David Chevan on Radio

David Chevan of the Afro-Semitic Experience will be giving two radio interviews that can also be heard via the internet. The first interview will be on WPKN 89.5 FM in Bridgeport at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 9 on Phil Bowler's Jazz Explorations show. The second interview will be on WLIU 88.3 in Southampton, Long Island, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. the next morning on Thursday, June 10, 2004.

Kavehoyz in NYC features Rantz and Siegel

Thursday, June 10, at 700 PM. Admission 5.00 includes kosher coffee and pastry. Kavehoyz featuring the folksingers Nitsa Rantz and Miriam Siegel. Nitsa Rants was born in Poland in the 1920s and has been singing at Yiddish cultural gatherings for many years. Miriam Siegel is a younger Yiddish folksinger who specializes in rarely sung Yiddish folk gems. Concert sponsored by the Congress for Jewish Culture, 25 E. 21st NYC. between Park and Broadway, in Manhattan. info: 212-505-8040

Metropolitan Klezmer FREE at Museum Mile Festival

New York City. Tuesday, June 8 at The Jewish Museum, for Museum Mile Festival, Metropolitan Klezmer will perform. This year is the JM's centennial, with a special presentation from the mayor's office to begin the festival at The Jewish Museum. 92nd St @ Fifth Avenue, 5:45pm til 9pm... all museums free! Fifth Ave becomes a pedestrian mall for the evening. In case of inclement weather, the band moves into the auditorium. Info: 212.423.3200

NEW COMPOSITIONS SWAMP INAUGURAL FESTIVAL INVITATION by SHALSHELET

169 SUBMISSIONS FROM 5 COUNTRIES AND 19 U.S. STATES THRILL SHALSHELET BOARD One year ago, the Chevy Chase, Maryland-based organization devoted to finding and sharing new Jewish liturgical music didn?t even exist. Today, it is relishing the task of selecting the best from among 169 pieces of music written by composers from 5 countries and 19 U.S. states.

?We are absolutely thrilled,? said Dr. Norma Brooks, vice president of Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music. ?A festival highlighting new music for congregational singing was just an idea, a dream. Where would the music come from? How would composers find us? Well, they did, in a very big way,? she said, pointing to a three-inch-thick stack of submitted sheet music and the four accompanying review CDs.

?I am in awe, overwhelmed with delight,? said Hazzan Dr. Ram󮠔asat, Shalshelet?s president, as he contemplated the number of submissions that must be reviewed in order to select the dozen or so that will be performed at the inaugural festival in November. ?That so many people sent us music after only a few months of Shalshelet?s existence is nothing short of amazing. It is a testament to the contribution Shalshelet can make,? he added. ?Liturgical music is being written everywhere, by all kinds of people, and we needed a way to discover and share it. We have undoubtedly found a way.?

Shalshelet seeks to foster new music for Jewish congregational use and to expose wider audiences to innovations in Jewish religious music. It was incorporated on May 29, 2003, and sponsored a preview concert just days later. Through an annual Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music and accompanying festival CD and songbook, Shalshelet will enable composers to share their music. Its inaugural festival will be held on November 13?14, 2004, at Temple Shalom, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Shalshelet's website, www.shalshelet.org, contains more information about the organization and the submission process. The volunteer-run Shalshelet received its tax-exempt status from the IRS in December, and fundraising is underway.

?We are seeking financial support,? said Tasat, citing the expense and labor required to manage the submissions process, prepare the music for performances and recording, conduct the festival, and produce songbooks and CDs. Launched with the support from board members, friends, and family, Shalshelet received its first institutional grant from the Rita Poretsky Foundation. Tasat hopes more funding partners will follow. ?If your readers want to help, we need and would warmly welcome it,? said Tasat. Donations can be mailed to Shalshelet, P.O. Box 15836, Chevy Chase, MD 20825.

Voices for Israel CD and Video

Voices For Israel: Chazak Amenu double CD/video has been released. Proceeds go to relieve the victims of terror in Israel. The CD contains the Solidarity Anthem, "CHAZAK AMENU: WE STAND AS ONE" and "SHIR LISMOACH (MALKI'S SONG)," written by Malki Roth, an Israeli teenager who was killed in the Jerusalem Sbarro suicide bombing. OVER 50 JEWISH MUSIC ARTISTS are on the album singing on behalf of Israel. In the video you will recognize the faces of Jews from the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox branches of Judaism. The album contains more than 30 SONGS on the themes of Israel, Jewish unity, and the enduring hope for peace with arrangements by "Yehuda!" This is truly a solidarity effort. To get information to order the recordings, http://www.voicesforisrael.org/. This recording, and its charitable effort, is endorsed by JMWC.

Shpatzirin

Shpatzirin is a new organization in NYC devoted to new Jewish music. It's created a series of events raising awareness of Jewish culture and the avante garde. Thursday, June 10th @ 7:00PM - "Hip-Hip Machers" Roosevelt Park-Hester St. between Chrystie St. & Forsyth St. - B/D to Grand; or 6 to Canal; or J/Z to Bowery Performances by Akil Dasan and Vanessa Hidary, followed by a screening of Joey Garfield's "Breath Control: A History of the Human Beatbox" VERY IMPORTANT: check the website for last minute site changes! www.shpatzirin.com
Matisyahu: Thurs, June 17th @ Southpaw
125 5th Avenue, Park Slope Brooklyn, 18+, 8PM doors
Matisyahu brings it back to Brooklyn Thurs, June 17th with Dub is a Weapon. Tickets on sale now - www.ticketweb.com; $10 advance, $12 day of show. www.spsounds.com
June 23: Matisyahu @ Lizard Lounge in Boston 1667 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA HOLD THE DATE: MORE INFO COMING SOON Shpatzirin is committed to presenting a range of perspectives on the Jewish experience, does not take an ironic position on Jewish culture, and is interested in complicating - rather than simplifying - the ways in which Jewish culture is understood.

On the Paths CD Released

On The Paths: Yiddish Songs With Tsimbl by Rebecca Kaplan & Pete Rushefsky is a unique album of vocal music accompanied by tsimbl, or Jewish hammered dulcimer. The enclosed booklet contains lyrics in Yiddish, Phonetic Yiddish and English. Becky Kaplan is an emotive interpreter of Jewish song and Pete Rushefsky has emerged as one of the nation's premiere tsimblists. The CD is available through Yiddish Land Records:
http://yiddishlandrecords.com/
and is on sale at Hatikvah Music
http://www.hatikvahmusic.com ...More...

At CD Baby Yet another way to get the album)... they say: "Rebecca Kaplan & Pete Rushefsky have brought to life rarely-heard gems of Yiddish music from collections by Moshe Beregovski, the Mloteks, Mariam Nirenberg, Joseph Moskowitz and Ruth Rubin, as well as materials learned from Soviet-born folk singer Larisa Novicheva and her mother Anna. Both artists additionally contribute original works, including "Shoyn fir yor," a new Yiddish song by Rebecca Kaplan.

Rebecca Kaplan (vocals, piano, buben [drum]) has created a vibrant performance style for Yiddish folk song which is grounded in Jewish sensibility. An elementary school music teacher in the Boston area, she holds degrees in music from the University of Rochester and Indiana University. She has performed as a vocalist and instrumentalist with klezmer bands in Massachusetts, Indiana, and New York State.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) is a leading revivalist of the tsimbl, or Jewish hammered dulcimer. He performs with some of the finest practitioners of traditional klezmer music including Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Rebecca Kaplan, Joel Rubin and Alicia Svigals. He won much critical acclaim for his CD with violinist Elie Rosenblatt entitled "Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music for Hammered Dulcimer & Violin" and he appears with Michael Alpert and Deborah Strauss on Yiddish poet/songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman's CD "Af di gasn fun der shtot - On the Streets of the City" (Yiddishland Records). A popular instructor at KlezKamp and KlezKanada, Pete is also the author of a pioneering instructional book on adapting the American 5-string banjo for klezmer." http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rushefsky

Flory Jagoda in Concert

Monday, June 14, at 7:00 at the Millard Auditorium at the U of Hartford. Free.
Contact: 860-768-4963
or lemcoff@hartford.edu

"Pearls and Rubies": An Evening of Yiddish and Ladino Song"

Features the Sephardic music ensemble ALHAMBRA with mezzo Isabelle Ganz, baritone Elliot Z. Levine, Cantor Rebecca Joy Fletcher of Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation and pianist Sylvia Kahan will present familiar and unfamiliar solos, duets and trios in Judeo-Espanol and Yiddish on Thursday June 10th at 7:30 p.m. at Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights, 551 Ft. Washington Avenue at 185th St. Tickets are $12/$7.50 for students. This event is part of the Washington Heights Arts Stroll program. It is made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. For more information, go to http://www.artistsuniteny.org/events/ArtsStroll2004.html

Yefim Bronfman at 92nd St Y

Soloists from the New York Philharmonic

Sun, June 6, 3pm. Widely regarded as one of today's most talented virtuoso pianists, Yefim Bronfman's program features the beloved quintets of Beethoven and Brahms. New York Philharmonic musicians include Glenn Dicterow, violin; Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Robert Langevin, flute; Joseph Robinson, oboe; Sherry Sylar, oboe; Stanley Drucker, clarinet; Mark Nuccio, clarinet; Judith LeClair, bassoon; Philip Myers, horn; Erik Ralske, horn.

Ladino Music with Sarah Aroeste

Vocalist Sarah Aroeste and her band of some of the hottest musicians combine traditional Ladino Mediterranean music with contemporary rock, blues and jazz.
Center for Jewish History, NYC
Wednesday, June 2nd
7 PM
15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
Complimentary for contributors to the Jack Calderon Memorial Fund for the Sephardic Arts
Tickets: $15 ($12 advance, seniors, students, and for members of ASF/SH and Shearith Israel)
To make reservations: Box Office (917) 606-8200
or for information, call (212) 294-8350
For more information: http://www.asfonline.org/
http://www.saraharoeste.com/
More...

Using traditional instruments, the band (Yoel Ben-Simhon, musical director, oud, piano, vocals; Alan Cohen, electric guitar; Emmanuel Mann, bass; Liron Peled, drums, percussion) brings a fresh new face to Ladino and Sephardic music. Aroeste was recently featured on NPR as a new up-and-coming artist and her unique musical sound has received rave reviews from both critics and ordinary listeners alike.

Presented by the American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House and Congregation Shearith Israel.