Lectures

Front Page, Lectures

Jews, Music, and Modernity in Buenos Aires

Dr. Lillian Wohl, Post-Doctoral Fellow
The Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music will speak on Jewish music in Buenos Aires.

Thursday, March 8, 2018
4:00 PM PST/ 7:00 PM EST
UCLA Faculty Center
University of California, Los Angeles

Live-stream this event from anywhere in the world via the Jewish Music Forum Facebook Page!
Not on Facebook? Email us at info@jewishmusicforum.org to request a link to watch the event. 

Since 1994, “Jewish music” has emerged as an important yet ambiguous mode of cultural expression in Argentina, making audible Jewish history in Latin America and affirming a contemporary Jewish presence in the region. This lecture explores the intersection of practices of cultural renewal and the uses of memory as a Jewish musical resource in public and private spaces in Buenos Aires.…
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Front Page, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Graduate Seminar on Topics in Jewish Music at YIVO

Graduate Seminar on Topics in Jewish Music
Taught by Dr. Neil Levin, Visiting Professor-in-Residence

This eight session graduate seminar, YIVO’s first such seminar in music, will embrace an array of topics within the wider spectrum of Jewish Studies related to the music of Jewish experience or connection—secular-cultural as well as sacred-liturgical aspects—according to the interests and pursuits of the participants.

This seminar is open to graduate students within any department at all colleges, universities or conservatories. It is not restricted to those within music departments per se, but also open to those pursuing Jewish Studies in general—especially history, literature, theatre, liturgy, or other sub-fields of Jewish Studies—who may have special interest in related music in terms of context and interdisciplinary consideration.

With prior approval, undergraduate (college, university, or conservatory) students may also be permitted to participate—both those with an interest in a particular area of Jewishly-related music and those who may be pursuing related term papers or projects.…
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Books, Front Page, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

“Klezmer: Music, History & Memory”

walterzevfeldman

“Klezmer: Music, History & Memory” presented by

The Jewish Music Forum: A project of the American Society for Jewish Music

Walter Zev Feldman, Visiting Professor of Music, NYU Abu Dhabi

Discussants: James Loeffler, Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia and

Glenn Dynner, Professor of Religion, Sarah Lawrence College

Wednesday, December 14th at 7pm

at The Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street, NY

Emerging in 16th-century Prague, the klezmer became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish community of modern times. This talk and roundtable discussion celebrates the recent publication of Feldman’s book, Klezmer: Music, History and Memory (OUP, 2016), the first comprehensive study of both the musical structure and the social history of the klezmer.

Walter Zev Feldman is a leading researcher in both Ottoman Turkish and Jewish music, and a performer on the klezmer dulcimer cimbal (tsimbl).

…
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Front Page, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

“Israel in Three Anthems” Talk at Jewish Music Forum

michaelfigueroa

The Jewish Music Forum of The AmericanSociety for Jewish Music

“Israel in Three Anthems”

Michael A. Figueroa, Assistant Professor of Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Discussant: Brigid Cohen, Assistant Professor of Music, NYU

Monday, November 28th at 7pm. at the Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011. Tickets are free and all programs are open to the public. Please rsvp to: info@jewishmusicforum.org.

This talk discusses how three anthems—“Ha-Tikva,” “L’Internationale,” and “Yerushalayim shel Zahav”— have helped shaped Israeli society, analyzing these songs as performances of collectivity representing the multifaceted nature of Zionism and the shifting political landscape in Israel.

Michael A. Figueroa is an ethnomusicologist whose work resides at the intersection of music and political consciousness in Middle Eastern and African American contexts.

…
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Lectures, Uncategorized, WHERE: USA_NY

“Israel in Three Anthems” Lecture at CJH

Ha-Tikva, L’Internationale,
and Yerushalayim shel Zahav:

“Israel in Three Anthems”

A talk by Dr. Michael A. Figueroa, 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Discussant: Dr. Brigid Cohen, Assistant Professor of Music, New York University

Monday, November 28, 2016 at 7pm.
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10003

Admission is free. Please RSVP to info@jewishmusicforum.org

This presentation addresses three anthems that have helped shape Israeli society: “Ha-Tikva,” “L’Internationale,” and “Yerushalayim shel Zahav.” In light of three ideological facets represented by these songs—liberation, solidarity, and territoriality—Dr. Figueroa will discuss what constitutes an anthem in Jewish and Israeli history, theorizing a mode of performance he calls the “declamatory style,” in which vocal gestures that blur the distinction between speech and song portend the political value of musical performance.

…
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Books, Concerts, Klezmer, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Klezmer: Music, History and Memory Lecture & Music at NYPL

Klezmer: Music, History and Memory: Aesthetic and Cultural Dimensions
published by Oxford University Press, Fall 2016

Lecture and Musical program
Thursday, December 22 at 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Mid-Manhattan Library, New York Public Library (NYPL)

455 5th Ave, New York, New York 10016


A lecture and musical program with Dr. Walter Zev Feldman (author, cimbal) and Deborah Strauss (violin)

This event is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, and is generously sponsored by the Dorot Jewish Division in cooperation with Yiddish New York and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2016/12/22/klezmer-music-history-and-memory
From the NYPL announcement:

Emerging in 16th century Prague, the klezmer became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish community of modern times – the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe.…
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Lectures, Uncategorized, Yiddish or Folk

TALK | “Breath in a Ram’s Horn: The Jewish Spirit in Classical Music,” with Daniel Asia

Sunday, October 30, 2016 2-3:30pm

Yiddish Book Center 1021 West Street Amherst, MA 01002

http://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Calendar?id=7451&view=Detail

Composer, conductor, professor, and activist Daniel Asia talks about the origins of Yiddish song in Eastern European culture, its continuation on the American scene in the music of Yiddish composer Lazar Weiner, and its influence on Asia’s own award-winning music.

This event is free and open to the public.

Lectures

Yonatan Malin at Columbia Individual Voices and the Study of Jewish Cantillation

Talk by Dr. Yonatan Malin
Sponsored by the Jewish Music Forum
Friday, October 31, 2:00-4:00 P.M.
The Center for Ethnomusicology and Department of Music
Columbia University
Dodge Hall, Room 622

2960 Broadway
New York, NY
Admission is free; Please RSVP to info@jewishmusicforum.org

Reception to follow.

This paper is part of an ongoing project on the analysis of Jewish
cantillation in the Eastern Ashkenazic tradition. Jewish cantillation involves
the intoned reading of Biblical texts with melodies determined by accent
marks (te’amim) in printed Hebrew bibles. In other parts of the study, Malin
has explored aspects of the system broadly: how the melodies correlate with
and project text phrasing, and how they vary depending on the reading and
occasion.

For more information please visit http://www.jewishmusicforum.org/.…
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Lectures, Yiddish or Folk

Future of Yiddish Song event at YIVO

On Sunday, April 6th at 11 am at YIVO, join Klezmatics lead singer Lorin Sklamberg,
Professor Mark Slobin, and top archivists, scholars and performers of Yiddish music
for Passing the Torch: Jewish Music Archives and the Future of Yiddish Song. How can
Jewish music archives foster new performance and scholarship? This symposium
explores the folklorists and musicologists who collected Yiddish folk music, and the
role of music archives in stimulating new work today.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit
here< http://yivo.org/events/index.php?tid=202&aid=1253.

Lectures

Crossing the sea of song, Popular Music in the Mediterranean, from Italy to Israel

February 20, 2014 from 6:30pm to 9pm
Location: Italian Cultural Instituite
Street: 814 Montgomery Street
City/Town: San Francisco

Showing the impact of Italian popular music, and especially the Sanremo Song Festival (Festival della Canzone Italiana), on the development of Israeli popular song from the 1950s to the present, musicologist Francesco Spagnolo explores the politics of culture and national identity across the Mediterranean. The talk, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of Italy’s public television broadcasting, will be illustrated by numerous recordings and videos of Italian songs and their Hebrew adaptations. Francesco Spagnolo, PhD, is the Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and a Lecturer in the Department of Music at UC Berkeley.

This event is co-presented by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

‘Tailoring an Operetta to Its Audience’ Presentation at CJH

Dr. Michael Ochs, and noted scholar on Jewish music, Professor Mark Slobin
will present the talk, “Tailoring an Operetta to Its Audience:
Rumshinsky’s Di goldene kale (1923)” at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th
Street, NYC) on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 10:30 A.M., in what promises to be an
engaging discussion of the issues surrounding the re-construction and
arrangement of a Yiddish theater work.

Joseph Rumshinsky’s 1923 musical comedy, Di goldene kale (The Golden
Bride) was a work carefully designed to both move and entertain its specialized
American audience: Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe and
their families. With pathos (the basic ingredient), love, “Jewish-style”
music, a ritual kiddush, acts set in a shtetl and in America, a shadchen, a
lullaby that slips into Russian, assimilated Jews speaking broken Yiddish, a
paean to America, as well as other compelling features, it offered its
attendees a meaningful evening based on their past and present experiences.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

“A Prayer for Modernity: Cantor Abraham Baer (1834-1894) and the Jewish Reform Movement”

Monday, Oct. 29, 2012
1:45 p.m. – 3:05 p.m.
Hebrew Union College, Chapel
1 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10003
*Photo ID required for entry. Please RSVP to: info@jewishmusicforum.org
Associate Professor Anders Hammarlund, Center for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research

In 1877 Abraham Baer published his “Baal t’fillah oder der practische Vorbeter,” an epoch-making work in the history of Jewish liturgical music. Baer’s publication is considered the most comprehensive documentation of traditional, 19th-century European hazzanut. While his work is well known, astonishingly little has been published about Baer’s biography. My work sheds new light on the cantor’s early years in the German/Polish province Posen, and on his cultural environment in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he worked as cantor, shochet and mohel since 1857. I demonstrate that the very peculiar and specific cultural climate of the Swedish city considerably encouraged Baer in his strivings.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY, Yiddish or Folk

The Broder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish Theater

Miryem-Khaye Seigel, Librarian, Dorot Jewish Division, New York Public Library, presents
Broder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish Theater

Broder singers were the first Yiddish performers to present music and drama in a secular setting beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. This lecture will explore the Broder singers’ history, repertoire, and style, and their relationship to Yiddish theater.

JOSEPH KREMEN MEMORIAL LECTURE • MAX WEINREICH CENTER ACADEMIC LECTURE SERIES
Admission: Free
RSVP: www.yivo.org/reservations
Venue: YIVO Institute at the Center for Jewish History | 15 West 16th Street – NYC

Concerts, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Leo Zeitlin music at JMF in NYC

The Jewish Music Forum of the American Society of Jewish Music will present rare evening event, on Thursday, February 9th at 7 PM. Because these evenings have been so popular, you will need to make reservations to attend (see information below).

The topic is “The Music of Leo Zeitlin,” one of the composers of the St. Petersburg School from the early 20th Century. On this occasion the wonderful performers from YIVO’s Sidney Krum Young Artis Series will provide live music examples to accompany the talk, which will be given by Professor Paula Eisenstein Baker, with Dr. Michael Steinlauf at respondent.

Joining the Krum Young Artists will be Cantors Robert Abelson, Maria Dubinsky, and Martha Novick. The evening session will be held at the YIVO Institute at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, NYC), and will be taped for later broadcast on the web.…
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Lectures

Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry

Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry, a presentation about the unsung hero of the recording industry will be given at the Library of Congress.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

THE HEBRAIC SECTION OF THE
AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN DIVISION;
AND THE MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING AND RECORDED SOUND DIVISION
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
in honor of
JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Sam Brylawski,
Former head of the Recorded Sound Section and Editor of the UCSB Victor Records Discography
and Karen Lund, Digital Project Coordinator, the Music Division and Developer of the LC Emile Berliner Website, will speak on the subject of an unsung hero of recorded sound:
Free and Open to the Public
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
African & Middle Eastern Division Reading Room
Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ 220
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.…
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Lectures

Michael Isaacson lecture in NY at the Village Temple

Thursday, April 28 · 7:30pm – 10:30pm
The Village Temple
33 E. 12th St.
New York, NY

“Understanding the Power of Midrashic Synagogue Music”
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT: http://bentisser.com/store/isaacson.htm

In a rare one-time appearance on the East Coast, noted Los Angeles synagogue composer, conductor, and music director Dr. Michael Isaacson will speak about looking and listening to Jewish music in a new way; one that enables the Hazzan and the Rabbi to select and program music that has more meaning and g…reater emotional impact for their congregations. This is a talk that will be life transforming for you and will only happen here in New York on Thursday evening, April 28th, 2011

Those in attendance will also receive a 20% discount on Isaacson’s profound book and accompanying double CD set “Jewish Music as Midrash: What Makes Music Jewish?” (To order your copy of the book in advance, email Dr.…
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Conferences, Klezmer, Lectures, WHERE: Canada

Klezmer Conference at University of Montreal

Henri Oppenheimer will be leading a conference on klezmer music
.
at University of Montreal at 7:30
3200, Rue Jean-Brillant, Montreal
The event occus this Monday, March 21 2011.
.

.
This conference is designed for non-specialists, and covers some basic elements of the history of Jews in Europe, an overview of the different instruments, different origins of the repertoire, discussion about what makes the “Jewish sound” (and, ‘is there a “Jewish sound”?), a segment about “klezmer orchestration”. There will also be a review of main bands and artists in the world. Since some members of the group Magillah will attend, there will probably be a few pieces at the end.

For information contact Henri Oppenheim
(514) 272-8635 in Canada.
http://www.magillah.com
http://www.kleztory.com
http://www.myspace.com/henrioppenheim

Lectures

Jim Loeffler speaking at Jewish Music Forum

On Thursday, March 24th at 7 PM, in conjunction with YIVO, the Jewish Music Forum will present The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire, the title of a fascinating new book by Dr. James Loeffler, the Founder and first Executive Director of ASJM’s Jewish Music Forum.

Quoting from the book jacket below gives you additional details about this wonderful evening which will have live musical examples. Providing these music examples for Dr. Loffler’s talk, we are very grateful to have performers from YIVO’s Krum Young Artist Series. A reception and book singing will follow:

“No image of pre-revolutionary Russian Jewish life is more iconic than the fiddler on the roof. But in the half century before 1917, Jewish musicians were actually descending from their shtetl roofs and streaming in dazzling numbers to Russia’s new classical conservatories.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

JMF Presents “Robert Lachmann’s Oriental Music Archive in Mandatory Palestine”

The next event of The Jewish Music Forum 2010-2011 Season will be
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011
at Center for Jewish History, New York, NY,
Dr. Ruth Davis will present a lecture
entitled “Robert Lachmann’s Oriental Music Archive in Mandatory Palestine.”
The Jewish Music Forum, now in its seventh season, is a project of
The American Society for Jewish Music, with support from The
American Jewish Historical Society.
Please visit our
website at www.jewishmusicforum.org.

Event details are as follows:

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
4:00 P.M.
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
Chapel

All events are FREE and open to the public.

Lectures

Wolpe Lectures from Jewish Music Forum

March 26, 2010
10:30 A.M.
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street

New York, NY

All events are FREE and open to the public.

Friday, March 26, 2010, at the Center for Jewish History,
Dr. Brigid Cohen will present a lecture entitled “‘In a Land
Large as an Apple Tree’: Wolpe’s Avant-Garde Music, Pedagogy, and
Pacifist Zionism in 1930’s Palestine” and Prof. Michael Beckerman
of NYU will contribute a written response.

The Jewish Music Forum, now in its sixth season, is a project of
The American Society for Jewish Music, with support from The
American Jewish Historical Society. Please visit our
website at www.jewishmusicforum.org.

Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Sacred and Secular Music Texts in Modern Times

Friday March 5 2010
9:30 A.M. to noon.

We invite you to join us at our next Jewish Music Forum event, which will
be held on March 5, 2010, at Center for Jewish History. Prof. Mark Slobin of
Wesleyan University and Dr. Mark Kligman of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion will present a lecture entitled “Sacred and Secular Music
Texts in Modern Times.” We wish to extend a special thank you to our
co-sponsors for this event, the Working Group on the Jewish Book at Center for
Jewish History. The entire 2009-2010 Jewish Music Forum is a project of the
American Society for Jewish Music, an affiliate of the the American Jewish
Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History.

“Sacred and Secular Music Texts in Modern Times”

With Professor Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University and Dr.…
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Lectures

A Cultural Journey Through Jewish India

Scholar’s Shabbat:
A Cultural Journey Through Jewish India
with Rahel Musleah

Tikvat Israel Congregation
2200 Baltimore Road
Rockville, MD 20851

December 4-5, 2009
Please note deadline for reservations
Friday, Dec. 4
6 p.m. Kabbalat Shabbat
Dinner (reservations required)
8 p.m. Lecture: “Jewish Calcutta Through Music and Memory”
(free, open to the community)

Saturday, Dec. 5 (Parshat Vayishlach)
9:30 a.m. Shacharit: Rahel will be chanting Torah and Haftorah in the
Sephardic
style and will discuss differences in the liturgy.
Lecture: “A Taste of Shabbat, Calcutta Style”
12:15 p.m. Dessert kiddush and Q&A with Rahel, followed immediately by
mincha
6 p.m. Ma’ariv and havdalah
6:30 p.m. A Taste of India: Vegetarian Dairy Indian Repast (reservations
required)
8 p.m. Melave Malka: “Masala: A Bazaar of Spice, Song and Story”
(free, open to the community)

Shabbat Dinner: $18 adults/$8 students
A Taste of India: $10 adults/$5 students (Adults registered for both meals,
$25)
RSVP: AdultEd@tikvatisrael.org or call the synagogue office at 301-762-7338
by Nov.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NewEngland

New Muslim Cool

Thursday, December 10, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Hebrew College, Berenson Hall
$10 advance registration; $15 general admission, free for students with valid ID
The School of Jewish Music presents
A Jewish Music Forum
Music of a Nation, Music of a People:
Is Israeli Art-Music Jewish?
Ronit Seter
Respondant: Klára Móricz
Co-sponsored by the Jewish Music Forum of the American Society for Jewish Music

For information, please contact Renée Tepper, rtepper@hebrewcollege.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; 617-559-8622.

What defines a particular genre of music as the voice of a people? of a nation? And what if the two are intrinsically intertwined? For the founders of Israeli art music—Paul Ben-Haim, Alexander Boskovich, Oedoen Partos, Mordecai Seter and Josef Tal—the goal was to separate people and nation, to create a national “style” of music that was unique to Israel, rather than identified with Jewish music of the Diaspora.…
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Lectures

Dubrow Talk on Lazar Weiner at Milstein Conference in NYC

MILSTEIN CONFERENCE ON NEW YORK AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009, 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM. ADVANCE REGISTRATION
REQUIRED:
MILSTEINCONFERENCE@YIVO.CJH.ORG or 212-294-6157

One day public conference celebrating history of Jewish life in New
York, achievements of Jewish communal organizations, treasures of Jewish
archives. Conference marks culmination of 3 years of work on the
Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project. Morning Sessions
feature presentation on Jewish organizational archives and a roundtable
discussion by Jewish agency leaders, Afternoon focuses on papers by
scholars on a wide range of political, social and cultural issues and
the evening session features a discussion by New York area archivists
to discuss the rich resources found in New York and how to preserve them
for the future. Funded by the Milstein Family Foundation and the
Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation.…
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Lectures

One Day Seminar on the Jews of India

Wednesday, October 14
Travel U: One Day Seminar on the Jews of India
Jewish Museum, Manhattan
10:30am to 5:30pm
Five scholars will present the Jewish history, art, culture and communities
of India.
Rabbi Marvin Tokayer,
“In Search of the Unknown Jewish Experience in India”

Dr. Susan Braunstein, Curator
“The Jewish Museum’s collection of Indian Art”

Rahel Musleah
“Jewish Indian Music performance and The Jews of Calcutta”

Dr. Ken Robbins
“The Jews of Kerala” (including Pardesi Synagogue and Judaica)

Stephen Richter, Street Photographer
“India through its People Photographic Lecture”

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer
“Fascinating Heroes of Cochin”

Dr. Aryeh Maidenbaum
Jewish Museum Travel Representative

Indian Dance Performance Sponsored by Tourism India, plus traditional Indian
Henna Painting
Registration
Members: $110 by October 1, $135 at the door
Non-members: $135
Participants in the Museum’s upcoming India travel program may enjoy
complimentary admission.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Multi-Ethnic Music Cultures of Moldova

The Center for Jewish History and
Center for Traditional Music and Dance present:
Monday, September 21 at 7:00pm
“The Multi-Ethnic Music Cultures of Moldova”
The An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture Series
Curated by Walter Zev Feldman, Ph.D.
New York University / Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem

Lecture: Walter Zev Feldman discusses the cultural history of
this area of ethnic transformation and his recent expedition
which discovered musicians of mixed ancestry still
performing traditional Jewish music in his father’s hometown
of Edinets. A reception will follow the event.

Admission:
$15 general, $10 CJH, CTMD members

Major support for the Center for Traditional Music and
Dance’s An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture was provided by
the Keller-Shatanoff Foundation. Support was also provided
by the Atran Foundation and public funds from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the
Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Maqam and Tefilah: The Liturgical Music of Syrian Jews

Prof. Mark Kligman will present
A Lecture sponsored by Magen Savid of Union Square and the Center for Sephardic Heritage
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Magen David of Union Square
3 West 16th Street, btw 5th and 6th Aves
New York, NY
Contact Info Email/RSVP: magendavidny@gmail.com
Admission: $5 (Free for students with ID)

Copies of Professor Kligman’s recently published book Maqam and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn will be available for sale at the event.

Concerts, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NewEngland

Art of Jewish Music, à la Russe

Event: The Art of Jewish Music, à la Russe:
A Centennial Celebration of the Society for Jewish Folk Music
Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Price: General Admission, $15; Students, $10
Location: Hebrew College, Berenson Hall, 160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA

Klára Móricz, Valentine Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College, explores the Russian origins of Jewish music as a serious art form and the relationship of this body of work to emerging 20th century Jewish nationalism and modernism. Musical illustrations performed by pianist Edwin Swanborn, tenor Elias Rosemberg and soprano
Lynn Torgrove.

Details and online registration at hebrewcollege.edu/events.

Lectures

Jewish Music Forum Speaker Hasia Diner

The Jewish Music Forum
will host the next lecture in the 2008-2009 series:
December 12, 2008
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
“Engaging Ethnography and Institutionalization in Jewish Music.”
This event is sponsored by the American
Society for Jewish Music and the American Jewish Historical
Society. All events are free and open to the public.

“American Jews, Music and the Memory of the Holocaust: 1945-1962”

Professor Hasia Diner, New York University
Respondent: Cantor Bruce Ruben, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion
Center for Jewish History / Kovno Room
15 W. 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves., north side of the street)
New York, NY 10011

Lectures, WHERE: USA_NewEngland

Like Wildflowers, Suddenly

Like Wildflowers, Suddenly
On Creating a Musical Tribute to Israel
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Hebrew College, Berenson Hall
$15 at the door
To register, Click here.
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001z-i2hewoZZ4kH5pX6sFnA5HpW2HGgKjmAwkahGFwtMFL8FxyaSflvZgrSkcU45O6U6LrOBL-PrYyIHpo7bahAWnVAtOem1Ax5I0CH1jWx1o5v-p9u3WPIJw_vlzuS–InLGL2Qe662KYOrTwuBwFZ2yrDtm5sdp6-IAdTmuKupY=

Cantor Charles Osborne
Cantor Aryeh Finklestein
Dr. Joshua Jacobson and the Zamir Chorale of Boston

Let it come
like wildflowers,
suddenly, because the field
must have it: wildpeace

So ends the poem “Wild Peace” by Yehuda Amichai. Those words were the starting point
for composer Charles Osborne and librettist Aryeh Finklestein as they set out to
create a musical tribute for Israel’s 60th birthday. The result is Like Wildflowers,
Suddenly, an oratorio encompassing three stages of Jewish history-biblical, the
diaspora and the modern Jewish state of Israel.

In this special lecture-concert leading up to the composition’s world premiere with
the Zamir Chorale of Boston on June 1 at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., Osborne
and Finklestein will be joined by the Zamir Chorale and founding director Joshua
Jacobson to explore the inspiration for their work and the process of musical
creation.…
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Lectures

TREASURES OF THE YIVO SOUND ARCHIVES

TREASURES OF THE YIVO SOUND ARCHIVES
Instructor: Lorin Sklamberg
(Max and Frieda Weinstein Archives of Sound Recordings)
A fascinating survey of YIVO¹s audio holdings. Examples will include rare
commercial and private audio and video recordings of Yiddish folk, theater
and art songs, cantorial and klezmer music.
Class conducted in English.

3 Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30 P.M.
March 19-26, April 2
Tuition: $90 / $75 (YIVO members)

CLASSES ARE HELD AT YIVO:
Entrance at 15 West 16 Street (bet. 5th & 6th Aves.)

For further information and to register, please leave your name and contact
information at 212-294-6139.

Conferences, Lectures

“Beyond Boundaries: Music and Israel @ 60”

Beyond Boundaries Poster Image“Beyond Boundaries: Music and Israel @ 60” looks at the Present-Day Complexities of Israeli Music

View Beyond Boundaries Brochure
On Friday, March 28, “Beyond Boundaries: Music and Israel @ 60,” a symposium of the Center for Jewish Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, will explore the complex diversity of musical styles, cultures, religions and ethnicities that is Israel today. The daylong event will present papers, discussions, and musical performances from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM in the Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall on the first floor of the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street).

In the morning, three speakers will present papers on a variety of topics significant to our understanding of the present-day climate for music in Israel. In the afternoon, from 1 to 3 P.M., there will be a concert by two performance groups: the renowned contemporary New York-based chamber ensemble Continuum, with a program of Israeli art music with pieces by Tzvi Avni, Betty Olivero, and Benjamin Yusupov; and Galeet Dardashti’s all-woman band Divahn, with a program of ethnic and popular Mizrahi music.…
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Lectures

Treasures of the YIVO Sound Archives

Treasures of the YIVO Sound Archives
With Lorin Sklamberg (Max and Frieda Weinstein Archives of Sound Recordings)

A fascinating survey of YIVO’s audio holdings. Examples will include rare commercial
and private audio and video recordings of Yiddish folk, theater and art songs, cantorial
and klezmer music.

Wednesdays, March 19-26 and April 2, 2008, 7:00-8:30 PM

$90 ($75 for YIVO members)

Festivals, Lectures, WHERE: USA_Mid-Atlantic

Italian Jewish Music in Montclair

Montclair State University, in Montclair New Jersey, will host a
semester-long Italian Festival of the Arts and Humanities, which will include a few
events of Jewish music.

April 1:
Lecture: Jewish Musical Activity in Northern Italy
Lydia Cevidalli and Simonetta Heger, Milan Verdi Conservatory
* Tuesday April 1, 2008
* 8:30 am
Location: University Hall, Room 1010

Featuring visiting scholars Lydia Cevidalli, chamber and orchestral performer and violin professor at the Milan Verdi Conservatory; and Simonetta Heger, soloist and piano and harpsichord professor at the Milan Verdi Conservatory. Part of the Italian Festival of the Arts and Humanities, “An Italian Sense of Place.”

April 3
Concert: The Splendor of Italian Music under the Star of David
featuring the Ensemble Salomone Rossi and guests
* Thursday April 3, 2008
* 7:30 pm
Location: Alexander Kasser Theater
Cost: Call the Box Offce
RSVP: 973-655-5112

April 8:
Lecture: Between Ghetto and Emancipation- Musical Traditions of Italian Jews
Francesco Spagnolo, music curator and author
* Tuesday April 8, 2008
* 1:00 pm
Location: University Hall, Room 1040
Featuring Francesco Spagnolo, music curator and lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz.…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_South

John Zorn and the Future of Jewish Music Lecture

The Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University’s S.E. Wimberly
Library on the Boca Raton campus, invites you to join librarian Daniel
Scheide, who will present a lecture titled “John Zorn and the Future of
Jewish Music,” on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 from 7 to 8 p.m.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 29, 2007, from 7 to 8 p.m.

WHERE: Paul C. Wimbish Wing of the S.E. Wimberly Library
Mildred & Abner Levine and Ruth & Saul Weinberger Jewish Life Center
Hillel Golden Pavilion
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431

COST:*Free and open to the public
CONTACT: Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries at 561-297-0080

Lectures

“The Media and the Messenger: Transforming the Cantor’s Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Jeffrey Shandler
March 9th
“The Media and the Messenger: Transforming the Cantor’s Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ”
Location: The Center for Jewish History
15 W. 16th St. New York City
Date: Friday, March 9, 2007
Time: 10:30 AM to Noon

Admission: This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society
and the American Society for Jewish Music
The Jewish Music Forum lecture series continues, with an
investigation of the cantor’s life, art, and spirituality as narrated
through various modes of communication:
“The Media and the Messenger: Transforming the Cantor’s
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Presented by:
Dr. Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University
Respondents: Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York
University, and Dr. Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University
Co-sponsor: Working Group on Jews/Media/Religion
at the Center for Religion and Media, New York University…
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Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

‘Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish’ at National Arts Club

Monday, December 18, 2006 at 8 PM
National Arts Club
15 Gramercy Park South (at 20th St. between Park Avenue & Irving
Place), New York City
Free event.

Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish
Slide Lecture, Musical Performance & Booksigning
In his latest book, Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish, composer and
author, Jack Gottlieb chronicles how Jewish songwriters and composers
transformed American popular music of the mid-twentieth-century. Dr.
Gottlieb will play piano and show vintage images as he illustrates
the connection, citing instances where Yiddish songs and cantorial
music were adapted by Jewish songwriters as they penned tunes for Tin
Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood. The book (which includes a CD)
will be available at NAC member discount. A reception will follow.

Concerts, Lectures, WHERE: USA_Mid-Atlantic

American Democracy Inspires Jewish Music

Meira Warshauer Look to the Light will be performed on November 12 at Princeton University as part of American Democracy Inspires Jewish Music and Poetry Program

Meira Warshauer’s Look to the Light for SATB and piano, with text by
Rabbi Dan Grossman will be performed by Sharim V’Sharot, central New
Jersey’s select Jewish choir, Elayne Robinson Grossman, Music Director,
as part of their “American Democracy Inspires Jewish Music and Poetry”
program on Sunday, November 12 – 1:00 PM in Frist Hall on the campus of
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. Look to the Light portrays
Chanukah themes of light and freedom through the lens of American
experience, with references to George Washington and Billings, Montana.

This program is free and open to the public, however reservations are
required.…
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Conferences, Lectures, WHERE: USA_MidWest

Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska offers Jewish Music Symposium

A two-day academic symposium called “‘I Will Sing and Make Music’: Jewish Music and Musicians Throughout the Ages” will be held October 29-30, 2006. It is The Nineteenth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium being held in Omaha Nebraska. This year’s theme on Jewish music has as keynote speaker Josh Jacobson of Northeastern University. http://puffin.creighton.edu/klutznick/
Presenters include:

Theodore Albrecht
Kent State University
“Beethoven’s Quotation of Kol Nidrei? A Circumstantial Case for Sherlock Holmes”

Paul Eisenstein Baker
University of St. Thomas (Houston)
“Leo Zeitlin and the Early Twentieth Century Society for Jewish Folk Music”

Emily A. Bell
University of Florida
“Revitalizing the Synagogue Ritual: Cantor David Putterman’s Annual Service of New Music at New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue”

Dan W. Clanton, Jr.
University of Denver
“‘From Biblical Times to Lyrical Rhymes’: The Assertion of Jewish Identity in Music as Cultural Resistance”

Marsha Bryan Edelman
Gratz College
“What Do You Mean, ‘It Doesn’t Sound Jewish?’: Debunking Myths and Defining Models for Extra-Liturgical Music”

Anat Feinberg
College of Jewish Studies Heidelberg
“To Play or Not to Play: Jewish Musicians in Germany After 1945”

Susan M.…
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Concerts, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

JEWISH CABARET IN EXILE, SONGS OF MODERNITY

YIVO Presents: JEWISH CABARET IN EXILE, SONGS OF MODERNITY
by the New Budapest Orpheum Society
Thursday, September 14, 7 pm
VENUE: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West
16th Street
TICKETS: $20/$10 students – Box Office: 917-606-8200/www.ticketweb.com

Experience the musical tradition of the European Jewish cabaret. The NBOS, an
eight-member ensemble, revives hauntingly beautiful songs from these troupes and
from composers and lyricists in exile. The performance will mix skits, comedy, and
songs in German, Hebrew, Yiddish and English with scholarly commentary.

Pre-concert talk (free to ticket holders): 6:15-6:45 p.m., “Jewish Cabaret: The
Stories Behind the Stereotypes” Philip Bohlman, Artistic Director, New Budapest
Orpheum Society; Mary Werkman, Professor of the Humanities and of Music, University
of Chicago
For more information http://www.yivo.org/events/index.php?tid=139&aid=355 …
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Lectures

Joel E. Rubin Presents at CJH

The Vladimir and Pearl Heifetz and Joseph Kremen Memorial Lecture
“More Famous than the Beatles: Klezmorim as Negotiators of Change in 19th and 20th century Poland”
Dr. Joel E. Rubin, Syracuse University
May 30, 2006 at 7:00pm
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16 Street
New York, NY 10011
Kovno Room
Please contact the CJH Theater Box Office
phone: (917) 606-8200
email: boxoffice@cjh.org

Classical or Jewish art music, Concerts, Lectures, WHERE: Europe

A Sunday with Mieczyslaw Weinberg: program in Paris

Sunday, January 22nd 2006, 3pm
“A Sunday with Mieczyslaw Weinberg”
Concert programme: Sonate No 4 op.56, Sonatine op.46 for violin and piano, Chants juifs op.13, String Quartett No 8, Notturno
Round table: Weinberg, a musician to discover
With Olia Weinberg, Frans Lemaire (musicologist), Reinhard Flender (editor)
Further Information:
L’Assocation internationale Dimitri Chostakovitch www.devinci.fr/chostakovitch
Le Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme Paris www.mahj.org

Concerts, Lectures

Diversity and Unity: North African Musical Traditions at CUNY

An upcoming engagement of ASEFA on Feb. 8, 2006 in NYC– “Diversity and
Unity: North African Musical Traditions”
Samuel Thomas with Yoel Ben-Simhon and Dudu Bohbot as Asefa, present a performance/
presentation on the music of the Maghrebi at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Segal Theater, 6:30pm
365 Fifth Ave, NYC
$10 donation at door
This event is co-sponsored
by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, the Center for
Jewish Studies, and the Ph.D Program in Ethnomusicology. See flyer for more details
http://www.jatm.org/files/Asefa_020806.pdf
http://www.jatm.org/ASEFA

Klezmer, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

Jewish Music Forum features Dr. Hankus Netsky in September

The Jewish Music Forum is very pleased to introduce the 2005-2006 schedule of our academic seminar series, “New Perspectives on Music in Jewish Life.”
The first speaker will be Dr. Hankus Netsky of the New England Conservatory of Music. On Friday, September 23 at 10 A.M.
at the Center for Jewish History, Dr. Netsky will deliver a lecture, “The Philadelphia Russian Sher Medley: Viewing the Immigrant Experience through a Musical Text.” Dr. Mark Slobin of Wesleyan University will serve as respondent to this talk. All sessions of the Jewish Music Forum take place on Friday mornings,
beginning at 10:00 AM at the Center for Jewish History. For additional information, please contact James Loeffler at 212-294-8328 or jloeffler@jewishmusicforum.org.

Lectures

Prof. Martin Schwartz speaks at SOAS in London

Professor Martin Schwartz of the University of California will speak on the topic of “THE LARGE SHARED REPERTORY OF GREEK AND KLEZMER / YIDDISH VERNACULAR MUSICS”

PLACE: Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG
ADMISSION: Admission free. Open to all interested parties. A collection will be taken.
RESERVATIONS: All places must be reserved in advance. Please e-mail
ed.emery@britishlibrary.net.

Lectures

“Between Wissenschaft and Etnografiia” for ASJM in NYC

James Loeffler, “Between Wissenschaft and Etnografiia”, NYC, May 13

American Society for Jewish Music
Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011
May 13
James Loeffler, Columbia University, “Between Wissenschaft and Etnografiia: The Search for a Jewish Musical Science in Eurasia, Past and Present”
Guest chair and respondent: Dr. Ludmila Sholokhova, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

All sessions will take place on Friday mornings, beginning at 10:00 AM at the Center for Jewish History. Please RSVP via e-mail to the American Society for Jewish Music or call 212-294-8328. For additional information, please see www.jewishmusic-asjm.org.

Lectures, Sephardic, Ladino or Mizrachi, WHERE: USA_NY

The Jewish Music Forum and The Center for Jewish History Lecture

The Jewish Music Forum and The Center for Jewish History
are pleased to present

Professor Mark Kligman
(Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion)

Friday, April 8, 10 AM
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street

“Beyond Yiddishland: New Studies from the Jewish Musical Mediterranean”

The music of Sephardi Jewish communities is a diverse and complex
cultural phenomenon. Spanning the Mediterranean from the Western
Sephardic communities of Spain and Portugal to North Africa, the Ottoman
Empire and the Levant, the Sephardi world encompasses a vast geographic,
cultural and linguistic space. This presentation will offer a broad
overview of the development of academic scholarship on Western and
Middle Eastern Sephardi musical traditions. Using extensive audio
examples, Professor Kligman will demonstrate the stylistic and cultural
diversity across Mediterranean Jewish communities, past and present.…
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Lectures

Brecht Forum at Westbeth NYC

On Wednesday, Mar. 2, at 7:30pm, the Brecht Forum at Westbeth (451 West St., corner of Bank St.) in Manhattan will be celebrating the 100th birthday of the man who made Brecht & Weill household words in America: Marc Blitzstein, a seminal figure in American music, theatre, and opera, best known for his translation/adaptation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, as well as his own Broadway operas THE CRADLE WILL ROCK and REGINA, and the unfinished TALES OF MALAMUD and SACCO AND VANZETTI. In January 1936, Blitzstein played his song about a prostitute, “The Nickel Under the Foot” at a party for Brecht, who then suggested that it be expanded to show how under capitalism everyone sells out. That became THE CRADLE WILL ROCK. A tape recording, discovered in the archives only last summer, of Blitzstein playing and singing that song will be played in public for the first time at the symposium.…
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Lectures

New Jewish Music Forum

The American Society for Jewish Music has launched the New Jewish Music Forum. Speaking in New York at the Center for Jewish History last Friday on Feb. 11 was Edwin Seroussi, Head of the Jewish Music Research Center located at Hebrew University in Jersualem. Seroussi, who spoke on “Studying Jewish Music in Israel: Achievements, Failures and Challenges for the Future,” also has a recently released book called “Popular Music and National Culture in Israel.” Seroussi’s talk centered on both the historic and political as well as artistic influences that shaped the course of Israeli music. Mark Kligman of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion moderated. His respondent at the forum was Professor Stephen Blum, City University of New York. Professor Seroussi is also the Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.…
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Lectures

Yiddishist Caraid O’Brien, NYC, Feb 9

Wednesday, February 9th, 4:30pm
Congregation Shaare Zedek
212 W. 93 St. (E. of Broadway)
NYC
Further info: (212) 724-6388
Acclaimed Yiddishist CARAID O’BRIEN will appear at the Westside Yiddish Cultural School, located in the basement of Congregation Shaare Zedek. Ms. O’Brien will relate her experiences growing up in an Irish-American family in Boston, her serendipitous discovery of Yiddish, and her career dedicated to the Yiddish language as a Yiddishist, actress and writer (as profiled in the NEW YORK TIMES). This event is free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come basis.

Lectures, Theater, WHERE: Great Britain

‘The Whitechapel Windmill’ and A Seminar on Jewish Boxers of London’s East End

Tuesday 29 March 2005
A Seminar on Jewish Boxers of London’s East End
And excerpts from a brand new opera
‘The Whitechapel Windmill’
by Howard Frederics
The opera deals with the life of the famous Jewish boxer from the East End Jack ‘Kid’ Berg
(born Judah Bergman) covering aspects of his fascinating life. and 2 lectures on the
history of Jewish boxing in Britain.
7.30pm Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Square, London WC1
e-mail blooms.theatre@ucl.ac.uk 020 7388 8822
details from Clive Bettington 07941 367 882 c.bettington@jeecs.org.uk
supported by the Kessler Foundation. The Jewish Institute (University College London),
Kingston University
and is part of the International Forum for Yiddish Culture project supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund.

Classical or Jewish art music, Lectures, WHERE: USA_NY

New Jewish Music Forum

The Jewish Music Forum, a new initiative of the American Society for Jewish
Music, an affiliate of the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center
for Jewish History, is pleased to announce its inaugural academic seminar
series. This ongoing seminar will feature leading scholars presenting new
research findings and theoretical contributions to the academic study of
Jewish music. All events are free and open to the public.

Jewish Music Forum
Spring 2005 Academic Seminar
“The Study of Music in Jewish Life”

January 28
Professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music at
Harvard University, Inaugural Lecture, “Memory and History in Jewish Music”

February 11
Professor Edwin Seroussi, Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, “Studying Jewish Music in Israel:
Achievements, Failures and Challenges for the Future”
Guest chair and respondent: Professor Stephen Blum, City University of New
York

March 11
Professor Judah M.…
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Archive & Library News, Lectures

Jack Gottlieb on LOC site

Jack Gottlieb wrote the book, “Funny, It Doesn?t Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood.? At http://www.loc.gov/locvideo/gottlieb/, you can see and hear a talk he gave on September 20 at the Library of Congress. He plays and sings examples of American music, Hebrew prayer melodies, and music from the Jewish theater, to illustrate his thesis that they are not coincidentally similar.