Fishel Bresler's Klezmer & Hassidic Trio

Fishel Bresler's Klezmer & Hassidic Trio will be performing concert # 3, (out of 4) in the multi-site JCC Jewish Music Festival at Temple Shalom 223 Valley Rd, Middletown Sunday, March 23rd, 4 PM $8 ($5 for members of the JCC or Temple Shalom

Nashirah in Philly

Nashirah, the Jewish Chorale of Philadelphia is having a concert March 30 at 3:00 P.M. at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 615 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. The name of the concert is "Im Tir'zu: If You Will It". Further information, a contact telephone number and directions are available at Nashira website: www.nashirah.org.

ISLE OF KLEZBOS at Drom NYC

www.metropolitanklezmer.com

Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies together at Drom NYC
Wednesday, March 12th
Dynamic double bill of women's bands, back by popular demand!

8:00pm - ISLE OF KLEZBOS klezmer sextet
http://myspace.com/klezbos

9:30pm - The LASCIVIOUS BIDDIES cocktail pop quartet
http://biddiesmusic.com http://myspace.com/biddies

$12 for both sets + club minimum
Drom: World Music/jazz nightclub & restaurant
85 Avenue A (near 6th St), East Village
212-777-1157
http://dromnyc.com
Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies join forces once again, premiering at Drom after their exciting musical pairing at Comix last fall. Tag-team girl-band rematch, guest Klezbian vocals by Mira Stroika!

::: Newsflash ::: Isle of Klezbos are 2008 NYSCA/LMCC Grant Award recipients from the Fund for Creative Communities! Supporting our June 9th KlezBiGay Pride show in El Sol Brilliante community garden, East Village NYC. (Please scroll down for full schedule and more info.)

Formed in 1998, Isle of Klezbos has toured North America & Europe, playing concerts from Vienna to Vancouver with many festival reprises. Their music has enjoyed world-wide airplay, OutMusic awards, critical acclaim, and appearances on Showtime's "The L Word," PBS' "In The Life," CNN "Worldbeat," and live radio from WFMU to NPR.

Among Klezbos bandmates are graduates of Juilliard, Eastman, and Manhattan Schools of Music as well as Harvard and Yale. Their individual performance resumes include onstage appearances and/or recording sessions with artists such as Rufus Wainwright, David Krakauer, Indigo Girls, Arrow, Natalie Merchant, Natalie Cole, and Bonnie Raitt, as well as experience in styles from samba to Balkan to funk, and reggae to classical to Latin jazz.

In the thrilling November 2007 double bill debut by Isle of Klezbos with The Lascivious Biddies at Comix, creative collaborations included Klezbos players sitting in on prog-rock original "Celestial Delight" by Biddies pianist/vocalist Diedre Rodman; and Biddies onstage to join in on Klezbos' grooving Latinesque Yinglish version of "Comes Love."

"Comes Love" is also the Klezbonus track on Metropolitan Klezmer's new live concert album TRAVELING SHOW, named Best of 2007 by Jewish Week and papers from coast to coast, and praised for "originality, expert musicianship and a keen world music sensibility" by All About Jazz. Isle of Klezbos' own hit CD, the OutMusic Award-nominated GREETINGS FROM THE ISLE OF KLEZBOS, prompted the UK's Phat Planet to call the sextet "one of the finest young klezmer bands ever to appear on the block." All Isle of Klezbos and Metropolitan Klezmer CDs are distributed internationally by Stern's Music (New York & London), released by Rhythm Media Records.

Isle of Klezbos "tests the elasticity of the genre" (The New Yorker), and offers "talent is as strong as its name is provocative" (Courier News). The group recently played their triumpant return engagement for Vienna's KlezMORE Festival (2007 & 2004), as well as Seattle's Bumbershoot, St Louis' Edison Theatre with Cowboy Envy, NYC's Merkin Hall with the Stonewall Chorale, Joe's Pub, BAM Cafe, Brooklyn Museum's First Saturdays, Jewsapalooza with Pharaoh's Daughter, Southpaw with Golem and Metropolitan Klezmer, The Knitting Factory with Marga Gomez' Groundhog Spectacular, and with guest star Bitch (aka Capital B) for downtown Purim shows. They are perennial favorites at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the National Yiddish Book Center.

ISLE OF KLEZBOS at Drom NYC, Wednesday March 12th

Pam Fleming (Hazmat Modine, Burning Spear, RadioDread) - trumpet & flugelhorn Debra Kreisberg (Los Mas Valientes, D'Tripp) - clarinet & alto saxophone Saskia Lane (The Lascivious Biddies, Dan Zanes) - upright bass Eve Sicular (Voodoobillies, Mazeltones) - drummer & bandleader with special guest Klezbians... Patrick Farrell (Panorama Jazz Band, Staggerback Brass, Veveritse) - accordion & Klezbos guest debut by singer Mira Stroika! http://myspace.com/mirastroika

Wednesday, March 12: dynamic double bill of womens bands... Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies, rematch by popular demand! Drom NYC - Klezbos (vocalist Mira Stroika), 8pm; Biddies cocktail pop quartet, 9:30pm http://dromnyc.com

Looking ahead, METROPOLITAN KLEZMER & ISLE OF KLEZBOS Spring '08:
• Wednesday, April 9: live octet & original arrangements, plus archival sound film clips! Metropolitan Klezmer's "Music of Yiddish Celluloid" Michael Farkas (Wiyos) vocals The Museum at Eldridge Street, NYC 7pm http://eldridgestreet.org

• Sunday, April 13: Parents Weekend show Isle of Klezbos with vocalist Judith Berkson Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY, 3pm til 5pm

• Thursday, April 24: Special Pesakh show, followed by NY Gypsy All-Stars Seventh night of Passover! Drom NYC, 7:30pm Metropolitan Klezmer with vocalists Melissa Fogarty & Judith Berkson http://dromnyc.com

• Tuesday, June 3: Rain or shine, outdoors if weather permits - our 13th year here... Metropolitan Klezmer at Museum Mile Festival Free at The Jewish Museum on Fifth Avenue 6pm - 9pm http://thejewishmuseum.org

• Monday, June 9: Tenth Annual show, and NYC Pride Month tradition! Isle of Klezbos - KlezBiGay Pride, supported by The Fund for Creative Communities: funding from New York State Council on the Arts & Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Free & open to the public, El Sol Brilliante garden: E. 12th St, Ave's A/B, East Village

• Thursday, June 19: Lunchtime set Metropolitan Klezmer at Abe Lebewohl Park NYC rain or shine! Free & outdoors, front of St Mark's Church, East Village 12:30pm - 1:30pm http://thirdstreetmusicschool.org

Also coming up... • Sunday, March 23: Eve Sicular, Yiddish Celluloid Closet film clips/lecture National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst MA 2pm http://bikher.org

• Eve Sicular is an award recipient of NYC's Department of Cultural Affairs & LMCC for "J. Edgar Klezmer & Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files" at Dixon Place, late '08

International CD reviews. Metropolitan Klezmer's TRAVELING SHOW... • "A fun-filled live recording with lots of great klezmer tunes and wonderful Yiddish songs. Guys & Dolls and Bagels is an interesting attempt to make klezmer accessible to a non-klezmer literate audience." - fROOTS Magazine, UK ('thumbs up' rating)

• Traveling Show CD: "Best of 2007!" LISTS: Jewish Week NYC, Jewish Journal LA, Detroit Jewis News, Boston Jewish Chronicle

WOMEN AT WORK

Downtown Music Productions
mimi stern-wolfe, artistic director

EAST VILLAGE CONCERT SERIES
St Marks in the Bowery 10th street 2nd avenue
Presents

WOMEN AT WORK

SUNDAY MARCH 16 @ 3PM

Downtown Chamber & Opera Players:
PAULA KIMPER, Restless Yearning (premiere) (Perry Brass, poet); (String Quartet and Counter Tenor); Marshall Coid, counter-tenor and Quartet;
MADELEINE DRING (Trio for oboe, flute & piano); Andrew Bolotowsky, flute; Jeffrey Hale, oboe;
MARY CAROL WARWICK (premiere) (Viola Sonata); (Song: (Imagination) (Ilsa Gilbert ) Dan Strba (vla); & Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano
MEIRA WARSHAUER (Aecha) with Downtown Chamber Trio (Rieko Kawabata, vl; Daniel Barrett, cel;)
LAURA WOLFE , vocals and guitar with DAVE EGGAR:, cello; (Original songs);
MIRA SPEKTOR, (Turn Around);Songs: Maeve Hoglund, soprano;
suggested donation: $10, 15;
information: dmpmimi@msn.com;
www.downtownmusicproductions.org
212 477 1594

JEWISH PEOPLE'S PHILHARMONIC CHORUS

The JEWISH PEOPLE'S PHILHARMONIC CHORUS conducted by BINYUMEN SCHAECHTER presents a concert of great Yiddish choral music
Sunday, June 1, 2008 @ 4 PM
at
SYMPHONY SPACE
performing works by
Sholom Aleichem, Avrom Goldfaden, Maurice Rauch, Avrom Reisin, Jacob Schaefer, Wolf Younin, Mark Zuckerman
Sung in Yiddish. English translations provided.

WHERE: Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, near 95 St., New York, NY 10025, USA

ADMISSION: $25, $15

TICKETS: http://www.symphonyspace.org/tickets click "Buy Tickets", then "June"; listed first or call 212-864-5400

DIRECTIONS: http://www.symphonyspace.org/aboutus/directions

“Beyond Boundaries: Music and Israel @ 60”

“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. Dr. Marsha Dubrow, Musicologist and Resident Scholar at the Center, will serve as the moderator for the day. “Beyond Boundaries: Music and Israel @ 60”
Among the speakers in the morning session:

At 9:45 A.M., Dr. Ronit Seter of the Hebrew University will present a paper entitled, “National Identities Playing Musical Chairs: Israeli Art Music, 1948-2008”. In her paper, through a discussion of Israeli art music composers over the past sixty years, she will argue that in Israel, given its origins as a society of immigrants, multiple national identities have become a seminal hallmark of the complex Israeli Identity in music. She will make references to first, second, and third generation composers and the continuously broadening of the national identity mix over time, with special focus on Tzvi Avni, Betty Olivero, and Benjamin Yusupov, whose works will be performed in the afternoon concert..

At 10:30 A.M.., Dr. Benjamin Brinner of UC, Berkeley will speak on “Beyond Ethnic Tinge or Ethnic Fringe: The Emergence of New Competences in Israeli/Palestinian Musical Collaborations”. His remarks will be centered around field study conducted in Israel for his forthcoming book from Oxford University Press, Playing Across a Divide: Musical Encounters in a Contested Land, as well as theoretical frameworks he developed for the study of musical competence and interaction reflected in his book, Knowing Music, Making Music. Dr. Brinner’s analysis will also reflect aspects of social network theory. His presentation will support the notion that cultural collaborations can serve as bridge-builders enhancing understanding and deepening positive relationships between peoples.

At 11:15 A.M., Galeet Dardashti, both a scholar and performer, will present a paper on the subject, “The Piyut Craze: The Popularization of Religious Mizrahi Songs in the Israeli Public Sphere”. Ms. Dardashti will examine how new popular forms of traditional, Judeo-Arabic religious poetic songs are contributing to a reconfiguration of previously essentialized identities of Israeliness. According to Ms. Dardashti, “Israelis of all types are signing up for classes that teach them to sing Mizrahi piyutim: the new age spiritual seekers, the young third-generation Mizrahim seeking the roots they previously shunned, and both secular and devout Mizrahim and Ashkenazim of varied ages.” Dardashti has conducted several years of fieldwork in Israel, She notes, “Not only is it notable that the wider public is interested in Mizrahi culture, but until recently, the boundary between those who self-describe as secular and religious in Israel was more defined.”

This symposium is the first public program to be offered by the Center for Jewish Studies’ Initiative in Jewish Music. Begun last fall by scholar, performer, composer and producer Marsha Dubrow, a Princeton-trained musicologist, this initiative is an attempt to fill a gap in the availability of strong Jewish music program offerings at secular colleges and universities. “Beyond Boundaries” is co-sponsored by the D.M.A./Ph.D. Program in Music, the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation and the Center for the Humanities. “The Symposium will be the first of many unique and interesting offerings in the realm of Jewish music at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Jewish Studies,” Dubrow said.

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to more than thirty interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, the Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. Further information on the Graduate Center and its programs can be found at www.gc.cuny.edu