February 02, 2007

Verestski Pass at Univeristy of Chicago Folk Festival

<Veretski Pass2 hour Yiddish dance workshop at the University of Chicago Folk Festival on Sunday 4 March from 2 to 4 pm. Accompanying the class will be the wonderful Verestski Pass (Cookie Segelstein, Josh Horowitz, and Stu Brotman) who will also be appearing in concert Saturday and Sunday nights, and giving a free klezmer music workshop earlier on Sunday. http://www.uofcfolk.org/New/home.html
In Eastern Europe, the roots of "world music" go back centuries: historically, Jews, Christians, Moslems, Rumanians, Ukrainians, and Roma played music together in this multicultural area where professional musicians had to know as many musical styles as the diverse peoples among whom they lived. Veretski Pass, a trio of veteran klezmer artists, plays Old Country Music that ranges from melodies of Medieval Poland and dances from Bessarabia, Ruthenia, and Bukovina to music originating in the Ottoman Empire -- much of which they learned from field recordings they themselves gathered.

Cookie Segelstein (Budowitz, New Haven Symphony Orchestra), Joshua Horowitz (Budowitz), and Stuart Brotman (Ellis Island Band, The Klezmorim, San Francisco Klezmer Experience, Brave Old World) synthesize raw energy and polished musicianship to produce music of unusual depth and power on a variety of traditional instruments, including violin, viola, button accordion, bass, bassetl (three stringed bass), basy (three stringed Polish folk cello), baraban (Jewish style drum), and tsimbl (hammered dulcimer). Posted by jmwc at February 2, 2007 04:12 PM