Songbird

 

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.