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"

DATE: 6.00pm on Wednesday 22 June 2005
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.

Professor Schwartz is a long-standing collector of Greek, Turkish and traditional klezmer music. In this fascinating talk he will examine the common musical heritage to be found in Greek music and klezmer music. He will introduce musical examples from early/archival recordings of rebetika and demotika, and klezmer instrumentals and Yiddish vocal music, arranged into various categories and discussed in a historical context.

This is a sampling of the results of an innovative research project that Professor Schwartz has been pursuing for over 35 years. Martin Schwartz has been a seminal figure both in the international revival of klezmer music and in North American interest in rebetika.

His publications on music include the following collections:
Klezmer Music: Early Yiddish Instrumental Music, The First Recordings, 1910-1927, From the Collection of M. Schwartz. Edited by Professor Martin Schwartz and Chris Strachwitz. [1983 ] (Arhoolie-) Folkloric Records, LP/Cassette 9034. 3 pages of annotations.

Greek-Oriental (Smyrnaic-Rebetic) Songs and Dances, 1925-1935, From The Collection of M. Schwartz. Edited by Professor Martin Schwartz and Chris Strachwitz. (Arhoolie-) Folkloric LP 9033. 3 pages of annotations.

Greek-Oriental Rebetica: Songs and Dances in the Asia Minor Style, 1911-1937. (Arhoolie-) Folkloric CD/Cassette. (Some selections repeated from 1983 LP above, with substantial expansion of material, and new 24- page booklet of history, personnel notes, literal and poetic translations by M.S.) [1990]

Yikhes: Fruehe Klezmer Aufnahmen aus der Sammlung von Prof. Martin Schwartz. Trikont (Germany) CD US 0179 (with contributions to 25-page booklet; selections reproduced for the first time).

Klezmer Music: Early Yiddish Instrumental Music, 1908-1927, From the Collection of Dr. Martin Schwartz. With (22 pp. of) annotation by Martin Schwartz. Arhoolie-Folkloric CD 7034. [1997]

This seminar is a joint venture by the Institute of Rebetology [London] and the Jewish Music Institute [SOAS], as part of the Rebetiko Summer School (SOAS, 22-25 June 2006).

It is organised in partnership with "Greece in Britain" (www.greeceinbritain.org.uk), a nationwide series of events presented by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture.

Article about Prof. Schwartz:
www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2003/03/12_klez.shtml
Website: www.geocities.com/Rebetology
Inquiries: ed.emery@britishlibrary.net

Svigals, Rushefsky and Krakauer hit Paris Seine

The klezmer festival in Paris this week includes a double bill with the Alicia Svigals Klezmer Fiddle Express & Brave Old World, plus concerts by David Krakauer & Klezmer Madness, Kroke & the Klezmer Caravan. You can find information at:
http://www.cite-musique.fr/anglais/spectacles/agenda.asp

Svigals, Rushefsky and Krakauer hit Paris Seine

The klezmer festival in Paris this week, May 18-21 2005, includes a double bill with the Alicia Svigals Klezmer Fiddle Express & Brave Old World, plus concerts by David Krakauer & Klezmer Madness, Kroke & the Klezmer Caravan. You can find information at:
http://www.cite-musique.fr/anglais/spectacles/agenda.asp

5th Annual Rosenshine-Bernstein Memorial Concert

Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Chestnut Hill, MA
hosts the
5th Annual Rosenshine-Bernstein Memorial Concert
7pm
Sunday May 22, 2005

Featured are 4 cantors in a varied program including liturgical, Broadway, and operatic selections. The artists are Aryeh Finklestein - cantor at Congregation Mishkan Tefila;Meir Finkelstein - his brother, cantor at Toronto's Beth Tsedec Congregation, and well known cantorial composer;Ida Rae Cahana - Senior cantor at Central Synagogue, New York City;Robbie Solomon - formerly cantor at Ohabei Shalom in Brookline and incoming cantor at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, composer and founding member of SAFAM; Eugenia Gerstein - accompanist with a special guest appearance by Dick Rosenberg

Admission is $30 at the door.
Congregation Mishkan Tefila is at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway in
(next to the Chestnut Hill Mall)

TORONTO JEWISH FOLK CHOIR GIVES 79TH SPRING CONCERT

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, with the TORONTO MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA
The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir marks the 60 anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi death camps in its 79th annual spring concert, Sunday, June 5, 7 p.m. at the Leah Posluns Theatre, 4588 Bathurst St. (parking available). Alexander Veprinsky conducts, with Lina Zemelman on piano, and the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra as guest artists. Tickets, $22, $18 seniors and students, are available at the door, or in advance from Jewish bookstores or by calling 416-593-0750. Children under 12 are admitted free; group rates are available on request. Information may also be obtained via www.winchevskycentre.org (click on Institutions) or by e-mailing tjfolkchoir@sympatico.ca.

The major work is Di Naye Hagode (The New Saga), a choral tone poem by Jewish-American composer Max Helfman (1901-1963), orchestrated by Maestro Veprinsky. The work commemorates the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that began on the first night of Passover, April 19, 1943. The text is from the long narrative poem Shotns fun varshever geto (Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto) by martyred Soviet Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer (1900-1952). Along with the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra, the work features soprano Miriam Eskin, tenor Steve Szmutni, and narrator Ruth Borchiver. Also on the program is an eclectic mix of songs on Jewish themes in Yiddish and Hebrew. Included are a new medley of songs by the great Yiddish songwriter Avrum Goldfaden arranged by Maestro Veprinsky, choruses in Italian and Russian from Verdi's Nabucco and Borodin's Prince Igor, Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm, and a French-Canadian folksong. Solos are sung by sopranos Miriam Eskin and Belva Spiel, and bass Herman Rombouts. As well, the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra will perform orchestral medleys of Jewish and Ukrainian songs, arranged by Maestro Veprinsky. The TJFC gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Ben and Hilda Katz Foundation, the Miransky Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and Jim Buller.

Flory Jagoda and Ramon Tasat in Boston

--Boston, MA--
Flory Jagoda and Ramon Tasat will be performing Sephardic duets from their new CD.

Monday June 6 at 7:30 pm
Temple Emeth
194 Grove Street
Chestnut Hill, MA
617-469-9400
$18 per person; students $10

The program:

Buena Semana
De que yoras blanca niña
A Espanya
Chichi Bunici
Trez kozas son de murir
La vida do por el rakí
La bendizion di madre
A la una yo nací
Yo la kería
Oildo mi novia
Hi Tora Lanu Nitana
Yo partí para la gera
Adiyo Kerida
Yom Ze le Israel
La Kreasion

LOST CONCERTO COMES ALIVE IN SARATOGA

Work of forgotten Jewish composer heard at last
LOST CONCERTO COMES ALIVE IN SARATOGA
By Richard Scheinin
reprinted here with the kind permission of the San Jose Mercury News

Last Sunday afternoon, in a Saratoga church, the newly reconstructed piano concerto of a largely forgotten Jewish composer named Eric Zeisl was given its world premiere. This was a major and unlikely event, for Zeisl, born 100 years ago this month, had been a formidable composer, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna who made his way to Los Angeles, raised a family, wrote prolifically -- everything from film music to opera -- and then died in 1959 of a heart attack after teaching a night class at Los Angeles City College. Igor Stravinsky was among those who grieved his passing, a testament to Zeisl's standing among composers in Los Angeles, where Stravinsky was an émigré. Yet few of Zeisl's works were performed in his lifetime and not a single one had been given a premiere since his death at age 53. And now, out of the blue, Jason Klein, a conductor with an addiction for rare repertory, was about to lead the Saratoga Symphony, a spirited little orchestra filled with devoted amateurs, in a performance of Zeisl's Piano Concerto in C Major, completed 53 years ago and relegated to a dusty drawer in Los Angeles. (more... to read the complete article...)

Recovering a voice
``The first performance ever awaits you in a few minutes,'' Klein, a gabby maestro with a knack for creating excitement, told his 250 or so listeners at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, the orchestra's base of operations. Zeisl's daughter, Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg -- she is married to Ronald Schoenberg, son of Arnold Schoenberg, the composer, who also was a refugee in Los Angeles -- had driven up from Southern California for the big event and was seated in the ninth row. So was Malcolm S. Cole, a retired UCLA musicologist and Zeisl's biographer, whom Klein now introduced as ``the world's leading expert on the music of Eric Zeisl.''

Loud applause broke out as Cole, very much the rumpled professor, got up and told the audience about Zeisl's ``odyssey'': barely escaping Vienna in November 1938, the day after Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom, and moving to Paris, then New York and finally Los Angeles, where he wrote the piano concerto in three movements that are ``spacious, technically demanding and hauntingly beautiful.''

A tingly excitement filled the church as Cole described the detective work involved in resurrecting the music: Zeisl had left two messy, handwritten versions that needed to be transcribed and cleared of ``gremlins,'' the wrong notes and other miscues that inevitably sneak into a score before it comes to life in rehearsal. And this piece had never been rehearsed by an orchestra until last month. Still, ``the recovery of the voice behind these notes'' is well under way, Cole assured the audience, proudly describing the concerto's ``soaring melodies, irresistible dances, intense modal harmonies and intricate counterpoint -- you are sharing Zeisl's journey from exile to sanctuary.'' And then Klein blessed the music's maiden voyage: ``May this concerto have a long life,'' he said, calling out the soloist, pianist Daniel Glover of San Francisco, who has a history of learning prodigiously difficult music in short amounts of time.

A youthful 47-year-old in a black tuxedo, Glover, smiling shyly, sat down at the piano and, following Klein's downbeat, launched into Zeisl's forgotten concerto. A dignified sadness Wow! Immediately, there was a wonderful tunefulness, a unison melody for strings and piano -- and it was soaring, gorgeous, the piano part now shadowed, a little shakily, by one of the horns. Amid trumpet fanfares and flying violins -- out of tune, but spirited, these string players -- Glover, not shaky at all, rocketed through the big melodies, adorned with all sorts of opulent trills and tumbling flourishes, and broke out into massive cadenzas.

``This guy really plays,'' Cole murmured after the lengthy first movement, which had been filled with sharply percussive dancing passages and ecstatically clanging chords in the keyboard's upper regions. The glinty brilliance of the music, and its way of putting the piano in dialogue with the orchestra, was reminiscent of Bartók. Its playfulness recalled Prokofiev. Clearly, Zeisl had his influences, but also, as Cole had been saying, his own voice: In the second movement, it was heard in the haunting tunefulness, the piano painting notes against a soft backdrop of teeming strings. In the third movement, the mood turned grave, spikier and more dissonant, with a whirling danse macabre and then a Semitic melody, dressed up like Rachmaninoff, but still expressing a dignified sadness.

The audience sat rapt as Glover, an incisive, exciting and apparently tireless player, drove the music toward its big chiming finish. Then the audience burst into applause. What an event! ``Bravo!'' shouted Zeisl-Schoenberg. Standing, she looked at Cole, seated next to her, and, with a big smile, said, ``Well, that was a thrill.'' ``Oh,'' answered the beaming Cole, obviously beside himself, ``that was exciting.'' ``He's terrific,'' Zeisl-Schoenberg, still applauding, said of Glover. ``He discovered the voice behind the notes,'' Cole said, nodding. ``They all did.''

Zeisl-Schoenberg, a retired professor of German language and literature at Pomona College, seemed happily overwhelmed by the experience: In a way, it had brought her father to life. She could recall so much about him: his piano playing, teaching and composing in the family's West Hollywood home. She even recalled living room rehearsals for the piano concerto with Eda Schlatter Jameson, the intended soloist for a performance in Vienna that never materialized.

Odyssey of a concerto
A melancholy man who missed his country of birth, Zeisl never returned to Vienna. How odd: Here in Saratoga, in an Episcopal church, 46 years after his death, the concerto finally was born: ``The second movement had a wistfulness, a sadness that reflected what my father was like,'' Zeisl-Schoenberg said. ``My father was full of melody.'' Broadly speaking, the rediscovery of Zeisl's piano concerto is part of the renewed interest in music by Jewish composers who were persecuted by the Nazis. Some of these composers were forever silenced: Viktor Ullmann was gassed at Auschwitz in 1944; Erwin Schulhoff died of tuberculosis in a Bavarian concentration camp in 1942. Others escaped, some landing in Los Angeles, which became sanctuary to an entire community of Jewish émigré composers: Schoenberg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Alexandre Tansman, Hanns Eisler, Ernst Toch, Nathaniel Shilkret.

Zeisl -- who barely knew Schoenberg, by the way, though his daughter eventually would carry Schoenberg's name -- was among the youngest and least well-known of the bunch. He had fled Vienna at age 33, before his musical reputation was firmly established. Living in West Hollywood with his wife, Gertrud, a Viennese lawyer who became a Los Angeles schoolteacher, he went to work for MGM, scoring music for ``Lassie Come Home,'' ``Baton'' and other films, but never received an on-screen credit.

He turned to teaching (one of his students at City College was Jerry Goldsmith, who became a distinguished Hollywood film composer). And encouraged by composer friends in California, including Darius Milhaud, he turned exclusively to classical composition: operas, ballet music, choral music, all sorts of chamber works and orchestral opuses, including a cello concerto, which he never heard. It was performed at his memorial service. There have been occasional recordings of Zeisl's compositions through the years, as well as a handful of performances. Last November, his Requiem Ebraico, written in 1944 after he learned his parents had perished in the camps, was performed at Stanford University. But the piano concerto -- this was a mystery.

Luckily, there lives in Saratoga a Stanford engineering professor named Robert Feigelson, an aficionado of forgotten composers, who once studied piano with a niece of Shilkret's. Two years ago, Feigelson assisted Sterling Records, a small Swedish label, in the release of a CD containing music by one of his heroes, the pianist and composer Franz Xaver Scharwenka. Coincidentally, he learned, Klein was about to mount a Saratoga Symphony performance of a Scharwenka concerto, with the Russian-born, Fremont-reared piano prodigy Natasha Paremski as soloist. But Klein needed money to stage the event, so Feigelson began to raise it, receiving help from another lover of obscure music, Jim Semadeni of Kansas City. It was Semadeni who mentioned the Zeisl concerto to Feigelson, suggesting that the composer's family might have a manuscript.

And so the Eric Zeisl project was born, on the cusp of the composer's centenary. Feigelson mentioned it to Klein who, naturally, was enthused at the chance to introduce his Saratoga audience to more glorious music from the margins of history. Glover, a natural for this sort of hyper-virtuosic challenge, was enlisted.

So was a Stanford music undergraduate named David Nunez, who transcribed the handwritten music into a printed score. One thing led to the next and soon Zeisl-Schoenberg and Cole were embroiled in the plot. The professor had been studying Zeisl's music since the late '60s, when one of Zeisl's nephews, enrolled in one of Cole's classes, said ``he wanted to write a paper on his uncle, who happened to be a composer,'' Cole recalled after Sunday's performance. ``I said, `Who's that?' '' ```Eric Zeisl.'' ``That got the ball rolling,'' Cole said. He began visiting Gertrud Zeisl, who lived within walking distance of the UCLA campus: ``Friday was our day.'' He set down an extensive oral history, helped establish the Eric Zeisl Archive at UCLA and, with Barbara Barclay, a colleague, co-authored ``Armseelchen: The Life and Music of Eric Zeisl'' (Greenwood Press), published in 1984. 'Armseelchen' is German for ``poor little soul'' and also is the name of a song written by Zeisl as a young man. ``Zeisl felt it was symbolic of his life,'' Cole said. Eventually, Cole and Zeisl-Schoenberg hope there will be more performances of the concerto and a professional recording. It isn't likely that the Saratoga Symphony will be involved: After all, its tympanist counts out loud; its string players are not intonation specialists. But the doctors, lawyers and computer engineers who play in the gutsy little orchestra sure put themselves into Sunday's performance. It was imperfect but, more importantly, it got inside Zeisl's lyricism, his melancholy, his spirit. Afterward, dozens of listeners lingered, congratulating Klein, Glover, Zeisl-Schoenberg and Cole. ``Well, we were all part of a first,'' the professor said. Glover was among the last to leave. ``I'm honored to have been involved in a project like this,'' he said. ``Everyone's thanking me and my feeling is -- what a feather in my cap.''

Brave Old World to present "Lodz Ghetto" music at Folksbiene

Brave Old World to present "Lodz Ghetto" music at Folksbiene, in NYC, May 11-15 The Brave Old World program on the Lodz Ghetto music being released on CD, is now appearing in NYC! Brave Old World will be presented by the Folksbiene Theatre in New York this May 11-15. The program called "Song of the Lodz Ghetto," which has just been released as a new Winter and Winter cd called "Dus gezang fin Geto Lodzh."

From the Folksbiene's announcement on their website, folksbiene.org/!musical-events.html:
The New York premiere of the innovative klezmer group's moving, theatrical musical program blending Yiddish tradition, classical music, jazz, and rare Jewish street and cabaret songs from the Nazi ghetto of Lodz, Poland between 1940 and 1944. (At the Triad Theater, on West. 72nd Street.)"

The show is "essentially a through-composed tone poem, a one-act musical play, in suite form, in Yiddish and Polish, with English supertitles projected overhead. Long-lost songs of resistance from street-singers of the Lodz ghetto are contrasted with pre-war Polish and Yiddish songs; original klezmer laments and deep jazz improvisations, references to Beethoven, evoke powerful emotions."

Lori Cahan-Simon at Legacy Village in Cleveland

In Cleveland this Sunday, MAY 15, at Legacy Village,at Cedar and Richmond, The Workmen's Circle Klezmer Orchestra, featuring singer/folklorist Lori Cahan-Simon, will be performing at Legacy Village this Sunday, May 15 at 2pm in a free outdoor concert of klez and Yiddish Theater standards. Come and have fun with the largest Klezmer Orchestra in the world!

You can hear clips from Lori's CDs at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/lcahan
http://www.cdbaby.com/nosband

THREE's A CROWD!! (TRIOS GALORE !!!)

DOWNTOWN CHAMBER TRIO
Reiko Kawabata, violin; William Blount, clarinet
Daniel Barrett, cello;
Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano
Bruce Lazarus: Divertimento (commissioned by Downtown Chamber Trio)
Yuri Bortz: Trio for Now and Then for violin, clarinet, piano
Darius Milhaud: Suite for clarinette, violin, piano Michael Cohen: Monday Morning Piano Trio (premiere)
Peter Schickele: Serenade for Three

SUNDAY MAY 22 @ 3:00 PM
ST. MARKS in the BOWERY (10th St. & Second Av), New York City
Suggested Donation: $10-15; (Seniors, Students $8)
Information: (212) 477 1594; dmpmimi@msn.com
DOWNTOWN MUSIC PRODUCTIONS
MIMI STERN-WOLFE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Mincha Maariv Sefira

May 15 7:30pm
Bialystoker Synagogue
7-11 Willet Street Lower East Side. NYC.
Cantor Yitzchok Helfgot, Cantor Moshe Stern, Cantor Moshe Haschel, Maestro Matthew Lazar and Choir.
$36 General Admission. For reservations call 718-851-3226
or see www.cantorsworld.com for more information.

Sarah and Hagar opera in New York

Sarah and Hagar based on the story from the book of Genesis. First act of a new opera by composer Gerald Cohen & Librettist Charles Kondek. Performed in concert version and featuring Elizabeth Shammash, Ilana Davidson and Robert Gardner in the roles of Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham, and a chamber ensemble and chorus conducted by Michael Adelson.
Two Performances:
Sunday, May 22 at 3:00 p.m.
Temple Shaaray Tefila
250 East 79th New York City (Corner 2nd Ave.)
Contact the Cantor's office at the temple (212) 535-8008.
www.shaaraytefilanyc.org
$10 admission

Tuesday, May 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Shaarei Tikvah Congregation
46 Fox Meadow Road, Scarsdale
Contact 914-472-2013 x 11
www.shaareitikvah.org
$25 admission, $15/seniors, $5/students

Mandy Patinkin for Folksbiene

Jun 16. At Carnegie Hall, 7:30pm.
Mandy Patinkin sings "Mamaloshen"
A benefit for the future of Yiddish Theatre in America

This historic and exciting gala will bring together the diverse community of supporters who share in a love of Yiddish culture and a desire to ensure its continued dynamic presence in our lives. The concert will also feature appearances by the all-star female Klezmer ensemble Mikveh, the internationally acclaimed clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer, the fabulous New Yiddish Chorale directed by Zalmen Mlotek, soloists Cantor Jack Mendelson, and Cantor Rebecca Garfein and a Grand Chorus of New York and New Jersey school children who will join Mandy Patinkin on the stage of Carnegie Hall to sing in Yiddish and to have an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives.
Call 212-213-2120 or 1-800-9-YIDDISH, or visit us on the web at www.folksbiene.org.

Machaya, Rockville, MD

Machaya, Rockville, MD, May 22
An exciting evening of dance and music as the Machaya Klezmer Band entertains with the beauty of Klezmer music. Dance instructor Jay McCrensky will teach basic and advanced simcha dancing, couple dancing, Hassidic dancing, shers,jocs, and terkishes.
Sunday, May 22 7 - 9 pm, $8 mem./$10 general public/$5 children under 12 years. Reservations not necessary.
Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington
6125 Montrose Rd.
Rockville, MD 20852.

For more information,
301-348-3840
Web: www.jccgw.org

"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.

Alicia Svigals Klezmer Fiddle Express

Klezmatics' founder, Alicia Svigals, goes solo with an unplugged 'roots' show: three sizzling fiddles, tsimbl, bass and drums! Traditional East European Jewish music at its ecstatic best.
Johnny D's
17 Holland St, Davis Square
Somerville, MA
8:30pm
Tel: (617) 776-2004

www.johnnydsuptown.com
This concert is being held in honor of the 10th anniversary of the KlezmerShack. www.klezmershack.com Come celebrate!

Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism

Sunday 15th May 4pm – 1am
Oi Va Voi and friends present
Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism
Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, London W12
4pm – 1a.m. Free before 5pm, £5 after.

After March’s total roadblock, Radio Gagarin is back with the second in a series of regular Gypsy Balkan Russian Klezmer socialist shakedowns at the NHAC. The Commissar pledges exclusive new music from Oi Va Voi plus special guest musicians Pinekop, Siberian throat singer, Chyskyyrai, straight from the steppes, sound/art/poetry/circus/puppet theatre/video installations for the Proletariat featuring state artists Adrian Philpott, Zoe Klinger and Anita Rickwood; frozen vodka & rakiya galore and resident DKs (Dancefloor Komissars) Lemez Lovas, Max Reinhardt, Starets & special Siberian guest DK Heretic sweating it out in the Gypsy Diskoteka til’ the road of excess has led us to the place of wisdom. Early evening come to feed your soul with borscht 'n' blinis in the Soviet kitschen and take a rest from your fight for Revolutionary Determinism, for a few counter-rev moments in the Kinodrom with award-winning Czech, Russian and Bosnian shorts plus a feast of new and classic animation in the legendary Jan Svankmajer style. Long live the memory of our fallen comrades at Kronstadt... Co-Produced by Adrian Philpott/ Oi Va Voi / Taskovski Films / YaD Arts / Ziggurat. www.yadarts.com

Yeladim Sharim—Children Sing!

New interactive music show just for kids! At Makor. Featuring an extra fun bunch of well-known favorite children's songs in Hebrew that both kids and parents love, and that will get everyone singing along.
Date & Time: Sun, May 8, 2005, 1:00pm
Location: Steinhardt Building, 35 West 67th Street, NYC.
Price: $12.00
For directions and more info: Makor Music

Vampire Suit joins Greg's Walls Later Prophets

Wednesday, May 11th, at 9:30pm (Later Prophets at 8:00pm)
Vampire Suit is to be part of a special new Jewish music bill, featured alongside Greg Walls' Later Prophets. The performance will take place at Makor, NYC. Steinhardt Building, 35 West 67th Street. Tickets are $12 in advance/students at the door, $15 at the door.

Austa Klezmer Workshop

Brighton, Australia, May 8
AUSTA KLEZMER WORKSHOP
Sun. 2-4pm
Australian String Teacher's Association
Brighton Grammar School
90 Outer Crescent
Brighton, Victoria
$20 non members/$15 AUSTA members/$10 concession
Enquiries Christine Leslie-Pfitzner 9568 4061

Massel-Tov Trio

Massel-Tov Trio
80333 München
Cohen's - Lange Nacht der Musik
Theresienstr. 31
ab 19.00h
T. 089-2809545

Laughter Through Tears, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 4

Zun mit a regn (sun and rain)—laughter through tears is part and parcel of Yiddish music. Jewish composers devoted a great deal of attention to it and so did Shostakovich. Jewish Music Projects Foundation presents works in this style by Shostakovich (1908-1975) and his friends Weinberg (Vainberg) (1919-1996) and Veniamin Basner (1925-1996) in a series of concerts in the Netherlands. Sovali (Sofie van Lier) - soprano Boris Goldenblank or Alexej Pevzner - violin Alexander Oratovski or Wladislaw Warenberg - cello Sander Sittig - piano Concerts:
4 May 2005, 9:00, Uilenburger Synagogue, Amsterdam. Tel. +31 (20) 662 3675
8 May 2005, 11:30, De Lawei, Drachten. Tel. +31 (512) 513 344
29 May 2005, 7:00 u. De Buitenplaats Museum, Eelde. Tel. +31 (50) 309 2072 he Netherlands.

World War Two and the reign of terror in the Soviet Union had a deep impact on the composers. They expressed themselves in their music. The music of the persecuted Jewish people was their source of inspiration - an act of courage in a period when open pronouncements could have fatal consequences. It was often years before the works could be premiered. Now these extraordinary and intense works will be performed in the Netherlands by an ensemble of specialised musicians:
The concerts are supported by the VSB Fund, the SNS Reaal Fund and the M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Foundation. For more information, please call Sofie van Lier, tel. 020-6623675.

ENTRE DEUX RIVES...

chants séfarades et autres chants de la Méditerranée
Sandra BESSIS: chant, daff
Jean-Luc LENOIR: oud, saz, mandoline
Rachid BRAHIM-DJELLOUL: violon
dimanche 8 mai 2005 à 19h
Cité Bleue, 46 Av. de Miremont, Genève
Billets: 28 & 23 Frs
Réduction de 5.- aux membres AMJ
Location: 022/734.71.93 ou
amj@amj.ch

La poésie et la musique sont les témoins de l'étrange aventure des Juifs d'Espagne qui, au 14ème siècle, connurent successivement la tolérance, le succès, les persécutions et l'expulsion.
Après leur dispersion, les Juifs séfarades ont réussi à conserver durant quatre siècles et demi leur langue, leur tradition et leurs valeurs culturelles.
Mais les mélodies de leurs chants ont adopté certains rythmes et sonorités des cultures d'accueil. Ainsi, le répertoire musical des communautés juives d'Orient (Empire ottoman, Balkans et Méditerranée orientale) a-t-il divergé de celui des Juifs du Maroc et ce que nous connaissons aujourd'hui sous le terme de "chants judéo-espagnols" est essentiellement le fruit de ce "syncrétisme musical", de cette "incorporation créative" de textes judéo-espagnols et d'une musique locale.
Sandra BESSIS et ses musiciens perpétuent cette tradition par leur interprétation chaleureuse et intimiste de ces romances populaires et profanes. Un spectacle éblouissant. *****************

EAST MIDWOOD JEWISH CENTER PRESENTS A SONG OF ASCENT

On Sunday, May 22nd, at 4:00 PM, the East Midwood Jewish Center will present A Song of Ascent ­ the Synagogue Music of Salamone Rossi ­ an afternoon of Jewish sacred music from seventeenth century Italy. The concert will take place at the East Midwood Jewish Center, 1625 Ocean Avenue, in Brooklyn.

This extraordinary concert of Jewish Baroque music will be performed by Cantica Salamonica, a group of professional Early Music singers who have come together under the direction of Cantor Mark Opatow of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan.

Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors and students. Tickets are available in advance at the East Midwood Jewish Center and will also be available at the box office on the day of the performance. For ticket information, please call 718.338.3800. Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear Rossi¹s music performed in Brooklyn.

Klezmer Music for Bands

KLEZMER FOR BRASS’N WOOD is available from JACK MUSIK, the Swiss online music publisher. http://www.klezmer.ch/BrassWood/seiten_e/intro_e.asp These may be appropriate for high school concert bands or other groups. Sample score pages online and also sound files. Music can be ordered directly online. Tunes include:
01 Frejlech Sol Sajn
02 Kolomejke
03 Klezmer-Tunes
04 Frejlach Tantz
05 Papirosn
06 Sibn-Ferzik
07 Hawdala
08 Hopkele
09 Husid'l
10 Zwei Nigunim und Frejlach

Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar

Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar, on Friday, May 6, 9:30-10pm, will be at Freddy's Bar & Backroom, 485 Dean St. @ 6th Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11217 (718) 622-7035. www.freddysbackroom.com Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar is a quartet consisting of accordion, violin(Yaeko Miranda), mandolin (Brandon Seabrook) and bass (Nick Cudahy) that explores music made by Eastern European Jews in the early 20th century.

Drawing inspiration and material from a variety of early recorded sources, the quartet focuses especially on the repertoire and performances of Belf's Romanian Orchestra and Romanian born cymbolm master Joseph Moskowitz. Call or check the website for upcoming spring dates. The admission fee is $5. Delicious desserts and coffee will also be available. ACI is a short five-minute walk from the 30th Avenue stop on the N or W line. Walk west on 30th Avenue (towards Athens Square Park) for about 4 blocks, then turn right on Crescent. For more information about the concert series or other events, contact the synagogue at: 718-278-2680 or visit our website at: www.astoriacenter.org.

Tubapalooza Part Deux!

Philly's Klezmer Princess, Susan Watts, will be playing a set with her Fabulous Shpielkehs @ 9pm. @ 11pm New York's Klezmer Prince, Frank London, hits the stage with Who's Yo' Crawdaddy? Come hear these two giants of trumpet.

TUBAPALOOZA Part Deux!
Saturday, May 7th 2005 9pm - very late!@ Zebulon
258 Wythe Avenue (betwixed Metropolitan Ave. and N. 3rd)
Brooklyn, NY 11211 (Williamsburg)
L train to the Bedford Stop
A FREE night of nothing but great TUBA bands!
4 bands 4 FREE!
http://roncaswell.com

9pm - Susan Watts and the Fabulous Shpielkehs Susan Watts, mighty trumpet princess of Philadelphia's klezmer Dynasty, House of Hoffman.
http://susanwattsonline.com

10pm - the Knobs!
Polished and turned on!
http://theknobs.us
11pm - Who's Yo' Crawdaddy?
Daddy's got some gumbo for you!
http://whosyourcrawdaddy.com

12am - Slavic Soul Party
Brash and strong as slivovitz, Slavic Soul Party! is downtown's answer to Balkan brass band music!
http://slavicsoulparty.com

Isle of Klezbos plays New England

e v e s i c u l a r and her bands:
Sunday, May 29
National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst MA
2:00pm concert, $10; reservations suggested
On the campus of Hampshire College.
If you haven't seen this place, it's gorgeous & this is Memorial Day Weekend
www.bikher.org
800/535-3595
413/256-4900

e v e s i c u l a r
drummer/bandleader
Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos
metropolitanklezmer.com
151 First Avenue #145
New York, NY 10003 USA
sicular@aol.com

Cantorial World Concert in New York

"Mincha Maariv and Sefira" presented by Cantorial World with Yitchok Helfgott, Moshe Stern, Moshe Haschel and Matthew Lazar & Choir.. $36 general admission. $100 Patron (preferred seating and CD). May 15th 7:30pm, Bialystoker Synagogue, 7-11 Willet Street, New York, NY. *Lower East Side. For more information: http://www.cantorialworld.com

World-Jazz Extravaganza at Makor

Thursday May 19, 8PM
Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh with Scott Kettner’s Nation Beat. A World-Jazz Extravaganza is coming to Makor Steinhardt center on Thursday May 19, 2005, featuring Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh and Scott Kettner’s Nation Beat Ensemble. Makor is located at 35 W. 67th St., (bet. Columbus and Ctrl Park West), in NYC’s Upper West Side. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Both groups on the bill blend world music traditions with modern sounds, styles and improvisation. Both groups offer dynamic music which aims to bring together vernacular with artistic music in fun, and thought provoking way.
Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh brings together old world klezmer with electric instruments, free jazz, balkan rhythms and thrash punk. Their record on the Tzadik label has received acclaim from critics in the klezmer world and the modern jazz world. The band features some of the top players in the downtown scene, including members of Hasidic New Wave, Klezmatics, Babkas, Klez Dispensers, Paradox Trio and others. The band at Makor will be: Greg Wall- clarinet, Alex Kontorovich – saxophone/clarinet, Ben Holmes– trumpet, Jacob Garchik – trombone, Brad Shepik – guitar, Fima Ephron - bass, Aaron Alexander – drums.

Aaron Alexander is one of the premier drummers in New York City, a first-call musician on the feverishly creative downtown scene who excels at playing modern jazz and a cross-pollinating pluralistic music based in a klezmer aesthetic that’s just too bold and free-wheeling for easy categorization. Whichever style he plays, this technically expert musician originally from Seattle animates his traps with a supreme confidence, an uncommonly rich musical imagination, and an almost palpable passion or tenderness. Based in New York City since 1993, Alexander has involved himself in many high-quality jazz and Jewish music-oriented projects, both as bandleader and sideman. His career highlights to date include touring Europe numerous times with his collective trio Babkas, and the downtown super-group Hasidic New Wave, among others, supporting jazz-blues great Mose Allison in a week at Seattle’s Jazz Alley, driving the Klezmatics with interlocking rhythms at majestic Royal Festival Hall in London, and making his recently released feature album, Midrash Mish Mosh