KlezFest London 2006 Sunday 13-Friday 18 August
Jewish Song School Sunday 13-Friday 18 August
Ot Azoy! Yiddish Course Sunday 6-Friday 11 August

KlezFest London is a hands-on learning experience with luminaries of the Klezmer revival
from Europe and America, focusing on the style, ornamentation, rhythm and repertoire of
Eastern European Jewish music, song and dance. It is an inspirational and life-enhancing
experience for amateur and professional instrumentalists and singers. In 2006, KlezFest
includes a special parallel strand for professional klezmer players as well as the
parallel Song School. KlezFest is preceded by a fantastic one-week Yiddish course ideal
for complete beginners and for singers but catering also for advanced language students.
Booking is now open and details and registration can be found on Web www.jmi.org.uk

Daily schedules: All the students of KlezFest and Song School, work together each morning
till tea break – learning the Shers and Bulgars – the dances of old Europe to a live band
led by Merlin Shepherd and singing Chassidic nigunim. After parallel sessions for
instrumentalists and singers everyone comes together again in the last session to join in
vocal ensembles. Meals and evening entertainment are included and taken together (except
on Wednesday which is a free afternoon).

KlezFest, Song School and Ot Azoy! will be held this year again at
West London Synagogue,
33 Seymour Place, London, W1,
and KlezFest and Song School will end with KlezFesters
invited to participate with their voices and instruments in a moving service welcoming the
Sabbath in the sanctuary and optional partaking of a meal with the community on Friday 18
August.

KlezFest London 2006 –Sunday 13-Friday 18 August

‘Dr Klez’ himself (AKA Joshua Horowitz – the renowned performer and scholar of klezmer
music of Budowitz and other fame), will be a principal guest at the JMI’s 6th annual
KlezFest London in 2006. Frank London, who created an outstanding programme last year with
the Klezmatics will again be the Programme Director and this time has invited Josh to
bring his new ensemble Veretski Pass to be the resident band.
This means that not only will we have Joshua Horowitz, an expert on button accordion and
tsimbl, but we will have the exciting fiddler Cookie Segelstein for the first time on the
violin faculty, and Stuart Brotman will be back dealing with bass instruments. Other
returnees are of course Deborah Strauss (fiddle), Jeff Warschauer (plucked strings),
Merlin Shepherd and Christian Dawid (clarinets), Sanne Moerike (accordion), Guy Schalom
(percussion), Ilana Cravitz (fiddle assistant) and Andreas Schmitges dance-leader assisted
by Helene Domergue. Also special to JMI KlezFest London is a contingent of outstanding
musicians and singers from the Former Soviet Union.

New to KlezFest London this year, in addition to the work with amateurs, is a special
strand for professional klezmer players. Professional bands will have a chance to perform
at KlezFest in the Park on the opening day, and in our showcase of Klezmer: The Next
Generation organised by Guy Schalom. Professionals will have special lectures and
hands-on workshop sessions as well as individual and ensemble masterclasses with Josh
Horowitz, Frank London and others on composition and ensemble arrangements. There will be
sessions on professional development with music industry leaders on how to make a demo and
get a record deal; how to get gigs, how to present yourselves on stage, how to manage
being a live performer and how to teach Klezmer.
Read what students at KlezFest and Jewish Song Summer School had to say about the
experience they had in 2005. See the pictures of KlezFest 2005 all at Website www.jmi.org.uk

Jewish Song School —Sunday 13-Friday 18 August
Alongside KlezFest, with joint classes with instrumentalists in dance and ensembles will
once more be the Jewish Song School. Here amateur and professional singers led by Shura
Lipovsky of Amsterdam explore the joys of Jewish song in many languages and styles, with
special emphasis on Yiddish song.. She will be assisted by Jacinta on Yiddish and
Sephardi songs. Polina Shepherd will be the accompanist and vocal ensemble director
assisted by Judith Silver.

Ot Azoy! Yiddish Crash Course –Sunday 6-Friday 11 August
KlezFest is preceded by Ot Azoy! (6-11 August). Ot Azoy’ means ‘This is the way’ and it
really is the way for beginners to advanced students to learn to read, write and speak
Yiddish quickly and easily in only one week in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Includes
intensive tuition and conversation sessions with expert tuition from Peysakh Fiszman of
New York, Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz of the Buber Institute in Brussels and Lily Kahn under
the Direction of Helen (Khayele) Beer of University College London. Learn Yiddish also
through song with exquisite Yiddish Singer Shura Lipovsky from Amsterdam and through
Yiddish films selected and introduced by Barry Davis of London. For complete beginners to
advanced students in four levels. Beginners will be taken through the Hebrew-Yiddish
alphabet (much easier than it looks), will learn some every-day vocabulary and a generous
helping of grammar, so that by the end of the week you will be able to string together
your first sentences in Yiddish! Intermediate and advanced Yiddish speakers will be given
more challenging texts and grammatical lessons and will get lots of opportunities to
converse in this extraordinary language. Who says Yiddish is Kaput? This will be the 5th
JMI Yiddish Crash course.
Details of fees and registration forms are now available: Full fees are £285; Students
£185. There is an early booking discount of £15 if booked by 15 April and paid in full by
31 May. Further discounts if attending with an ensemble and if booking for Ot Azoy! as
well as KlezFest or Song School. Some scholarships are available, to apply fill in a
registration form and send with deposit and letter describing the need for financial
assistance and the reason you want to do the courses. Book soon and have the benefit of
the early booking discount at www.jmi.org.uk

JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are part of the European Yiddish and
Klezmer Academy 2006 for the Transmission of the Yiddish cultural heritage. Four European
institutions in London, Paris, Weimar and Vilnius give you the chance to learn Yiddish
language and song and Klezmer music. This programme is supported by the Culture Program
2000 of the European Union. Participate in one course or in several. Some European
scholarships are available. See the website for details of each European Academy course:
http://www.yiddish-klezmer.net/

JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are also part of a World Music Summer
School organised by the Department of Music at SOAS University of London
www.soas.ac.uk/summermusic