THE YIDDISH VOICE OF LOVE: SONGS OF BEYLE SCHAECHTER-GOTTESMAN

The 92nd STREET Y PRESENTS MUSIC & DANCE OF THE JEWISH TRADITION
SONGS OF LOVE & LONGING AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD
Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006
8:00pm
92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue @ 92nd Street
TICKETS $30

THE YIDDISH VOICE OF LOVE: SONGS OF BEYLE SCHAECHTER-GOTTESMAN Michael Alpert, artistic consultant.
Yiddish musicperformed by a blockbuster crew, with Michael Alpert: vocals, drums, violin, Sharon Bernstein: vocals, Adrienne Cooper: vocals, Rebecca Kaplan: vocals, Janet Leuchter: vocals, Miryem-Khaye Seigal: vocals, Paula Teitelbaum: vocals, Deborah Strauss: violin, Marilyn Lerner: piano, Peter Rushefsky: cimbalom
To purchase tickets 212-415-5500
JMWC Recommendation: "Not to be Missed"! BEYLE SCHAECHTER GOTTESMAN
TEACHER, POET, SONGWRITER

The first concert, on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 8 PM, is The Yiddish Voice of Love: Songs of Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman. Featuring the work of teacher, songwriter, and one of America's premier Yiddish Poets, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, the evening celebrates this inspirational woman's incredible legacy. A recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship (awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts), Schaechter-Gottesman has been a driving force for generations of Yiddish singers, including those who have performed her songs as part of the Klezmer revival of the last two decades. The performance features an ensemble of Yiddish musicians and vocalists: Michael Alpert (vocals, drums, violin), Sharon Bernstein, Adrienne Cooper, Rebecca Kaplan, Janet Leuchter, Miryem-Khaye Seigal, and Paula Teitelbaum (vocals), Deborah Strauss (violin), Marilyn Lerner (piano), and Peter Rushefsky (cimbalom). Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was born in Vienna, Austria, but was raised in pre-war Romania, one of the centers of Yiddish intellectual culture. She survived the Holocaust in the ghetto in Czernowitz and came to the United States in 1951. Active as a teacher and songwriter, she began to write poetry and gained a reputation as one of America's premier Yiddish poets. Many of her songs cover a wide range of subjects from subway musicians, to personal reminiscences, to descriptions of street life in her hometown, the Bronx. The renaissance of klezmer music in the United States allowed her large repertoire of traditional and original material to be performed by many artists.
Schaechter-Gottesman has been acclaimed as one of the great living unaccompanied ballad singers. She takes great pride in her work with children, writing songs especially for them and performing frequently for young audiences. In 1998, she was inducted into the People's Hall of Fame by the organization City Lore based in New York City. In 2005 she received a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, one of the highest cultural honors given by a United States government agency.