should watch it.
One day, out of curiosity, Chaim and his mother decided to google the programme
and it so happened that auditions for its fourth season were about to take
place. Chaim decided to apply.
Needless to
add, it was a long and tedious process, especially for an observant young man
who was trying to shuffle between school requirement, voice lessons, his voluntary
work ,
the ongoing tryouts as well as recording and filming sessions. These, as we can
imagine, can make one’s life incredibly stressful.
"Yes, “ said Chaim
in response to my question as to whether he wishes to make singing a future
career, “definitely!” Chaim hopes to include a variety of styles in his repertoire
as well as songs in different languages. In addition to singing in Hebrew,
Chaim has recorded songs in Yiddish, English and lately a duet in Italian with
the IDF Chief Cantor, Lt. Col. Shai Abrmason.
Chaim wishes to express his gratitude to the many who have stood by him on the
path of this journey and have helped him get thus far.
First, of course, to his parents, Zina and Phillipe.
Special thanks go to Harel Skaat, his mentor in the “School of Music” with whom
he is still closely in touch and who is always there to offer his support and good
advice. Chaim also wishes to acknowledge the great support he received from
Rivka Rappoport, Founder of the Rappoport School. Finally, Chaim wants to give
thanks to Nahum Levi, his voice teacher with whom he has been working for the
last five years.
We wish Chaim the best of luck with his singing career and look forward to hearing
more of his songs in the future.
