Music in Our Time: 2009

Sunday, June 7th at the Center for Jewish History
Celebrating the Siegmeister Centenary
"Music in Our Time," the annual concert of Jewish music by contemporary composers, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music in association with the American Jewish Historical Society, will be given on Sunday, June 7th at 3 PM at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, NYC).
For tickets $18 ($12 members); $6 for Students and Seniors, call 212-868-4444 or
www.smarttix.com or
contact the Box Office: (917) 606-8200 /
href="mailto:boxoffice@cjh.org">boxoffice@cjh.org.
Elie Siegmeister's String Quartet No.3 "On Hebrew Themes," will be the featured work on the program, highlighting the centenary celebration of Seigmeister's birth. The performance also includes Jewish-themed works by Leonard Bernstein ("Three Wedding Dances" from Bridal Suite, for piano three (!) hands and four songs written for various famous singing friends), Michael Alec Rose ("The Tree of Life"), David Leisner ("Acrobats" based on a short story of Polish Jews called "The Tumblers"), Louis Karchin ("A Way Separate" with poetry by Ruth Whitman and Hannah Senesh) and Israeli-American composer Max Stern ("Quartet from the East"). These composers have shown a continuing interest in writing music with Jewish themes and references, among their other works.

Music in Our Time: 2009 is a collaboration of the American Society for Jewish Music and the Mannes College of the New School of Music, under the leadership of Dean Joel Lester. Students from the College have frequently participated in performances of Jewish contemporary music, in an effort by the Society and the School to introduce Jewish-themed music into to the repertoire generally offered and performed in academic and conservatory settings.

For tickets $18 ($12 members); $6 for Students and Seniors, call 212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com or contact the Box Office: (917) 606-8200 / boxoffice@cjh.org.

Posted by jmwc at 10:20 AM

Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos

Today: Thursday, May 21
Trinity Wall Street, NYC - FREE & outdoors!
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Isle of Klezbos (with special guests) plays the historic, beautiful downtown environs of Trinity Wall Street for outdoor festivities, FREE & open to the public: Lower Broadway at Wall Street, NYC.
One fun set of klezmer & more among the trees & gravestones: live music and free lemonade.
http://trinitywallstreet.org or 212-602-0800
"J. EDGAR KLEZMER" - JUNE 4th in NYC, one night only!
plus band shows: Wall Street (today - FREE & outdoors!), Riverdale 5/31 (klezmer brunch), Eldridge Street 6/7 (Egg Rolls & Egg Creams FREE kick-off), City Winery 6/21 (Father's Day brunch - Kids FREE), Usdan Center 6/29 (Opening Day). Full info below...

Thursday, June 4
J. Edgar Klezmer - original musical documentary theater
The JCC in Manhattan, 8PM
Tickets: $15 JCC members, $20 non-members
334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St, NYC
Info & reservations: 646-505-5708 (Event #EAYJEK00S9)
http://jccinmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1022#19656
http://metropolitanklezmer.com/JEK.html

“J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files” premiered to a sold-out house at Dixon Place last year and became a Time Out New York Critics Pick. A musical documentary theater piece based on declassified documents, the show is set on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, examining the life and Cold War time capsule of Dr. Adele Sicular, grandmother of Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular. Combining myriad archival finds, oral history and family gossip, this piece uses theater, multi-media projections, original music and lyrics to investigate the dealings of government agents and Eve’s pianist/psychiatrist/activist grandma. From klezmer to Kodaly to jazz, baroque to boogie woogie to gospel, from Hazel Scott's cancelled TV show to derelict theories of homosexuality, exploring surveillance files leads in even more directions than the Department of Justice could have foreseen.

"J. EDGAR KLEZMER" features...
Melissa Fogarty - vocals / investigator; Pam Fleming - trumpet & flugelhorn; Debra Kreisberg - clarinet & alto saxophone; Shoko Nagai - piano; Yelena Shmulenson-Rickman - investigator / Dr. Silverberg; Eve Sicular - drums, researcher, granddaughter

Director: Isabel Milenski
Projection designer & conductor: Jennifer Griesbach
Lighting designer: Caridad Rivera
Lyricist, composer, writer: Eve Sicular

“J. Edgar Klezmer” -- now with full staging and more new songs -- has received funding from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and development support from Third Street Music School Settlement and New York Theatre Workshop. We also gratefully acknowledge permission to perform “Hazel’s Boogie” by Hazel Scott, granted by her son, Adam Clayton Powell III.

Sunday, May 31**
Klezmer Brunch at The Whitehall Club in Riverdale:
**If you're interested in this show, please call ASAP to let them know...
3333 Henry Hudson Parkway (corner 232nd St), Riverdale NY 10463
Info / reservations: 718-884-2996
Metropolitan Klezmer quintet unit, rain or shine -- outdoors if weather permits!
1PM - Brunch begins...
2PM - Two klezmer sets! (til 4PM)
Tickets include Bagel Brunch Buffet! ($18 / Children 12 & under: $10)
Ballroom & pool deck, ground floor of The Whitehall Apartments
All tickets ordered by mail will be held at a will-call desk, either on the pool deck or outside Club ballroom. Ample street parking; express busses BxM1 & BxM2 from Manhattan; #1 subway to 232nd St stop, then Bx 10 or Bx 20 bus from 231st & B'way to 232nd & HHP stop.

Thursday, June 4
J. Edgar Klezmer - original musical documentary theater
The JCC in Manhattan, 8PM... full info above!
Tickets: $15 JCC members, $20 non-members
334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St, NYC
Info & reservations: 646-505-5708 (Event #EAYJEK00S9)
http://jccinmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1022#19656
http://metropolitanklezmer.com/JEK.html

Sunday, June 7
Museum at Eldridge Street
12 noon til 12:30PM
"Egg Rolls & Egg Creams" kick-off parade & mini-concert ...
Metropolitan Klezmer marching unit opens the festivities at the beautiful, historic Museum at Eldridge Street: This festival celebrates both Jewish cultural roots and Chinatown community on the Lower East Side, drawing thousands of participants each year!
12 Eldridge St, NYC 10002
http://eldridgestreet.org or 212-219-0888


Sunday, June 21
City Winery: Father's Day klezmer brunch!
music from 11AM - 2PM, with brunch seating from 10AM
Isle of Klezbos returns to beautiful City Winery in West Soho, NYC
Klezmer brunch show tickets just $10, Kids under 13 - FREE
Special menu (no minimum order) includes bagels, lox and other tasty treats.
Sweeping, sunlit interior, large stage, easy Sunday parking, good subway & bus access.
155 Varick St between Spring & Vandam St, NYC 10013
http://citywinery.com or 212-608-0555

Monday, June 29
Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts
Metropolitan Klezmer returns to play for opening day at this beloved and acclaimed performing and visual arts camp in Long Island NY, for ages 6-18.
www.usdan.com

Wild Illusions: New Yiddish Sounds

Wild Illusions: New Yiddish Sounds
Adrienne Cooper, Michael Winograd and Friends
Thursday, May 21st , 8 pm @
The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street
$15.00 JCC Member, $20.00 Non-Member
For more information, or to register, please call 646-505-5708.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1022&pID=1000

Singer Adrienne Cooper and Michael Winograd, NY music scene audacious talent, team up in a debut project (preview to a new recording) with spectacular players Dan Rosengard (piano), Avi Fox-Rosen (guitar), Benjy Fox-Rosen (bass), Greg Mervine (drums), Jon Singer (marimba), and Sarah Gordon and Niki Jacobs (vocals).

New arrangements to songs by Moyshe Leyb Halpern, Fima Chorny, Josh Waletzky, Polina Shepherd-Ashkenazi, Beyle Shaechter-Gottesman, Hirsh Blohstein, Meir Kharatz, Dovid Edelstadt. Original songs by Adrienne Co oper and Frank London are from Jenny Romaine’s celebrated La Mama theater production of The Memoir o f Gluckl of Hameln.

Adrienne is thrilled to bring together this intergenerational Yiddish music encounter with new band arrangements by Michael Winograd. The project showcases a remarkable phenomenon - the contemporary resurgence of a Yiddish song movement, featuring work by living Yiddish composers and lyricists from the ages of 23-85, living in Brooklyn and the Bronx, in Kishinev, Moldova, Brighton, England, and Hoboken, New Jersey. This artistic convergence connects over a century of Yiddish culture=2 0makers in a “conversation” that spans continents, genres, generations, and the abyss of 20th century Jewish history.