Monthly Archives: November 2008

Workshops

KlezKamp Plucked Strings and Cantorial Melodies December 21-26, 2008

Jeff Warshauer willl be teaching special hands-on workshops for plucked string
players: 1) A hands-on workshop for any plucked string instrument, covering specific
techniques for playing klezmer/Yiddish music, and 2) A mandolin orchestra open to
plucked or struck string instrumentalists, plus singers. Also an advanced hands-on
workshop for improvisers and composers (both instrumentalists and singers) addressing
Jewish Cantorial modality and improvisation. KlezKamp is an amazing week of study
and fun… don’t miss it!
December 21-26, 2008!
http://www.livingtraditions.org/docs/index_kk.htm

News

Job Opening in New Orleans

Tulane University through Library Associates Companies (LAC) seeks a creative, dynamic Head of Music & Media Librarian to work within the Public Services Division at an academic library located in New Orleans, LA. Reporting to the Director of Public Services, the Head of the Music and Media Librarian will play a key role in the Library’s efforts to rebuild its world-class music collections, which were heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. He or she will participate in committee service within the library and through professional activity help to advocate for the interests of librarians at Tulane and throughout the profession. The librarian may share reference duties with other librarians at a central Reference and Information Desk including some evening and weekend duty; and participate in the library’s instruction program.…
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Concerts, WHERE: USA_NY

Yiddish Princess at Pete’s Candy Store

Yiddish Princess at Pete’s Candy Store!
“Because Yiddish was born to rock!”
Host: People for the Advancement of Yiddish Power Ballads
Start Time: Sunday, November 30 at 9:30pm
Where: Pete’s Candy Store
709 Lorimer Street
Brooklyn, NY

Cyndi Lauper meets Aaron Lebedeff in 1983. Boy George shares a L’khayim with Sholem Sekunda in 1981. Molly Picon and Phil Collins have a wild affair in Kishenev around 1984 or 1985. Yiddish Chestnuts through a faux 80’s filter.

Looking to reconcile your love of 80s power rock with your love of traditional Yiddish music? Your search is over. Behold, Yiddish Princess in all its Yiddish belting, guitar wailing, synthed out glory.
Come on over and give thanks with us at Pete’s Candy Store on the 30th. You won’t be sorry.…
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Concerts, WHERE: USA_California

From Italy to Broadway in SF

Sharon Bernstein and pianist Jonathan Schwartz will perform a concert
“From Italy to Broadway” on Thursday, December 11 at 7:30pm.
Jewish Community Library, San Francisco
Start Time: Thursday, December 11 at 7:30pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA

A program by Jewish composers of art songs and standards, with pianist Jonathan Schwartz: sonnets from Dante’s “La Vita Nova” set by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Emily Dickenson poems set by Aaron Copland, Ladino folk songs set by Alberto Hemsi, and Broadway tunes by Kurt Weill, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, and, of course, Leonard Bernstein.

WHERE: USA_NewEngland, Workshops

Open Sing — Judas Maccabaeus by Handel

Zamir Chorale of Boston invites you to its third annual Open Sing
on Sunday, Dec.7, 3:00 pm
at Temple Reyim,
1860 Washington Street., Newton, MA
Featuring choruses from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and synagogue motets of Italian
composer Salamone Rossi, presented by Prof. Joshua Jacobson.
Admission: $10; $8 for students and seniors. Tickets available at the door only.
Scores available for all participants.
Listeners welcome too!

Concerts

Micha Haran in the Concert Meister Series at Baruch Performing Arts Center

Baruch Performing Arts Center Presents
The Concert Meister Series
Micha Haran
Solo Cellist &
Principal Cellist of The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for 30 years

Tuesday, November 25th at 7:00 PM

Performing Bach Suite No.1 &
Kodaly Cello Sonata Op. 8
at
Engelman Recital Hall
On the South Side of East 25th Street Between Lexington & 3rd avenues
Manhattan, New York

Tickets: $30 -Call +1212.352.3101 or +1866.811.4111 or online
http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/149057

Details

Micha Haran, Principal Cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, returns to New
York, for a Solo performance at Baruch Performing Arts Center, after 33 years

“The Israeli Cellist is an assertive player with fine technical control and
musicianship that runs deep. Both in appearance and sound, he projects an intense
concentration that adds greatly to his communicative strength as an artist”
The New York Times, Haran’s Last Solo Performance in New York …
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Concerts, WHERE: USA_NY

Live at YIVO: Andy Statman Trio

“Live at YIVO: Andy Statman Trio” on Tuesday, November 25 at 7:00pm.

A Concert with the “Legendary Clarinet and Mandolin Virtuoso Andy Statman fuses Klezmer, Bluegrass & Jazz ”
at YIVO:
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY
Start Time: Tuesday, November 25 at 7:00pm

Holiday, WHERE: USA_NY

CHOIRS AND CANTORS BRING ON THE LIGHT THIS CHANUKAH

Over 200 adults and children will celebrate Chanukah,
the Festival of Lights, in concert, 3 P.M., Sunday, December 14, 2008 as
Congregation Rodeph Sholom of Manhattan hosts its unique, multigenerational Festival
of Choirs. The ninth annual concert will feature cantors and their volunteer adult
and children’s choirs from all over the New York metropolitan area. This year, the
first night of Chanukah is Sunday, December 21, 2008.

“There is nothing as special as seeing the young and the young-at-heart join
together in song to celebrate the festival of Chanukah,” according to Congregation
Rodeph Sholom’s Senior Cantor, Rebecca Garfein. “We are thrilled to present the
ninth annual Festival of Choirs to the New York community.”

Highlights of the concert will include the multigenerational 200-voiced combined
choir singing an arrangement of Peter Yarrow’s song (of Peter Paul and Mary
fame),“Light One Candle,” and the concert’s finale, “Bring on the Light,” a piece
by composer, singer and actor, Danny Maseng, that was commissioned by Congregation
Rodeph Sholom for the Festival of Choirs in 2001.…
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Concerts, Conferences

Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century 2008

Beyond Boundaries

Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century
Looks at the State of the Art of Klezmer through Discussion and Performance

On December 16, the Center for Jewish Studies and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the CUNY Graduate Center will present Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century. Featuring distinguished klezmer performers, scholars, cultural commentators, and composers, the program includes an afternoon symposium with music (at 3:00 p.m.) and an evening concert (at 7:00 p.m.). This event is part of the Beyond Boundaries Series in Jewish Music, launched by the Center for Jewish Studies in Spring 2008. The series explores aspects of Jewish music from multiple perspectives—geographical, cultural, and musical. The Graduate Center is located at 365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets.…
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Concerts

Cool Jew Artist Showcase at Manhattan JCC

Thu, Nov 20, 2008
7:30 PM
Cool Jew

This “extreme book signing” will celebrate the launch of Cool Jew with an unprecedented concert of New York talent. Lisa will perform spoken word from her book, followed by an artists’ showcase. Special guests include Dov Rosenblatt of Blue Fringe, Y Love and Diwon, Rav Shmuel, Chana Rothman, Basya Schecter of Pharoah’s Daughter, the Goddess Pearlman of Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, Naomi Less of Jewish Chicks Rock, Sarah Aroeste and her Ladino rock band, Michelle Citrin aka Rosh Hashanah Girl, Yoshie Fruchter, and spoken word performance by poet/novelist/memoirist Matthue Roth. Artists will be available to autograph CDs and books for sale, fun kosher foods will be available, a marketplace will feature Heebster swag, and a charity raffle will raise money for the One Family Fund for Israeli victims of terror.…
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Holiday, Radio or TV

Lights Celebrate Hanukkah on a PBS Station as Close as Your TV

Lights Celebrate Hanukkah Live in Concert is a high-definition special feature on PBS with a distinguished, diverse and dynamic ensemble of musical performers in celebration of the Jewish Festival of Lights. Craig Taubman hosts a musical extravaganza featuring the likes of the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics; cantor/tenor Alberto Mizrahi (first introduced in CANTORS: A FAITH IN SONG); top-selling jazz artist Dave Koz; soulful and dynamic Joshua Nelson; Emmy Award-winning actress Mare Winningham; rising star Michelle Citrin and others.

For Dates and Times, look for your local PBS station here:
http://www.craignco.com/lights/airdates.html

Clubs, WHERE: USA_NY

Songs from My Grandmother’s FBI Files

J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs from My Grandmother’s FBI Files
“musical documentary theater experiment” Performance
Eve Sicular & Isle of Klezbos
Start Time: Monday, November 24 at 8:00pm
End Time: Monday, November 24 at 9:30pm
Where: The NEW Dixon Place, main theater space!
161 Chrystie Street (next to, yes: Sammy’s Roumanian…)
New York, NY

Obits

Judith Wachs of Voice of the Turtle Dies at 70

We are saddened to report that Judith Wachs, the founder of the Voice of the Turtle, the music group devoted to Sephardic music, died in Cambridge, MA on October 9, 2008 of cancer. Starting out first with just one music volume she found at Harvard, Judith painstakingly researched and recreated songs that told the stories of the exile and survival of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century. She interviewed elderly Sephardic people in Israel, and did research at the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem. Her Boston-based group of four, produced recordings such as Balkan Vistas–Spanish Dreams, From the Shores of the Golden Horn, The Sword of the Dove, Bridges of Song:Music of the Spanish Jews of Morocco, and Circle of Fire: A Hanukkah Concert Live!…
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Classical or Jewish art music, Concerts, WHERE: USA_Mid-Atlantic

Pro Musica Hebraica at Kennedy Center in Washington

Pro Musica Hebraica is devoted to presenting Jewish classical music — much of it lost, forgotten, or rarely performed — in a concert-hall setting. On November 18, 2008, the ARC Ensemble of Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music presents works by Mieczysław Weinberg, Szymon Laks, and Sergei Prokofiev all composed in the aftermath of world war.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Terrace Theater
The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
7:30 PM
http://promusicahebraica.org/index.html

Concerts, WHERE: USA_NewEngland

MAGEVET CONCERT

Temple Beth Sholom of Stratford and Congregation Sinai of Milford take
pleasure in announcing a joint venture – The Magevet Concert.

For those who are asking “Ma Zeh”, or what is Magevet? Magevet is a
cappella group that originated at Yale University in the spring of 1993
and has weathered the test of time. Their repertoire spans the Jewish
Universe from Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino ballards to Ugandan Jewish tunes.

Sunday, November 16th at 2:00 PM
Temple Beth Sholom 275 Huntington Road, Stratford, Connecticut
Advance Tickets: Adults $12 – Children (ages 4-13) $10 – ages 3 and
under (on lap) Free
Advance Order of 10 Tickets – $100 Tickets at Door (ages 4 and above) $15
Contact for reservations: 203-378-6175 or 203-301-0558
Email: info@bethsholomstratford.org or congsinai@aol.com

Please gather your friends and family to join us for an inexpensive and
enjoyable afternoon to listen to some of your old favorites, some of
what are to become your new favorites and some of them sung like you
have never heard before.…
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Scores

New Klezmer Fiddle book released by Ilana Cravitz

Klezmer Fiddle: A How-to-Guide by Ilana CravitzIlana Cravitz has released a new book exploring traditional klezmer music. It’s a teaching guide, accompanied by a CD, and helps the student delve into the style of klezmer playing. Seckund and bass parts pull out for handy playing with friends. Cravitz explains bowing techniques, includes a brief history of klezmer, and the modes of each piece. Each of the sixteen tunes has a listening track to help learn performance technique. She also gives suggestions for effective variations and interpretations from the written score. In the appendix is a helpful chart explaining the dance style that goes with the various tunes, a Yiddish glossary and pronunciation guide, a bibliography and a discography. She also gives helpful suggestions about arranging melodies in sets, or groups of tunes that will work well together without a break.…
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Choral, WHERE: Europe

Amsterdams Synaogaal Koor at Podium Twente in December

Amsterdams Synagogaal Koor
will appear as part of the 11th Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, co-sponsored by the WIZO in December Singer Lucette van den Berg will appear on Dec. 20 singing Yiddish songs, a klezmer workshop will be held on Dec. 21 in the morning at Synagoge Enschede led byAnton Molenaar, and the concert by the choir at noon featuring western chazzanut with choir.

For more information:

zangeres Lucette van den Berg. Van den Berg heeft een uitzonderlijk warme, expressieve stem en een grote passie voor Jiddische muziek. Lucette is met het Jiddische repertoire veelvuldig te zien op grote festivals en in zalen als het Amsterdamse Concertgebouw, Muziekcentrum en Kavehoyz in New York. Zij oogst veel succes met haar openhartige, hartverwarmende en poëtische vertolking van Joodse liederen, een genre dat Lucette beschouwt als haar ‘roots’.…
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Concerts, WHERE: USA_NY

New Yiddish Rep

New Yiddish Rep presents:
Straight from the former Soviet Union
Psoy Oy Oy!!!
At home in the global diaspora, four fun filled evenings of
stories, songs and mishigass, with poet-singer-songwriter-
performance artist and fellow traveler Psoy Korolenko. To Psoy
the Jewish experience is not only a personal story, but also a
metaphor of transcultural identity and ultimate otherness. He
sings and tumults in English, Russian, French, and Yiddish.
Saturday, November 15th at 10 PM
Saturday, December 13th at 8 PM
Saturday, January 3rd, at 8 PM
Saturday, January 10th at 8 PM

Community Synagogue
325 E. 6th Street
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues
NYC
Trains: F to 2nd Ave., 6 to Astor Place, L to 1st Ave., Q to 8th St.
Admission: Donate as you exit.…
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Classical or Jewish art music, WHERE: USA_California

A Test of Faith

A Test of Faith, a One-Act Opera
Erev Shabbat
Friday, November 21st, 2008 – 8:00 PM
Free to the Public
Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA

“Test of Faith” is an award-winning one-act opera based on of the
Bible’s most dramatic stories, the story of the Akedah, the
near-sacrifice of Isaac. Renowned opera stars Jonathan Mack and Ron
Li-Paz will take the roles of God and Abraham; Jonathan Zur is Isaac.
Lawrence Goldberg, the composer, will conduct.

Following the performance, Rabbi Edward Feinstein, Senior Rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom,
will engage the composer and the performers in a discussion of the opera
and the story of the Akedah, and its impact on world religions.

Concerts, WHERE: USA_Mid-Atlantic

BORSCHT AND GRITS in MD

BORSCHT AND GRITS COMBINE when Margot leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys perform at Temple Emanuel in Reisterstown, MD, November 23rd.

“Borscht and grits never tasted so good.” That’s a critic’s comment about the magical combination of traditional Yiddish klezmer music with the foot-stompin’ rhythms of bluegrass, as performed by Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys. The internationally acclaimed quintet will present a benefit concert Sunday, Nov. 23rd, at 4 pm, at Temple Emanuel, 909 Berrymans Lane, in Reisterstown.

Playing with the band will be Steve Mandell (who lives in Pikesville), one of the two musicians who did the soundtrack for the Dueling Banjos segment in the film Deliverance. And Mike Munford, a local banjo master is also expected to attend.

Members of the audience will be able to jam with the artists toward the end of the concert, and enjoy a free wine and cheese reception afterwards.…
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CD Releases, Concerts

Poykler’s Shloft Lied new CD from Matt Temkin

Matt Temkin‘s Yiddishe Jam Band CD Release Show and Party
Wednesday, November 12, 7pm

Join drummer Matt Temkin as he celebrates the release of his band’s debut CD,
Poykler’s Shloft Lied,
in which they explore the intersection of large combo Jazz and Yiddish dance music.

The event will take place at:
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
30 W. 68th St.
New York, NY 10023.

For information, please call 212-877-4050 or visit us at:
www.swfs.org.

Scores

Guitar Arrangements for Jewish Melodies

Ellen Whitaker guitar arrangements Ellen S. Whitaker, a guitar teacher in North Carolina, has created an excellent book of guitar arrangements of Jewish favorite melodies. The book is intended for intermediate to advanced guitar players, with a few easier pieces. It includes a key to the guitar notation used in the work, the texts to the songs in transliteration, occasionally in Hebrew text, with English and an annotation about the meaning of the song along with performance notes about each piece. The guitar music, both solos and duets are presented in a separate section, which is an excellent arrangement of the book for learning and performance. The end of the collection includes an appendix explaining the Jewish modes, a second appendix linking each piece with the mode used, a glossary of each of the musical terms, a bibliography and discography.…
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Concerts, WHERE: Europe

‘MUSIJEUNES’ in Switzerland

‘MUSIJEUNES’ organise prochainement un grand week-end KLEZMER:

Vendredi 21 novembre à 20h:
Concert avec: HOTEGEZUGT et la chanteuse Hélène ENGEL
Salle Paroissiale St-François, 16 av. Petit-Senn à Chêne-Bourg
Entrée libre, chapeau la sortie

et

Samedi 22 et dimanche 23 novembre:
ATELIER KLEZMER
ouvert aux musiciens de tous niveaux, animé par Michel Borzykowski (instr. à vent et
danse), Pier-Yves Têtu (accordéon), Bianca Favez (violon) et Hélène Engel (chant,
danse).

Enseignement par petits groupes samedi de 13h30 à 18h et dimanche de 9h à 15h.
Audition des élèves (publique, entrée libre) dimanche à 16h.

Coût: 130.- Frs (110.- pour élèves de l’Accademis d’Archi), 2 repas inclus.

Renseignements:
Michel Borzykowski
Tél. 022 755 41 23
borzy@freesurf.ch
site klezmer: http://borzykowski.users.ch

Book and Score Reviews

Jewish Traditions for Classical and Fingerstyle Guitar: Traditional Jewish Melodies Arranged for Guitar– Solos and Duets

By Ellen S. Whitaker

Ellen S. Whitaker, a guitar teacher in North Carolina, has created an excellent book of guitar arrangements of Jewish favorite melodies. The book is intended for intermediate to advanced guitar players, with a few easier pieces. It includes a key to the guitar notation used in the work, the texts to the songs in transliteration, occasionally in Hebrew text, with English and an annotation about the meaning of the song along with performance notes about each piece. The guitar music, both solos and duets are presented in a separate section, which is an excellent arrangement of the book for learning and performance. The end of the collection includes an appendix explaining the Jewish modes, a second appendix linking each piece with the mode used, a glossary of each of the musical terms, a bibliography and discography.…
CONTINUE READING >

Book and Score Reviews

Klezmer Fiddle: a how to guide

By Ilana Cravitz

Ilana Cravitz has released a new book exploring traditional klezmer music. It’s a teaching guide, accompanied by a CD, and helps the student delve into the style of klezmer playing. Seckund and bass parts pull out for handy playing with friends. Cravitz explains bowing techniques, includes a brief history of klezmer, and the modes of each piece. Each of the sixteen tunes has a listening track to help learn performance technique. She also gives suggestions for effective variations and interpretations from the written score. In the appendix is a helpful chart explaining the dance style that goes with the various tunes, a Yiddish glossary and pronunciation guide, a bibliography and a discography. She also gives helpful suggestions about arranging melodies in sets, or groups of tunes that will work well together without a break.…
CONTINUE READING >

Uncategorized

Yuval Ron Ensemble Fall 2008 Tours

Nov. 4-9, 2008 – Houston, TX : Yuval Ron Ensemble – City wide
Residency

Nov. 16, 2008 – San Pedro, CA: Yuval Ron on the Music of the Golden
Age of Spain

Dec. 6, 2008 – Arcadia, CA: The Yuval Ron Ensemble in Concert “Light
in the Darkness”

Dec 7, 2008 – Alhambra, CA: Muslim, Jewish and Christian harmony in
Spain

details….

WHERE: Great Britain, Workshops

Hop to Klezmer Workshops in London

Sunday 9 November 2008
Klezmer Workshop
12 – 1pm
London Klezmer Session
1 – 4pm
The Cross Kings, 126 York Way, N1
London klezmer session every second Sunday of the month. Bring an instrument
and a tune, or just come to shmooze & booze. The pub does great food and has
comfy sofas, too…
Info and tunes http://www.ilanacravitz.com/jams.html .
Next date: Sunday 21 December (NB DATE IS THIRD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH!)
Workshop £5; Jam £1.

Sunday 23 November 2008
5.30 – 9pm
Klezmer Barn Dance
Amersham Common Village Hall, 24 White Lion Road, Amersham HP7 9JD

Come along and dance your socks off at this fun event for grown-ups, kids
and all those in-between. With dance leading from Ilana Cravitz and live
music from the Hopkele House Band: Susi Evans (clarinet), Matt Bacon
(guitar) and Paul Moylan (bass).…
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Concerts

Bernstein: A Jewish Legacy

The Center for Jewish History, the American Society for Jewish Music
and the American Jewish Historical Society present:

Thursday, November 6 at 8:00p.m.
Bernstein: A Jewish Legacy
An encore performance of the recently sold-out program at The Jewish Museum and
part of the city-wide festival Bernstein: The Best of all Possible Worlds.
The concert of mostly unknown Bernstein works on Jewish themes, narrated by Jack
Gottlieb, Bernstein’s longtime editor, sheds new light on some of the composer’s
more celebrated pieces. A number cut from West Side Story, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim,
combined with another piece from an abandoned project with lyrics by Betty Comden
and Adolph Green, reveals a surprising transformation as a choral setting in Hebrew.
Among the other works are world premieres of “A Choral Quilt” (arranged by Gottlieb)
and a song Bernstein wrote in reaction to anti-Semitism.…
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