Welcome to the 2008 Jewish Music Festival

Rachel Brice

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Community Dance Party 2008

JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA, 94709

$12 JCC East Bay members, seniors, students $15 general

Community Dance Party

Get down as the artists of the Ark take off! Jewish dance specialist Bruce Bierman fits the moves of the ancestors into the grooves of your imagination.

Co-sponsored by the Anisman / Sherman Family and Julie Sherman in memory of Ursula Sherman

The Ark presents CYCLICAL RITUALS (part 1): Spring

Jewish Music Festival Artist Residency

Finale of the 23rd Annual Jewish Music Festival

Co-presented by the Eugene & Elinor Friend Center for the Arts, JCCSF and the Consulate General of Israel. Co-sponsored by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture

JCC San Francisco
3200 California Street, San Francisco 94118

TICKETS: $24 members and seniors; $28 general $18 students ON SALE January 15

The Ark presents CYCLICAL RITUALS (part 1): Spring

This collaboration of nine singularly innovative artists from Israel, Ukraine, New York, New Orleans and the Bay Area is the first of what is envisioned as a series of ritual performances exploring tradition, creativity, time, environment through art and music. They all share a deep commitment to traditional music, ranging from Mississippi Delta blues, to Ukrainian village ballads, as well as Yiddish, Mizrahi, Ladino, cantorial and klezmer musical expression, and in imaginative ways, have used their talent to take these forms in creative new directions. Almost all of them have worked together before in different configurations. This new ensemble will debut in this World Premiere that will be the result of a week-long artist residency.

Ark Artists:
Frank London, Ensemble Coordinator, trumpet and keyboard. This Grammy-winning founding member of the Klezmatics, dubbed the “mystical high priest of New Wave Avant-Klez jazz,” by All About Jazz is one of the most respected composers on the international Jewish music scene.
Aaron Alexander, percussion, founding member Midrash Mish Mosh: “Firmed up by crashing cadenzas and complex unison lines, Alexander’s compositions are marked by gravitating flows and quirky motifs… [his group] combines invigorating arrangements with a prominently transmitted fun factor”. Down Beat
Avi Avital, Israeli mandolin virtuoso. “The mandolin in his hands altered the colors of sounds like a kaleidoscope, dancing to the composer’s inventory of sound, hypnotizing and amusing…” Haaretz
Stuart Brotman, bass, founding member of Brave Old World and Veretski Pass. A moving force in the klezmer revival. He produced The Klezmorim’s Grammy-nominated album, Metropolis, and has performed with Andy Statman, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Itzhak Perlman, as well as Ry Cooder, Geoff and Maria Maldaur and many others.
Jewlia Eisenberg, vocalist, founding member, Charming Hostess. “Eisenberg’s songs are hilarious and touching, and they run the gamut from hard-edged and powerful to sweet and soulful.” New Yorker
Glenn Hartman, accordion and piano, founding member of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, “This genre-crossing, heroically nutty Crescent City ensemble has a raucous, wild spin on the popular Eastern European revival.” Billboard
Mariana Sadowska, Ukrainian vocalist and harmonium player. “Sometimes a musician has such an inborn desire to communicate that her message naturally becomes universal. Such is the case with [her.]” New York Times
John Schott, guitar, founding member, Dream Kitchen. This Grammy-nominated artist “offers tearing musical effects and sounds like Bill Frisell on LSD. Still, the music never descends into total chaos, although it sometimes glides very close to the edge of madness.” Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten
Jessica Ivry, Cello

Israel @ 60

Berkeley Repertory Theatre
St. John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705

TICKETS: $20 members, students and seniors; $24 non-members

Israeli master percussionist Chen Zimbalista and Friends

“Totally charismatic . . . able to ignite everybody around him and makes every percussion instrument he touched sing…a rich acoustic experience that celebrates artistic freedom and open sound of life.” — Jerusalem Post

Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista has dazzled audiences around the world with an enchanting array of rhythmic sounds that he cajoles from more than forty instruments, played with his lightening quick hands, some of them at the same time. His music – a euphonious blend of pulses and beats – defies classification. A true feast for the senses, his programs are taken from classical, blues, jazz and occasionally rock idioms.

To celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday, Chen will focus the night’s energy on contemporary Israeli composers with pieces by Weisenberg, Shemer, Gronich and a few of his own. The program will also feature pieces by Gershwin, Bloch and Sichon.

Chen’s vibrant marimba will be augmented by Russian percussive dynamo Boris Sichon and Argentine pianist Josè Gallardo. Sichon, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Music is a former performer with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the Jewish Chamber Musical Theater (Russia), the Habima National Theatre (Israel) and the Footsbarn Theater (France). He also boasts a collection of more than 200 instruments collected while performing throughout the world. Gallardo is currently an assistant professor at the University of Mainz, Germany who has performed in Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Golem

The Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

TICKETS $18

Contrary to popular belief, Golem is neither a towering Jewish Frankenstein who defended the Jews of 17th Century Prague, nor a creature from Lord of the Rings. Golem is a six piece Eastern European folk-punk band.

Fronted by Annette Ezekiel – singer, accordionist, and 5-foot powerhouse; with vocalist, tambourine player, crazy-man Aaron Diskin; violin virtuoso Alicia Jo Rabins; trombonist extraordinaire Curtis Hasselbring; elegant upright bassist Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, and unstoppable drummer Tim Monaghan, Golem’s sound evokes wisps of old-world elegance filtered through the successes and disappointments of new-world dreams. Spending nights in Lower East Side immigrant-owned bagel shops and summers in Eastern Europe, Annette collects Jewish, Gypsy, and Slavic folk songs, and, with Golem, rewrites, adds, edits, and rearranges them along the way. These are the songs to which Eastern European grandparents danced over a century ago, and now Golem has its unwrinkled fans moshing to the same pulsing beats.

Unrequited love stories? Check. Drunken dances? Check. Warnings to future sons-in-law? Check. Dysfunctional families forcing kids to sell bagels on the street? Golem has ‘em all. And they may be in Yiddish (or Russian or French), but when Golem wails that the rent is too high, everybody understands.

Singer of the enigmatic rock band Challenge of the Future, Aaron Diskin (vocals) brings his wild vocal stylings and abundant charisma to the Yiddish songs of Golem.

A trombonist, guitarist and composer, Curtis Hasselbring (trombone) mixes up his musical life by playing everything from jazz to country rock to electronic. He has recorded and toured internationally with many leading artists including Medeski, Martin and Wood, Ron Sexsmith, Frank London, Carter, Anthony Coleman and John Zorn.

Alicia Jo Rabin (violin) started with classical study, and then continued on to punk rock. Lately she’s been tearing it up on klezmer (and Southern old-time) fiddle. Alicia released her solo album Sugar Shack in 2003 and can be seen with The Mammals and Underbelly.

Taylor Bergren-Chrisman (contrabass) started performing and recording at age 13. He is indebted to his great teachers Timo Shanko and Mark Helias. He currently performs in The Rare Bird Rhumba Ranch and Las Rubias del Norte while continuing to deepen his knowledge of the traditional music of Eastern Europe, North Africa, Cuba and the U.S.

Tim Monaghan (drums) is from New Haven, CT and has lived in New York for three years. He began as a classical pianist, before moving on to drums. He currently attends the New School, studying jazz with such masters as Billy Hart, Buster Williams, and Gerry Hemingway. Tim performs music from numerous countries and styles, from rock band Jack to jazz/rock/musical debauchery with Rickshaw Mama, as well as leading the improv noise band the Roars.

Golem Website

Ladder of Gold

First Unitarian Church
684 14th Street, Oakland, CA

Teslim (TesLEEM) means both ‘commit’ and ‘surrender’ in Turkish and features violinist Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus on various (mostly plucked) strings including Turkish saz, Iraqi oud, Greek lauoto and hand drums. This potent duo performs traditional music from Greece, Turkey and the Middle East as well as original music (by Flexer, Hegedus and others) inspired by these traditions. Ladder of Gold is the fruit of a City of Oakland grant and will feature Sephardic, Mizrahi and original music. Special guests include Shira Kammen and Julian Smedley, violins; Tobias Roberson, percussion and Liza Wallace, harp.

Kaila Flexer Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer and producer She is best-known locally for having founded and produced Klezmer Mania!, a much-loved annual Bay Area event for over 10 years (1989-2002). She has been at the helm of bands such as Third Ear, Next Village and Kaila Flexer’s Fieldharmonik, ensembles that feature Flexer’s original material. As a composer, her work reflects her deep respect for folk music. She has performed both nationally internationally with her own ensembles as well as with groups including The Hollis Taylor-Kaila Flexer Duo, The Flexer-Marshall Duo, Club Foot Orchestra and KITKA Women’s Vocal Ensemble. She has recorded two CD’s of original music for Compass Records (Nashville) to critical acclaim.

Gari Hegedus plays violin and viola as well as a variety of stringed instruments from Greece and Turkey including lauoto, oud, saz and hand drums. In addition to playing in Teslim, he also performs with world music group Stellamara and Persian vocalist Hamed Nikpay. He has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has recorded and performed with Ross Daly. He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish (Sufi) Order of America and continues to participate in Turkish ceremonial and devotional gatherings around the country.

This project is commissioned in part by the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program

Ladder of Gold Website

Benzion Miller

Netivot Shalom
1316 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702

$21 JCC East Bay/Netivot members, seniors and students $25 non-members

Beloved by millions for his cantorial performances throughout the world, Cantor Benzion Miller thrills audiences with his brilliant tenor voice, his astonishing vocal technique and above all with the heartfelt spirituality of his interpretations of cantorial concert masterpieces. Based in Borough Park Brooklyn, Cantor Miller will make his Bay Area debut as part of the 23rd Jewish Music Festival.

A descendant of several generations of cantors, Miller began singing at a very early age. He studied at Bobover yeshivot first in Brooklyn and then in Israel, where he came under the tutelage of the well-known cantor Shmuel Taube. He also benefited from the many accomplished hazzanim who had come from Europe to Israel as refugees. He began his career as cantor of the Hillside Jewish Center in Hillside, New Jersey and subsequently held positions in the Bronx, Montreal, and Toronto. Since 1981 he has been cantor of Temple Beth El of Borough Park in Brooklyn (now known as the Young Israel Beth-El of Borough Park), a pulpit previously served by such illustrious cantors as Mordechai Hershman, Berele Chagy, and Moshe Koussevitzky.

Cantor Miller’s exceptionally busy concert schedule includes a number of performances each year at Israel’s major venues, and at concerts, festivals, and conferences throughout Europe, Great Britain, Australia, and North America. He has been a cantorial soloist at concerts in such disparate places as Johannesburg and Cape Town, Mombasa, Alaska, and Brazil. He has sung with the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Haifa Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony, the English Players and the Budapest State Opera orchestra. He was part of the first group of cantors to perform in the Soviet-bloc countries before the fall of the iron curtain. He made his Royal Festival Hall (London) debut in 1990 in the premiere of Neil Levin’s production Voice of Jewish Russia, and he sang with the City of Oxford Symphony at the Barbican Centre in 1998.

Cantor Miller has made more than a dozen recordings of Hassidic and other Hebrew liturgical/cantorial and Yiddish music, in some of these preserving much of the authentic Bobover musical tradition. He also is continually expanding the Bobover repertoire with new tunes of his own in the same vein and through his recordings of songs created in America by the third Bobover rebbe.

Accompanied by Daniel Gildar on piano.

Co-sponsored by the Gottesman-Biddle Family

The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco

Osvaldo Golijov, composer, performed by The Bridge Players.

Blindness is as important in this work as dreaming and praying. Composer Osvaldo Golijov has said that, “in order to achieve the highest possible intensity in a performance, musicians should play, metaphorically speaking, ‘blind’. Blindness is probably the secret of great string quartets, those who don’t need their eyes to communicate among them, with the music, or the audience.” Blindness, then, reminds one of the earliest compositions: art that sprang from and relies on our ability to sing and hear, with the power to build castles of sound in our memories.

Eight centuries ago Isaac the Blind, the great kabbalist rabbi of Provence, dictated a manuscript in which he asserted that all things and events in the universe are products of combinations of the Hebrew alphabet’s letters: ‘Their root is in a name, for the letters are like branches, which appear in the manner of flickering flames, mobile, and nevertheless linked to the coal’.

In homage to Issac the Blind, the movements of this work sound as if written in three of the different languages spoken by the Jewish people throughout history. The prelude and the first movement reflect the most ancient, in Aramaic; the second movement is in Yiddish, the rich and fragile language of a long exile; the third movement and postlude are in sacred Hebrew.

This program will also include String Quartet in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn and Lullaby by George Gershwin.

The Bridge Players (Randall Weiss and Leslie Ludena, violin, Natalia Vershilovsa, viola, Robert Howard and Victoria Ehrlich, cello) were formed in 2001 by violinist Randall Weiss. As the ensemble-in-residence for Music in the Mishkan chamber music series at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco. For more information on Music in the Mishkan or the Bridge Players, visit the Sha’ar Zahav website, call 415.861.6932 ×304 or email shaun@shaarzahav.org.

Frank London’s A Night in the Old Marketplace

Opening Night of the 23rd Annual Jewish Music Festival

West Coast Premiere

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 8:00pm
Roda Theatre of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre:
2025 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 94704

Klezmer giant Frank London has teamed up with acclaimed lyricist Glen Berger to create twenty-one unique songs based on the legendary 1907 Yiddish play by I.L. Peretz. The groundbreaking score mixes Jewish music, jazz, classical, rock, and world beats with a dose of Kurt Weill and Tom Waits. A stellar group of international musicians comes together to spin this magical tale of villagers who wrestle with ghosts in order to right a past wrong, in a fantastic journey to rediscover the meaning of faith.

Considered one of the best jazz trumpeters in New York, Mr. London is a member of the Grammy-award winning Klezmatics and Hasidic New Wave. His extensive repertoire includes thirty of his own recordings and appearances on more than 200 others. He has performed with artists such as John Zorn, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Mark Ribot, Michael Tilson Thomas, Itzhak Perlman and Gal Costa. He composed music for John Sayles’ The Brother From Another Planet and Men With Guns, Yvonne Rainer’s Murder and Murder, the Czech-American Marionette Theater’s Golem and Tamar Rogoff’s Ivye Project.

Glen Berger is a sixth-year member of New Dramatists. His plays include: Underneath the Lintel (Ovation Award, Sterling Award, Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Garland Award for Best Playwriting, one of Time Out New Yorks’ Ten Best Plays of 2001), and O Lovely Gloworm (2005 Portland Drammy Award Winner for Best Script). Glen has received commissions from the Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, Berkeley Rep, The Alley Theatre, and the Looking Glass Theatre.

The Night in the Old Marketplace band features the hottest, most versatile and exciting players on the new Jewish music scene. Drummer Aaron Alexander released his thrash punk Jewish Jazz recording Midrash Mish Mosh on Tzadik records, and is London’s bandmate in the Hasidic New Wave and the Klezmer Brass Allstars. Ron Caswell is tuba player for everyone in New York City, playing at Lincoln Center and in Balkan (Romashka), rock (The Knobs), klezmer (Kleztrophbix) and other groups. Art Bailey and Brandon Seabrook are both alumni of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (as is London). Bailey leads his Orkestra Popilar and is a salsa and jazz virtuoso. Seabrook is the hottest guitarist on the scene, has toured and recorded with Paul Brody’s Sadawi and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and been influenced by John Bonham, Morton Feldman, Bjork and The Minutemen.

Frank London’s A Night in the Old Marketplace Website

Mayn Yiddishe Velt

Festival “forshpeis” or appetizer: Mayn Yiddishe Velt, Heather Lauren Klein

JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA 94709

$12 JCC East Bay members, seniors and students $15 non-members

The soprano voice of this emerging Bay Area artist soars on the wings of classic Yiddish art song and repertoire from operetta, cabaret and theater in Yiddish and English.

Heather Klein has charmed audiences throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with her beguiling stage presence and versatile soprano voice. Ms. Klein comes to the Jewish Music Festival hot off the release of her first album, Mayn Yiddishe Velt, a compilation of theater music from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In performance and on record, Heather celebrates the music brought to the New York’s Lower East Side by immigrants as well as the innovative work written in the United States at that time for theater and concert halls including art songs, folk, and opera.

Heather will also appear at Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro on March 14th and the San Francisco Public Library on March 6th.

Mayn Yiddishe Velt Website

Related Events 2008

Revival of Sephardic Music

Musical scholar Francesco Spagnolo traces the history of the revival of Sephardic music since the 19th century. With musical examples by Teslim, with Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus

To register call 510-848-0237 or Contact the JCC front desk.

Temple Sinai: 2808 Summit Street, Oakland.
$15 / $12 members of JCC East Bay and Temple Sinai

Directions / Parking: 510-451-3263

Sundays, March 2, 9, & 16, 3–5pm; March 30 Community Dance Party 4:00 – 7:00pm

Souls on Fire: Hasidic and Yiddish Dance with Bruce Bierman, instructor

JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley.

$50/$40 Members of Alameda co-sponsors.

Includes the Festival Community Dance Party

The above programs are co-sponsored with Lehrhaus Judaica. Tickets and info: 510-845-6420 or 510-848-0237; www.lehrhaus.org

Co-sponsored by Lehrhaus Judaica

Sunday, March 9, 4pm

Glenn Hartman & the Klezmer Playboys
The Dance Palace, Pt. Reyes Station

Tickets and info: www.dancepalace.org 415-663-1075

Thursday, March 13, 6.30pm

The Legacy of Cantor Reuben Rinder with Cantor Roslyn Barak of Temple Emanu-El in conversation with Francesco Spagnolo. In association with the Judah L. Magnes Museum and Temple Emanu-El

Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., Berkeley, 510-549-6950

www.magnes.org

Friday. March 14, 8pm

A Musical Shabbat with Yiddish cabaret singer Heather Lauren Klein In association with Temple Beth Sholom

Beth Sholom, 642 Dolores Ave., San Leandro, 510-357-8505

www.heatherlklein.com

Friday, March 14, 7:30 pm

Shir HaShirim: Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi musical liturgy

JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley, 510-848-0237

www.shirhashirim.net

Saturday, March 22, 10 – 12 noon

Sephardic instrumental workshop

Violinist Kaila Flexer and oud player Gari Hegedus offer a hands-on workshop for instrumentalists. Sephardic and original repertoire.

Oakland Public Conservatory, 1616 Franklin Street, Oakland

Info: email Kaila Flexer

Saturday, April 5

Eliyahu & Qadim: Mystical Music of the Near East

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo, Ave., Berkeley, 510-525-5054

www.eliyahumusic.com

Ginger Kroft Barnetson

Ginger Kroft Barnetson is a member of the Monterey Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Carmel Bach Festival and Santa Cruz Symphony orchestras. She also performs with the ADORNO ensemble, a chamber music collaborative based in San Francisco. Ms. Barnetson is a Vandoren International Artist, performing on M13-lyre clarinet mouthpieces with Traditional reeds. She is a faculty member at Santa Clara University and maintains a pre-college studio (ClarinetStudio.org ) Ms. Barnetson holds music degrees from Northwestern University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Daniel Gildar

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Cantor Daniel Gildar studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, majoring in piano, theory and voice. In addition to his cantorial duties, Cantor Gildar has an international reputation as an accompanist of both cantorial and secular music. He has participated in seven historic missions to Eastern and Central Europe under the auspices of the Chaim and Gila Weiner Society for the Advancement of Cantorial Art. Cantor Gildar has been the accompianist for every concert produced by Cantors of the World.

Melinda Blake

Melinda Blake, vocalist, performed in the World Premiere of A Night in the Old Marketplace at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theatre. Ms. Blake is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan. She has toured nationally with Fiddler on the Roof and performed through out New York and the Northeast. Recent New York productions include High School Musical (New World Stages), Ella Minnow Pea (Manhattan Theatre Club), My New York (Vital Theatre). Regionally Ms. Blake has appeared as Maria in West Side Story, Jan in Grease, Joanie The Full Monty and Fraulein Kost in Cabaret.

Michael Krasny

Michael Krasny, Ph.D., is host of KQED’s award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs program that concentrates on the arts, culture, health, business and technology.

Since 1970 he has been a professor of English at San Francisco State University and is a widely published scholar, critic, former regular contributor to Mother Jones magazine and a fiction writer.

Dr. Krasny has interviewed many of the leading newsmakers and cultural icons of our time, including Saul Bellow, former President Jimmy Carter, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, Newt Gingrich, Jane Goodall, Rosa Parks, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag and Arcrchbishop Desmond Tutu. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including The SY Agnon Gold Medal for Intellectual Distinction, The Eugene Block Award for Human Rights Journalism, The Inclusiveness in Media Award from The National Conference for Community and Justice, and a Koret Foundation Fellowship. He has also been named best talk show host by Focus magazine, a number of Bay Area newspapers, The San Francisco Publicity Club and Citysearch.

Dr. Krasny received his B.A. (Cum Laude) and M.A. from Ohio University, where he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and his Ph.D. from The University of Wisconsin.

Alex Aron

Alex Aron, conceiver and director, developed A Night in the Old Marketplace with Glen Berger and Frank London in various workshops and readings (La MaMa, New Dramatists, Folksbiene Yiddish Theater) and directed the world premiere at Prince Music Theater (Philadelphia). Other productions include Three Seconds in the Key by Deb Margolin and Eloise and Ray by Stephanie Fleishmann (both for New Georges Theater), Karaoke at the Suicide Shack by Rob Urbinati (QTIP), Out From Under It by Susan Bernfield (Vital Theater). She has directed plays in the Middle East, in Arabic at Assiraj Theater in Ramallah (Palestine) and in Jerusalem. Alex was a 2006/7 Fulbright Scholar to Argentina and is the recipient of various commissions including the Foundation for Jewish Culture. She lives in Brooklyn and is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Natalia Vershilova

Natalia Vershilova graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, playing with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Malyi Opera Theatre. Presently a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, she has also performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and has served as Principal Violist with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and the Russian Chamber Orchestra.

David Wall

David Wall is a Toronto-based, award-winning composer and singer. He has written scores for a long list of film, television and experimental projects, working with collaborators such as Bruce Mau Design, Avi Lewis and Simcha Jacobovici. His career as a singer has included fronting the popular canadian ensembles Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. He has written a large catalogue of songs in many genres including a #1 song for rock band Big Sugar (“The Scene”). More recently he has studied Cantorial and traditional Yiddish music and has worked extensively with pianist Marilyn Lerner. In 2003 he received a Chalmers Foundation grant in association with film maker John Greyson to create the video installation/opera Fig Trees.

David Wall Website

Lorin Sklamberg

Lorin Sklamberg is a founding member of the Grammy award-winning Klezmatics. He has been heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration with such diverse artists as Itzhak Perlman (dueting on his original composition, “Nign”), Don Byron, Jane Siberry, Marc Cohn, Paradox Trio, Hip Hop Hoodios, Esma Redzepova, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer, Neil Sedaka and Tony Kushner. His song “Headdy Down” (from the Klezmatics’ 2006 Grammy winner Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie) was recently printed in Sing Out! magazine. He has composed and performed for film (including Hilary Helstein’s 2007 documentary As Seen Through These Eyes, narrated by Maya Angelou), dance, stage and circus, and has produced a number of recordings of world and theater music. He also teaches Yiddish song from London, Paris and Weimar to Kiev and St. Petersburg. His and Frank London’s concerts of Hasidic “spirituals” have resulted in several well-received recordings. His other ongoing collaborations include Harts un Soul: A Celebration of Yiddish Theater in Song with Yiddish diva Joanne Borts and multi-instrumentalist Rob Schwimmer. Lorin co-founded the New York-based non-profit organization Living Traditions and coordinated its event KlezKamp: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program for 14 years. By day Lorin serves as the Sound Archivist of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. “One of the premier American singers in any genre.” – Robert Christgau, All Things Considered, National Public Radio.

Lorin Sklamberg Website

Charlotte Cohn

A member of New York’s prestigious Actors Studio, Charlotte Cohn is a New York actress with an international flair

While still a student at the New School’s prestigious Actors Studio Graduate M.F.A. Program, Charlotte had the great fortune to work alongside Elliott Gould, in One Hundred Gates, at The Jewish Theatre of NY, off Broadway.

After graduating, Charolotte had the privilege of making her Broadway debut in the first-ever Broadway production of Puccini’s La Boheme under the direction of Baz Lurmann, the celebrated director of Moulin Rouge. As part of the LA BOHEME cast, Charlotte was privileged to appear on the “2003 Tony Awards” and to be featured in “Broadway Bares XIII,” directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. Charlotte has since performed the lead in regional productions across the country including The Murder of Isaac in Baltimore and ACT’s Happy End in New York.

Charlotte and her husband, Jason Odell Williams, are co-founders of their own production company, ‘Bandwagon Prod.’, and they are currently working on their new play entitled When the K. married the N. Their first film, The Danish Play, made its NYC premiere in November ’03.

Past Festivals

2006 and earlier

All past events from 2007 on

Teslim

Please see entries for Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus

Alla Gladysheva

Alla Gladysheva received her M.A. from the Leningrad Conservatory. She served Karelian Radio and Television as a journalist. She has lived the United States since 1995, and is currently a pianist with the San Francisco Ballet School and a professor of music theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She regularly appears as a member of various performing groups. She is a proud member of the Bay Area’s Jewish music community, having performed with the SF Jewish Folk Chorus, the Lark, Adama, and Heather Klein. Alla is an active member of the Music Teachers Association of California.

Golem

Contrary to popular belief, Golem is neither a towering Jewish Frankenstein who defended the Jews of 17th Century Prague, nor a creature from Lord of the Rings. Golem is a 6 piece Eastern European folk-punk band.

Founder and visionary leader of Golem, Annette Ezekiel (vocals and accordion) is an eccentric linguist, fluent in five languages, who avidly researches Eastern European music, dance and literature. Through research and travel, she brings material to the band and adds the twist of rock and roll that is Golem.
Singer of the enigmatic rock band Challenge of the Future, Aaron Diskin (vocals) brings his wild vocal stylings and abundant charisma to the Yiddish songs of Golem.

Alicia Jo Rabins (violin) started with classical study, and then continued on to punk rock. Lately she’s been tearing it up on klezmer (and Southern old-time) fiddle. Alicia released her solo album Sugar Shack in 2003 and can be seen with The Mammals and Underbelly.

Golem Website

Kaila Flexer

Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer and producer. She is best-known locally for having founded and produced Klezmer Mania!, a much-loved annual Bay Area event for more than ten years (1989-2002). She has been at the helm of bands such as Third Ear, Next Village and Kaila Flexer’s Fieldharmonik, ensembles that feature Flexer’s original material. As a composer, her work reflects her deep respect for folk music. She has performed both nationally internationally with her own ensembles as well as with groups including The Hollis Taylor-Kaila Flexer Duo, The Flexer-Marshall Duo, Club Foot Orchestra and KITKA Women’s Vocal Ensemble. She has recorded two CD’s of original music for Compass Records (Nashville) to critical acclaim.

Kaila Flexer Website

Gari Hegedus

Gari Hegedus Website

Benzion Miller

Cantor Miller’s singing career began at the early age of five. He is cantor at the prestigious Beth-El Congregation of Borough Park, now known as the Young Israel Beth-El of Borough Park.

Benzion Miller is a graduate of Bobover Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY and the Bobover Yeshiva Kedushat Zion in Bat Yam, Israel. He received his basic knowledge and training in the art of Chazzanut under the guidance of his father cantor and Mohel, Reb Aaron Miller. Acclaimed as one of the foremost interpreters of liturgical Music, Benzion Miller is equally at home in operatic repertoire and Jewish and Hasidic folk Music. He has appeared with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Rishon L’Tzion Symphony, the Haifa Symphony and members of the London Symphony. He recently recorded for the Milken Archive, in Barcelona, Spain with the Barcelona National Symphony Orchestra.

Benzion Miller was privileged to be among the first group of cantors to visit and sing in the Eastern European countries. He has appeared before capacity audiences in Romania, Russia, Poland and Hungary, where he sang with the Budapest State Opera Orchestra. Benzion appears on many recordings of liturgical, Hasidic and Yiddish music.

Jessica Ivry

Jessica Ivry is a Bay Area freelance cellist and instructor at the College of Marin. She plays with the Real Vocal String Quartet , an original world music ensemble. She also plays and tours with composer Amy X Neuburg & the Cello ChiXtet, with the Beth Custer Ensemble and with singer, Vienna Teng.

For San Francisco’s A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s 2005 and 2007 seasons, Jessica scored and performed original music for The Bright River, a hip-hop retelling of Dante’s Inferno, and for Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman. She played in the San Francisco production of Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Post Street Theatre in March 2005. Jessica recorded on Grammy nominated album, Blueprint of a Lady for jazz vocalist, Nneena Freelon and played with legendary Goth band, Bauhaus at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium. She holds degrees from Skidmore College and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Upcoming 2008 performances include The Rusalka Cycle at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and on tour with award-winning women’s vocal ensemble, Kitka.

“Much praise also goes to Jessica Ivry, whose live musical accompaniment, scored for solo cello, provides heartbreakingly apt counterpoint to the drama. Though Miller’s original stage directions called for flute, it’s hard to imagine anything more evocative than Ivry’s ominous pizzicato as Willy’s world crumbles.”

-Dan Pine, J. The Jewish Weekly

Jessica Ivry Website

Jonathan Russell

Jonathan Russell is active in the Bay Area as a clarinetist and composer. His compositions have been performed by numerous ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Empyrean Ensemble, the new music bands FIREWORKS and Capital M, and pianists Sarah Cahill and Lisa Moore.

Jonathan is a member of the heavy-metal inspired Edmund Welles Bass Clarinet Quartet, the balkan/klezmer/experimental band Zoyres, and plays in, composes for, and is a founding member of the bass clarinet duo Sqwonk. He also freelances in the Bay Area as a classical and klezmer clarinetist and performs frequently with Yiddish singer Heather Klein.

Jonathan teaches theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, serves as Music Director at First Congregational Church, San Francisco, and is a critic for the San Francisco Classical Voice. He has a BA in Music from Harvard University and an MM in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jonathan Russell Website

Chen Zimbalista

Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista has dazzled audiences around the world with an enchanting array of rhythmic sounds that he cajoles from more than forty instruments, played with his lightening quick hands, some of them at the same time. His music – a euphonious blend of pulses and beats – defies classification. A true feast for the senses, his programs are taken from the classical, blues, jazz and occasionally from the rock repertoire.

Chen developed his skills in Tel Aviv after he was inspired by a drummer at a wedding when he was just five. By twelve, he knew he wanted to be a professional musician. Among his teachers are Alon Bor of the Israel Philharmonic, Morris Lang of the New York Philharmonic, and Bent Lillof of Copenhagen.

A winner of several international competitions, including the Francois Shapira prize, Chen has performed at the Kennedy Center, with the Detroit Symphony and all the major orchestras in Israel, and at the Schleswig Holstein and Stresa music festivals, to name just a few. His CD, Desert Beat, is issued by Koch Discovery. Mysticism or happenstance, Chen Zimbalista traces his name to an eastern European ancestor who played the cimbalom.

During 2002-2003 Chen served as artistic manager of Ashdod Orchestra – since 2004 he is leading as music directing of TOM TOM percussion festival.

Chen Zimbalista Website

Heather Lauren Klein

Heather Lauren Klein has charmed audiences throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with her beguiling stage presence and versatile soprano voice. In performance and on record, Heather celebrates the music brought to New York’s Lower East Side by immigrants as well as the innovative work written in the United States at that time for theater and concert halls including art songs, folk, and opera.

Heather received her Masters degree from the San Francisco Conservatory and has vaulted onto the local Yiddish song scene. Most recently, Heather had her debut with National Yiddish Folksbine alongside City Opera’s Robert Abelson and Claire Barry of the Barry Sisters. Last winter saw Heather in the role of Rivka Shmuel in the national tour of Meshuga Nutcracker with the National Jewish Theater Festival and this past summer she enchanted French audiences in the final cabaret performance for Medem’s Yiddish Festival in Paris.

Heather will also appear in two related events at Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro on March 14th and the San Francisco Public Library on March 12th at 6:00 pm.

Heather Lauren Klein Website

Glenn Hartman

Glenn Hartman, accordion and piano, founding member of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, “This genre-crossing, heroically nutty Crescent City ensemble has a raucous, wild spin on the
popular Eastern European revival.” Billboard

Glenn Hartman is the accordion player for and one of the founding members of the internationally acclaimed New Orleans Klezmer Allstars. Hurricane Katrina forced his relocation to the Bay Area where he met the exciting and accomplished musicians who make up The Klezmer Playboys. Energy, energy and more energy are what defines The Playboys interpretation of Klezmer, a centuries old Yiddish dance music. Glenn’s accordion, plus trombone, electric bass and drums give The Playboys an almost ska-like rock, funk sound.

Glenn Hartman Website

Avi Avital

Israeli mandolin player Avi Avital was the first mandolin player to be awarded at the prestigious “Aviv Competitions”. He has played as a soloist with important orchestras including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano (Italy), the Rostov State Theatre Orchestra (Russia), the Metropolis Ensemble (New York), the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, Orchestra Milano Classica and others. He has played under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Mastislav Rostropovitch, Asher Fish, Phillip Antremont and Antonello Manacorda.

Avital has recorded many albums for labels such as Sony Classical, Mode Records NY, Pläne DE and La Discantica. His solo CD, featuring four mandolin concerti with the Milan Symphony Orchestra “I Pommeriggi Musicali” was recently released a in Italy. Since 2004 he has performed regularly with the renowned clarinetist Giora Feidman,

A graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy and Conservatorio Cesare Pollini of Padova, Avital is based in Pavia, Italy.

Avi Avital Website

Jewlia Eisenberg

Jewlia Eisenberg is a composer, extended-technique vocalist, lay cantor, and founder of the diaspora girl group Charming Hostess.

Her work explores the intersection of text and the sounding body, pushing for translation strategies between verbal and non-verbal languages.

CDs include Sarajevo Blues, which sets Bosnian resistance poetry, and Trilectic, a look at the political-erotic world of Walter Benjamin. Jewlia is now at work on The Bowls Project, a large-scale installation based on Babylonian Jewish amulets.

She has been an Artist-in-Residence at MIT and University of Denver; she has studied with Sozanda Muna Nissimova, Fred Frith and Daniel Boyarin. Jewlia has collaborated with anarcholits Fantom Slobode, choreographer Jo Kreiter and filmmaker Lynn Sachs. Commissioned work includes Harmonices Mundi (Sloan/EST), an opera about Kepler’s mother, and Red Rosa (Puffin/SF Goethe Institut), a song cycle based on the letters of Rosa Luxemburg.

Jewlia Eisenberg Website

Aaron Alexander

Aaron Alexander is a NYC based percussionist/composer, originally from Seattle, WA. Alexander has been at the forefront of the klezmer revival since the early 1990s in NY and has been the drummer for such groups as Hasidic New Wave, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, The Klezmatics, German Goldenshteyn, as well as leading the group Midrash Mish Mosh.

Also internationally known as a jazz drummer he has performed and/or recorded with Julian Priester, Jay Clayton, Mose Allison, Charlie Byrd, Babkas (with Briggan Krauss and Brad Shepik), Satoko Fujii Orchestra, Anthony Coleman, David Tronzo, Chris Speed, and many others.

Alexander has toured extensively in Europe, North and South America and performed at many of the major jazz and world music venues, some which include Royal Festival Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, New Morning in Paris, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, and many others.

Alexander was co-founder of the group Timebone, which won an award from Earshot Jazz in 1990 for “Best Acoustic Jazz Group in the Northwest.” He moved to New York City in 1993.

In Seattle his very first band was with guitarist/composer John Schott, with whom he learned and collaborated for many years.

Aaron Alexander Website

Frank London

The 23rd JMF presents its first Shofar Award to Frank London, trumpeter, composer and band leader for his creativity, generosity of spirit and profound contribution to contemporary Jewish music.

Frank London has been called a passionate intelligent soloist and one of the best jazz trumpeters to emerge since 1980. In 2007 his band, The Klezmatics, won the Grammy for Best World Music Album.

Bandleader: of his solo CD release, Hazonos (with Cantor Jacob Mendelson), Stephen Silberman of Wired Magazine writes, “One of the Most Stunning Albums of the Year – 5 Stars. On this album, Frank London has fused the Jewish art of cantorial singing with instrumental accompaniment that suggests both the ancient, soul-wrenching melodies of the High Holy Days and the most lyrical and reflective avant-garde jazz. The result is one of the most important albums of 2005 — a giant step forward for London, for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and for jazz itself.”

Trumpeter: has made about thirty of his own recordings and is featured on over 200 with artists such as John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa, Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Itzhak Perlman. He has been featured on HBO’s Sex and the City, at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Lés Misérables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Composer: recently featured artist creating new works for large ensembles in Krems, Austria’s “Glatt und Verkehrt” festival, Sejny, Poland’s “Musician’s Raft,” and at “Todos Os Voces Do Mundo” in São Paulo, Brazil. Commissioned to compose percussion and brass quartet music for Carnegie Hall’s Musical Explorers concerts; the song-cycle An Alphabet in the Sky.

Film & theater: in addition to A NIGHT IN THE OLD MARKETPLACE, he composed

the musical Green Violin with Elise Thoron (winner, Barrymore Award 2003 Best New Musical) which was produced in Amsterdam last year and is to be put up in Moscow and New York in the next year.
the musical On Words and Onwards (with Glen Berger) which will be put on by Cardinal Stages next year.
was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson’s The Knee Plays
music for Tony Kushner’s A Dybbuk, John Sayles’ The Brother from Another Planet, Pilobolus Dance Theater’s Davenen, Great Small Works’ The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, Vit Horejs’ Once There was a Village, and Min Tanaka’s Romance.
the soundtracks to the Shvitz. A Cantor’s Tale, and Divan (Winner, Best Soundtrack, Monaco Film Festival),

His other recordings include Invocations (cantorial music); Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars’ Di Shikere Kapelye and the Brotherhood of Brass (with Boban Marcovic Orkestar and Cairo’s Hasaballa Brass Band); Nigunim and The Zmiros Project (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); The Debt (film and theater music); Scientist at Work the soundtracks to The Shvitz, a Cantor’s Tale, and Divan, 8 CDs with The Klezmatics, and 5 with the Hasidic New Wave.

Frank London Website

Mariana Sadowska

Composer-Arranger, Musical Dramaturg, Vocalist, Actress, Folklorist, Teacher— Mariana Sadovska has worked all her life in both music and theatre. Born in 1972 in the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine, she was trained as a classical pianist as a young girl at the Lviv Conservatory. In her late teens she joined Lviv’s Les Kurbas Theatre, one of Ukraine’s leading theater companies, known for its intensively physical performance style coupled with rich vocal work. From 1991 to 2001 Sadovska worked as a principal actor, composer, and music director with the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices in Poland directed by Vladimierz Staniewski. With Gardzienice, Ms. Sadovska traveled throughout Eastern and Western Europe as well as to Brazil, Egypt, Japan, and the United States, appearing in the company’s productions of The Life of Protopope Awwakum, Carmina Burana and most recently Metamorfozy, which she co-created with composer Maciej Rychly using relics of ancient Greek music. In 1998, for her role in Metamorfozy she won the “Best Actress Award” given by the Polish Theatre Union. As the musical director of the Gardzienice Theatre, Ms. Sadovska has conducted numerous workshops at colleges, universities and arts centers around the world, including one with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, UK.
Since the fall of 1999, Mariana has appeared as a collaborating artist in three Yara Arts Group festivals at La Mama Experimental Theater in New York. As Yara’s Artist-in-Residence in the 2000-2001 season, she created the music for Song Tree (2000), Kupala (2001/2002), and Obo: Our Shamanism (2001) and also performed in these pieces. At La Mama, Ms. Sadovska also conducted special workshops on Ukrainian traditional Calling Songs, Winter Songs, Spring Songs and Late Spring Songs. In addition, she performed as a soloist at the Golden Festival and the Balkan Cabaret in New York.
In 2003, Ms. Sadovska created the music for the production of Bogoslaw Schaeffer’s Qwartet, directed by Andre Erlen at Forum Freies Theater in Dusseldorf. Current projects touring internationally include Callings and In the Beginning There Was a Song, both duo performances with the Israeli experimental vocalist Victoria Hanna; and the multi-media Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors with Poland’s Quartet Jorgi and the Berlin-based film-maker Hiroko Tanahashi. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors toured the US in February, March, and April 2004.
For the past thirteen summers, Mariana Sadovska has traveled to villages in the Poltava, Polissia, Hutsul, and Lemko regions of Ukraine to collect folk songs and rituals. In each village she has cultivated deep relationships with elder culture-bearers whose lives, songs, and stories have inspired much of her recent work. In 1993 she organized a large expedition to Ukraine with an international group of artists, musicians and researchers. In November-December 2001, Mariana helped organize the second annual Festival “Ukraine-Poland-Europe” at the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices for which she brought village singers together with artists working on the cutting edge of contemporary performance practice.
Altmaster (Poland) recorded Mariana Sadovska’s vocal work for Gardzienice’s Metamorfozy in 2000. In June 2001, Global Village Music USA released Songs I Learned in Ukraine, a CD of Sadovska’s modern interpretations of favorite songs gathered from her Ukrainian village expeditions. Later that year, in collaboration with Radio Lublin (Poland), Yara Arts Group (USA), UNESCO, and other international sponsors, she produced Song Tree, a collection of polyphonic folk songs sung by village elders from Polissia and Poltava. Mariana was most recently in the Bay Area for a theatrical production of her haunting piece The Rusalka Cycle preformed by KITKA Women’s Vocal Ensemble.

Stuart Brotman

Stuart Brotman, bass, has the instincts of a gifted accompanist. His sensitivity to nuance and musical style, and experience reaching back almost half a century, have given him the ability to speak a remarkable number of musical languages like a native. While still a young bass student, Stu learned to accompany his grandfather, a cantor, and his father, a jazz and folk guitarist. At UCLA, Greek ethnomusicologist Sotirios Chianis introduced him to the rich complexity of Eastern European musical cultures.

Stu has worked with musicians as diverse as Canned Heat, Kaleidoscope, Morning, Geoff and Maria Muldaur, John Bilezikjian, Hrach Yacoubian, John Stamatis, and Mischa Sheynkman. A founding member of Los Angeles’ Ellis Island Band, he has been a moving force in the Klezmer revival since its beginning. He produced The Klezmorim’s Grammy nominated album, “Metropolis,” and toured with the Yiddisher Caravan, a federally funded Yiddish folklife show. He has performed with The Klezmorim, Kapelye, Andy Statman, Khevrisa, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Davka, The San Francisco Klezmer Experience, Khevrisa, Itzhak Perlman, Brave Old World, and Veretski Pass, has enjoyed long runs at Armenian, Greek, Russian, Romanian, Irish, and Israeli nightclubs, and played cimbalom with Ry Cooder at Carnegie Hall.

His musical roles in movies include playing Greek cimbalom in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Russian contrabass balalaika in Love Affair.

Brandon Seabrook

Brandon Seabrook, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He has became widely renowned for his incredible energy, unique musical voice and his fresh and exciting approach to the banjo and guitar. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe including All Tomorrows Parties Festival, U.K., Warsaw Jazz Festival, and as artist in residence at the Borderland Foundation for Avante-garde Culture in Sejny, Poland. He has performed alongside noted improvisers such as Roswell Rudd, Anthony Coleman, Min Xiao-Fen, Roger Miller, Jack Wright, Jessica Pavone, and many others.

Ron Caswell

Born a pauper in the municipality of Trenton, NJ, Ron Caswell escaped his cultural abyss to attend the Mannes College of Music. He’s performed on tuba with The New York City Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Little Orchestra Society, Our State Fair (Broadway), Flying Karamazov Brothers (Broadway), Orchestra of St. Lukes, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, They Might Be Giants, Menlo Park, Slavic Soul Party and too many more to mention. Ron is the tuba player for everyone.

Ron has also co-produced salsa records with Martin Arroyo and has performed with numerous Latin bands playing trumpet and tuba. He plays bass in numerous rock projects including the underground East Village rock sensation the KNOBS!

Art Bailey

Pianist and accordionist Art Bailey is active in the improvised and world music scenes, and has appeared with such diverse musical performers as jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy, classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, and renowned bluegrass musician Del McCoury. Art has been the pianist with the Klezmer Conservatory Band since 1998, contributing new arrangements to the band’s repertoire and making stage and television appearances worldwide.

Since moving to New York in 2003, Art has performed with many of the major participants of the downtown klezmer scene including David Krakauer, Frank London, Alicia Svigals and Matt Darriau. He has performed on Broadway in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof with Harvey Fierstein and in Most Happy Fella at Lincoln Center with the New York City Opera.

In addition to his activities as a pianist and arranger in jazz and Latin music, his current project, Art Bailey’s Orkestra Popilar, is an exciting quintet that explores the Romanian side of Jewish music. On their recently released debut cd, Branch from the Tree, the band explores early 20th century Jewish fiddle pieces, improvisation, newly composed music, and pieces from the klezmer and Eastern European repertoire.

Steven Hrycelak

Steven Hrycelak has just completed an MM in Voice from Indiana University, and has a BA in Music from Yale University. With IU Opera Theater, his roles included Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Zuniga in Carmen, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dottor Bombasto in Arlecchino, and William Williamson in the collegiate premiere of Bolcom’s A Wedding. He was also a frequent concert soloist, most notably as Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion.

Mr. Hrycelak spent the past two summers singing roles with Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis, including Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro. He also has worked extensively in NY, as a soloist with Trinity Church Wall Street, Musica Sacra, and the Waverly Consort, and as an ensemble singer in such groups as the NY Virtuoso Singers, the NY Choral Artists, the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, and Equal Voices.

Randall Weiss

Randall Weiss made his solo violin debut performing the Tchaikowsky Violin Concerto as winner of the Victoria, B.C. Concerto Competition. For 17 years, he was Assistant Concertmaster of the San Jose Symphony, substituting regularly as Concertmaster. He is currently Assistant Concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley, one of America’s newest symphony orchestras.

Mr. Weiss has also appeared with the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet and the Louisville Orchestra, and has served as Assistant Concertmaster of the Music in the Mountains Festival as well as Concertmaster and soloist with the Santa Cruz County Symphony. His international performances include service as Concertmaster of the AIMS Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

Mr. Weiss trained with Paul Kling at the University of Victoria and the University of Louisville, with Tadeusz Wronski at Indiana University School of Music, and with Sylvia Rosenberg at The Peabody Conservatory. During the summer of 1998, he performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at the acclaimed Eastern Music Festival, where he has been a faculty member since 1989.

Robert Howard

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Robert Howard began studying cello at age 12. A graduate of Rice University and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has studied and performed at festivals such as Tanglewood, Spoleto, Verbier, the Accademia Chigiana and the Sandor Vegh Academy in Prague.

Robert won first prize in the Rome Festival Competition and has received grants from the Maggini and Virtu Foundations. Locally, he has performed with Philharmonia Baroque and the San Francisco Symphony.

Leslie Ludena

A native of California, Leslie Ludena grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., where she began her professional career in local orchestras at age 15. After attending the Eastman School of Music, she returned to Washington, freelancing throughout the D.C. metro area. Ms. Ludena joined the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in 1995, and played operas, ballet, and Broadway musicals there for three seasons. In 1998, she moved to San Francisco to accept a position with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, and she intends to remain here, further cultivating a lifelong passion for opera. Ms. Ludena also continues to freelance, subbing with several Bay Area orchestras and playing chamber music whenever possible.

Boris Sichon

Boris Sichon was born in 1954 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where he began studying percussion. He left home for St. Petersburg to continue his musical education at the Academy of Music. During his studies he played with the St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating from the Academy, Boris began performing as a stage musician, dancer, actor and singer with the Russian National Folkloric Band (Russia), The Jewish Chamber Musical Theatre (Russia), the Footsbarn Theatre (France) and the Habima National Theatre (Israel). As a touring artist, Boris began collecting traditional instruments as he traveled, studying with well known native musicians along the way.

Boris immigrated to Canada in 2004 and began performing with Uzume Taiko, Pepe Danza, leading workshops, and participating in Festivals (Blue Mountain, Treefest, Fair in the Squire, BC Rivers Day) with his solo performance Around The World with Boris, in which he plays approximately twenty five instruments from his collection.

José Gallardo

José Gallardo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina where as a child he began studying piano at the Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Music at the University of Mainz, Germany. Mr. Gallardo has performed all over the world including the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Musikhalle Hamburg, the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Wigmore Hall in London, New York, Chicago and Israel. He has received numerous awards from festivals throughout Europe and has performed with notable musicians such as Alberto Lysy, Linus Roth, Natascha Korsakova, Julius Berger and Sun Hyun-Jung.

Donate

The Jewish Music Festival needs your support, as ticket sales cover only one-third of the Festival’s cost. Your tax-deductible donation or $250 or more (in addition to ticket purchases) allows you to enjoy:

Priority reserved concert seating
Express check-in
Private receptions with Festival artists
A DVD of Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music

Click to view the Forest Creatures website for information of the Kitka Davka DVD

To make your contribution of any amount please visit our secure donation page

For additional information about donor opportunities and benefits, please call Ellie Shapiro at (510) 848-0237 ×126. Your support ensures that the Jewish Music Festival will continue to flourish!

23nd Annual Jewish Music Festival
March 22-30, 2008

Sponsorship Categories & Benefits

$20,000 Presenting Sponsor

The below PLUS · Acknowledgement from the stage every performance · Full page cover ad in the Festival program* · Logo in press publicity, brochure, poster, and website, plus link to sponsor’s website · Ten Festival passes · Invitations to artist receptions

$10,000 Festival Sponsor

The below PLUS · Recognition on Festival poster · Primary sponsorship acknowledgement for concert of choice in Festival brochure* and program · Logo in press publicity, brochure, poster, and website, plus link to sponsor’s website · Eight Festival passes · Invitations to artist receptions

$5,000 Concert Sponsor

The below PLUS · Sponsorship acknowledgement for concert of choice in Festival brochure and program · Six Festival passes · Invitations to VIP receptions · Acknowledgement in brochure, poster, and website, plus link to sponsor’s website

$2,500 – $4,999 Impresario

The below PLUS · Sponsorship acknowledgement in Festival brochure and program · Four Festival passes · Invitations to VIP receptions

$1000-2,499 Top Fiddle

The below PLUS · Sponsorship acknowledgement in Festival brochure and program · Two Festival passes · Invitations VIP receptions

$500-999 High Note

The below PLUS · One Festival Pass

$250-499 Music Maven

The below PLUS · Priority reserved seats · Express check-in · Post-performance receptions · A DVD of Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music

$100-249 A Different Drummer

· Acknowledgement in program

Under $100 Chorus

· Acknowledgement in program

Online Survey

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Related Events 2007

March 4 – 2:30 – 4 pm, Preview of Musical Fortunes: Jewish and Romani Common Routes

Judah L. Magnes Museum. 2911 Russell Street, Berkeley. 510-549-6950
In association with Lehrhaus Judaica

March 6 – 6:30 pm, Dan Cantrell & Others

San Francisco Public Library, Civic Center, SF, 415-557-4400

March 9 – 8 pm, Highlights of Musical Fortunes

The Dance Palace, Pt. Reyes Station, 415-663-1075

March 9 – 7:30 pm, Shir Hashirim: Ashkenazi, Sephardi & Mizrahi musical liturgy

JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley, 510-848-0237

March 16 – 8 pm, A Musical Shabbat with Members of Pharaoh’s Daughter

Temple Beth Sholom, 642 Dolores Ave., San Leandro, 510-357-8505

Community Music Day

Poetry Slam Finals, interactive workshops, children’s concert, Instrument Petting Zoo, and performances throughout the day showcasing high quality local artists. Guaranteed to bring out your inner musician.

Download the Community Music Day schedule of events

Poetry Slam instructions coming soon

Sunday March, 25, 2006. 11-5 pm JCC East Bay. 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley

Tickets: $25 Family pass (up to two adults and two children)/$10/$7

Co-sponsored by the Freight and Salvage Coffee House, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture (JCEF) and the Anisman/Sherman Family and Julie Sherman

Aires de Sefarad

Music composed by Jorge Liderman, performed by Duo46. With Avi Avital

Congregation Beth El
1301 Oxford St., Berkeley, CA 94709

Avi Avital will also appear on March 22nd at 2:00 pm at the JCC of the East Bay
1414 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA 94709

Aires de Sefarad, performed by Duo46.

Born in Argentina, trained in Israel and the US, the now Berkeley-based composer Jorge Liderman brings a highly original twist to Sephardic music with Duo46, two maverick players of violin and guitar in this work commissioned in part by the Guggenheim Foundation. The double bill includes Avi Avital, an Israeli mandolin master who recently won first prize of the international competition for plucked strings “Città di Voghera” (Italy); and has played solo with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Milano and others. (Please see separate listing for another solo performance by Avi Avital)

Avi Avital

Wednesday, March 22, 2:00 pm
Jewish Community Center of the East Bay
1414 Walnut St.
Berkeley, CA 94709

Avi Avital is an Israeli mandolin master who recently won first prize in the international competition for plucked strings “Città di Voghera” (Italy); and has played solo with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Milano and others.

He has also garnered first prize of the “Giovani Talenti” (Italy), the Tzvi Rotenberg National String Instruments competition (Israel), the Paul Ben-Haim National competition (Israel), the Sharon Tavor – Pintz competition for Soloists (Israel) and the Edna Sarny competitions (Israel). He has been awarded scholarships from the America – Israel Cultural Foundation and from the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy and Conservatorio Cesare Pollini of Padove.

Avital performs widely in Israel, Europe and the Far East. His Festival appearances include the First International Rondella Festival 2004 (The Philippines), Les Muséiques 2005, directed by Gideon Kremer, (Switzerland), Ravenna Festival 2004, directed by Riccardo Muti (Italy), and the Fourth International EGM Plucked Strings Festival (Germany).

He dedicates a large portion of his musical activity to performing and creating New Music and is often involved with Contemporary Dance, Theatre, Video Art and Electronic Music. He has played over 25 premieres of mandolin pieces by contemporary composers such as Ramon Santus, Leon Schidlowsky, Claudio Lugo, Yehezkel Braun, Abel Ehrlich, Zvi Avni and others.

Avital is a member of traditional and contemporary chamber ensembles with whom he has recorded many albums. Those include the Kerman Mandolin Quartet, Three Plucked Strings (mandolin, guitar and harpsichord), Kaprizma Ensemble (Israel), Dissonanzen Ensemble (Italy) and David Orlowsky’s Klezmorim Quartet (Germany). Since 2004 he has performed regularly with the renowned clarinetist Giora Feidman, as a member of his Sextet.

Avi Avital Website

Poetry Slam on the theme of Diaspora

at the Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave. at Prince Street, Berkeley
$7 general, $5 students with ID
Tickets first-come, first-serve, at venue only

Finalists perform at Spoken Word Showcase Community Music Day, Finale of the 22nd Jewish Music Festival Sunday, March 25, 3:15-4:00 pm.

Di·as·po·ra (dī-ās’pər-ə) n.

*1. The dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century B.C., when they were exiled to Babylonia, until the present time.

*2. often diaspora The body of Jews or Jewish communities outside Palestine or modern Israel.

*3. diaspora

a. A dispersion of a people from their original homeland. b. The community formed by such a people: “the glutinous dish known throughout the [West African] diaspora as … fufu” (Jonell Nash).

*4. diaspora – A dispersion of an originally homogeneous entity, such as a language or culture: “the diaspora of English into several mutually incomprehensible languages” (Randolph Quirk).

Poets should arrive early to sign up for the slam at the Starry Plough.

Sign-ups open at 7:30, and remain open until the slam starts at 8:30. Poets who have work on the theme of “Diaspora” will get priority. There are TWO rounds to the slam, but only one poem (first round) on the theme is required.

Berzerkeley SLAM Rules:

1: Have Fun!
Compete to uplift, not defeat. Leave your ego at the door.
The point is not the points, the point is poetry!

2: Poems 1 original poem per round, under 3 minutes. 10-second grace period (3:10), then 0.1 penalty per 0:01. Time begins at first utterance!

3: Content The theme of Diaspora, any style. One possible bonus point 1st round only. Focus on words: No music (Singing/rhythm is OK). No costumes or props.

4: Judging Five judges selected from the audience by lottery. Poems judged on a 1-10 scale, with tenths. High and low scores are dropped. Poets can be disqualified for attitude. If you can’t shake hands afterwards, somebody’s got a bad attitude. Ties are broken by Sudden Death Haiku Audience choice goes to Round 2 regardless of score.

5: Heckling Good-natured heckling from the Audience and Judges is great, but intimidation is not only rude, it’s weak.

6: Prizes
1st=$200, 2nd=$100, 3rd=$50

For further information, please visit:
www.berkeleypoetryslam.com

Noa

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
3200 California Street at Presidio Ave., San Francisco

For tickets and information this Festival concert only: www.jccsf.org

Noa makes a long awaited return to the Bay Area for two exclusive performances at the Jewish Community Center San Francisco, Wednesday, March 21st (co-sponsored with the 22nd Jewish Music Festival), and Thursday, March 22nd.

Noa Website

Diaspora Blues

TRIBUTE TO TZADIK MUSIC AND RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE

Thrust Stage / Berkeley Repertory Theatre
2025 Addison St., Berkeley

“On trumpet, and as a composer and leader, Steven Bernstein is uncategorizable.”
—Nat Hentoff, JazzTimes

Steven Bernstein with Peter Apfelbaum and Friends, presents Diaspora Blues. Originally from Berkeley, these now New York-based cutting edge composer/ performers are stretching the definition of Jewish music. Diaspora Blues is based on the work of legendary cantor Moshe Koussevitsky, and was originally recorded in 2002 with the Sam Rivers Trio. This West Coast premiere includes Grammy-nominee, Steven Bernstein-trumpet, slide trumpet; Peter Apfelbaum-tenor saxophone, flute; Devin Hoff-bass; Scott Amendola-drums.

Pharaoh’s Daughter

TRIBUTE TO TZADIK MUSIC AND RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE

Thrust Stage / Berkeley Repertory Theatre
2025 Addison St., Berkeley

Pharaoh’s Daughter: Blending psychedelic sensibility and pan-Mediterranean sensuality, Basya Schechter leads her New York band through Hasidic chants and Mizrahi and Sephardi folk-rock, filtered through percussion, flute, strings and electronica. In 2006, the group received awards in the categories of Best Middle Eastern Blend and Best World Music at the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival.

Pharaoh’s Daughter Website

The Symbolic Power of Jewish Music

TRIBUTE TO TZADIK MUSIC AND RADICAL JEWISH CULTURE

The Jazzschool, 2087 Addison Street, Berkeley
$10/ $5 for ticket holders of Pharaoh’s Daughter or Diaspora Blues

The Symbolic Power of Jewish Music:

A conversation with vanguard musicians of John Zorn’s Tzadik Radical Jewish Culture CD label, including Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Basya Schechter and Peter Apfelbaum. Moderated by Myra Melford, UC Berkeley

Produced in association with the Jazzschool

Ensemble Lucidarium

La Istoria de Purim: Music and Poetry of the Jews of Renaissance Italy

First Congregational Church of Berkeley:
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Ensemble Lucidarium “Pure energy on period instruments” – one of Italy’s premier Early Music ensembles makes their Bay Area debut with “La Istoria de Purim,” a program devoted to the music and poetry of the Jews in Renaissance Italy that has delighted audiences and critics from Paris to Budapest.

This program is a vivacious combination of voices and instruments played with the freedom that comes from a solid knowledge of musical style and historical background, and meticulous preparation and creativity.
This tour is supported by the Primo Levi Center, New York

Ensemble Lucidarium Website

Tales from Terezin: A Musical Journey

Order a pass for all the Tales from Terezin events

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
290 Dolores Street, (at 16th Street), San Francisco

For tickets and information this concert only: 415.861.6932 × 310
or email programs@shaarzahav.org

In memory of Sylvie Braitman 1956-2006

A well-known Bay Area singer who used her powerful voice and enormous talent to confront the enormous loss of the Holocaust.

Terezín, the “model concentration camp” established by the Nazis outside Prague during World War II, became for a short time the meeting place for many of Europe’s finest musicians. Surrounded by extraordinary musical talent in the midst of misery, Jewish composers there not only wrote chamber music, but conducted and performed large choral works and even symphonies.

Violinist Randall Weiss first became interested in the music performed at Terezín when he was asked to play a string trio by Czech composer Gideon Klein. In search of information about Klein, Weiss called on his former teacher Paul Kling, who had been Klein’s chamber music partner in the concentration camp. Weiss will be joined by cellist Victoria Ehrlich, violist Natalia Vershilova and violinist Leslie Ludena in performing string chamber music by Gideon Klein, as well as Hans Krása, Zikmund Schul and Viktor Ullmann.

Co-sponsored by Congregation Sha’ar Zahav

Klezmer Buenos Aires - Lerner Moguilevsky Duo

Thrust Stage / Berkeley Repertory Theatre
2025 Addison St., Berkeley

“Surrender yourself to their ecstatic joy . . . dance with it. Moguilevsky and Lerner are your hosts, satisfaction guaranteed.” —Carlos Pages, Contumancia Magazine

Direct from Argentina

Klezmer Buenos Aires: Lerner Moguilevsky Duo is a brilliant virtuosic duo presenting a stellar blend of klezmer, Argentinean folk music, tango and jazz improvisation. Their stunning virtuosity on flutes, wooden flutes, bagpipe, duduk (wind instrument), clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, harmonica, accordion, piano and percussion makes the two of them sound like an orchestra.

Co-sponsored by La Peña Cultural Center

Klezmer Buenos Aires - Lerner Moguilevsky Duo Website

Opening Night: Musical Fortunes

OPENING NIGHT – WORLD PREMIERE

Musical Fortunes: New Music based on Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) Routes.

First Congregational Church of Berkeley:
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Musical Fortunes: New music based on Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) Routes. A World Premiere of new music based on two rich traditions, mined by Oakland composer/performer Dan Cantrell with Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, Michael Alpert, Rumen Shopov and dancers Rachel Brice and Elizabeth Strong.

This new work has been commissioned thanks to funding from the Creative Work Fund, The East Bay Community Foundation-Fund for Artists, The MAP Fund, a project of Creative Capital, Lufthansa German Airlines and Leonard Kurz, in memory of Ursula Sherman

Basya Schechter

Blending psychedelic sensibility and pan-Mediterranean sensuality, Basya Schechter leads her New York band, Pharaoh’s Daughter through Hasidic chants and Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, filtered through percussion, flute, strings and electronica.

Schechter’s Hasidic music background and travel to the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Egypt, Central Africa, Turkey, Greece and Kurdistan inspired a retuning of her guitar to sound like a cross between an Arabic oud and a Turkish saz. The result lends itself to the harmonic minor melodies and odd time signatures that create her unique sound. She has recorded four albums, three with Pharaoh’s Daughter and one instrumental exploration with Persian santur player, Alan Kushan. The band also appears on three Tzadik label compilations: Voices in the Wilderness: the ten year anniversary of John Zorn’s Masada compositions, a collection of Sasha Argov music, and the music of Brazilian Jewish composer Jacob Du Bandolim, one of the founders of Brazil’s choro style.

John Schott

John Schott is one of the Bay Area’s most influential jazz guitarists, whose recently released CD, John Schott’s Typical Orchestra, was listed as one of the top jazz CDs of 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle. He is a former member of the Grammy-nominated group T. J. Kirk, with Scott Amendola, Will Bernard and Charlie Hunter. His New World Recordings release Shuffle Play: Elegies for the Recording Angel was listed as one of the 10 best releases of 2000 by the UK’s Wire Magazine.

John Schott Website

Ben Goldberg

Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado. He received his undergraduate music degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master of Arts in Composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano.

Ben’s group New Klezmer Trio took a slightly different view of Jewish music. Their CD, Masks and Faces, was listed as one of the ten best recordings of 1992 by Cadence magazine, which called it “great free improvisation.” Masks and Faces and Melt Zonk Rewire, as well as the group’s third CD, Short for Something, are on the Tzadik label. Ben’s other recordings include two records by Junk Genius (with John Schott, Trevor Dunn, and Kenny Wollesen), Here by Now (Music and Arts), What Comes Before (Tzadik), Eight Phrases for Jefferson Rubin (Victo), and Twelve Minor (Avant).

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Press Downloads

Higher-resolution image downloads are linked below. All files have been zipped for easy downloading.

Our logos and other print-ready files will be available here shortly.

Heather Lauren Klein

Elizabeth Strong

Elizabeth Strong grew up in a tradition of dance and music. As a young girl she was inspired by the music and dancing of the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Her amazingly emotional and personal style has captivated audiences in the Bay Area and abroad. Elizabeth believes that the heart is the source of dance and that dance is an expression of our relationship with life and culture.

Elizabeth currently makes her living performing and teaching dance throughout the United States. Her current passion includes working with professionals from multiple disciplines to create and perform pieces that are heart-felt, stylized and unique.

Elizabeth Strong Website

Myra Melford

Moderator – The Symbolic Power of Jewish Music

“From her first album in 1991, it was clear that this pianist and composer would stay around,” the New York Times said of Myra Melford. Melford has not only stuck around, but she has flourished. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including nine as a leader , performed in more than 30 countries, won major awards for composition and piano performance, and worked with some of the world’s most innovative musicians. Melford’s staying power is the product of ceaseless musical travels; she’s always going somewhere. As Francis Davis noted , “Myra Melford is the genuine article, the most gifted pianist/composer to emerge from jazz since Anthony Davis.”

At the keyboard, Melford recasts the blues and boogie-woogie of her Chicago hometown, folds in elements of the music of Eastern Europe and India, and blends them with the rangy, percussive avant-garde stylings she cultivated in studies with Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. This personal musical vocabulary is further enriched by a lush lyricism and organized by an architectural sense of composition that she derived from classical training.

Melford’s remarkable breadth is ordered by a thoughtful, expressive sensibility, evocatively described by Coda Magazine: “Myra Melford is at once a dancer, a romantic and a savage suckerpuncher at the bench . . . beating all hell out of the piano and making it beautiful.”

In the early ’90s Melford toured and recorded extensively with her acclaimed trio featuring Lindsey Horner on bass and Reggie Nicholson on drums. Their 1993 recording Alive in the House of Saints was reissued by hat Art in 2001. In the late ’90s, she led a quintet, The Same River, Twice, which featured trumpeters Dave Douglas or Cuong Vu, reedist Chris Speed, cellist Erik Friedlander, and drummer Michael Sarin. They recorded two albums, their self-titled debut on Gramavision (1996) and Above Blue (Arabesque, 1999).

Melford currently leads or co-leads four groups, all of which have recorded in the past several years.

Melford’s ongoing search for new sounds and new directions in her music led her to the harmonium, a small hand-pump organ traditionally used in Indian and Pakistani classical and devotional music. Melford was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study North Indian music on the instrument with Sohanlal Sharma in Calcutta, where she was in residency from September 2000 through May 2001. The fruits of her studies are heard in some of her compositions for her groups The Tent and Be Bread.

In addition to leading her own ensembles for more than 15 years, Melford appears as a special guest on Jenny Scheinman’s Shaligaster (Tzadik), Joseph Jarman’s Lifetime Visions and Jarman’s and Leroy Jenkins’ Out of the Mist (Ocean Records); Butch Morris’ a Move (Sony) and Songs Out of My Trees (Soul Note); and Leroy Jenkins’ Themes and Improvisations on the Blues (CRI).

Melford is also active in music education. She is currently Assistant Professor of Improvisation and Jazz in the Music Department at the University of California at Berkeley. Her course, “Current Trends in Jazz and Improvisation-based Musics—A Performance Workshop,” allows students to explore the role of improvisation in contemporary jazz and creative music through performance. The course emphasizes developing the tools of an improviser as well as an aesthetic and critical knowledge of current practices. She earned a B.A. from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. She completed her studies with Art Lande and Gary Peacock at the Cornish Institute in Seattle, and in private study with Henry Threadgill and Don Pullen in New York City.

As Melford continues to turn musical corners with new instruments, inventive compositions, and further ensembles, you get the feeling that her artistry could still go anywhere. As Jazziz magazine noted, “The confidence to go so far into uncharted territory and the ability to carry listeners along—then bring them back—attest to Melford’s vision.”

Myra Melford Website

Patrons

Priority reserved concert seating
Express check-in
Private receptions with Festival artists
A DVD of Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music

Click to view the Forest Creatures website for information of the Kitka Davka DVD

To make your contribution of any amount please visit our secure donation page

For additional information about donor opportunities and benefits, please call Ellie Shapiro at (510) 848-0237 ×126. Your support ensures that the Jewish Music Festival will continue to flourish!

23nd Annual Jewish Music Festival
March 22-30, 2008

Sponsorship Categories & Benefits

$20,000 Presenting Sponsor

$10,000 Festival Sponsor

$5,000 Concert Sponsor

$2,500 – $4,999 Impresario

The below PLUS · Sponsorship acknowledgement in Festival brochure and program · Four Festival passes · Invitations to VIP receptions

$1000-2,499 Top Fiddle

The below PLUS · Sponsorship acknowledgement in Festival brochure and program · Two Festival passes · Invitations VIP receptions

$500-999 High Note

The below PLUS · One Festival Pass

$250-499 Music Maven

The below PLUS · Priority reserved seats · Express check-in · Post-performance receptions · A DVD of Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music

$100-249 A Different Drummer

· Acknowledgement in program

Under $100 Chorus

· Acknowledgement in program

Fran Avni

(from her site, FranAvni.com )

Singer-songwriter, recording artist and producer Fran Avni has been creating original music for over two decades. An internationally-acclaimed performer, she engages her audiences in dynamic interactive concerts, workshops and artist residencies.

Fran Avni’s varied career covers everything from early childhood literacy songs to traditonal and contemporary Hebrew melodies. Her numerous recordings and songbooks showcase her far-reaching creativity and talent.

Her latest work includes 48 songs/ 6 CDs as Music Author/Producer for one of North America’s leading publishers for educational children’s material, Scholastic’s Building Language for Literacy Project. She has also developed music for the award-winning I’M ALL EARS: SING INTO READING and LITTLE EARS: SONGS FOR READING READINESS for LeapFrog SchoolHouse. These recordings are now in schools across the US.

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Fran moved to Israel where she was one half of the popular duo of “Susan & Fran”. Returning to North America, Fran branched into delightful recordings for children with the co-founding of Lemonstone Records.
Among them are LATKES AND HAMENTASHEN, MOSTLY MATZAH, THE SEVENTH DAY, ARTICHOKES & BRUSSEL SPROUTS and the environmentally-friendly DAISIES AND DUCKLINGS.

She has also composed songs for Canadian Sesame Street and the National Film Board of Canada. Based on her continually-expanding repertoire, Fran regularly conducts workshops at educational conferences. Her expertise has recently extended to arranging and producing albums/CDs for other artists.

Arkady Gendler CD

Arkady Gendler recording available exclusively from the Jewish Music Festival!

The Jewish Music Festival is your exclusive source for a recording by Ukrainian Jewish folk singer Arkady Gendler. This selection of 16 rare and original songs comes with notes by Mark Slobin and Michael Alpert; transcriptions, translations and transliterations by Jeanette Lewicki.

Arkady Gendler, now over 80, was born in the Bessarabian city of Sorok, the tenth child of a large, Yiddish-speaking family that loved to sing and stage theatrical performances. He and a brother were the only ones to survive the Holocaust. Although it was forbidden in the Soviet Union to openly participate in Yiddish cultural activities, Arkady continued to study for almost 50 years. When it became possible to open a Jewish high school after the breakup of the Soviet Union, he created a teaching method in Zaparozhe, Ukraine, that revolved around the endless repertoire he had stored for half a century, as well as new songs that he composed.

This is his first and only recording, reflecting the powerful history of his generation, as well as his own warmth, wit and humor. The collection includes a song heretofore unrecorded by Itsik Manger, which Arkady learned from his sister, as well as a verse to the folk song Tumbalalaika, previously unknown. His rich, sonorous voice comes from a bottomless well of neshoma, perfectly complimented by the accordion accompaniment of Jeanette Lewicki of the San Francisco Klezmer Experience.

The Jewish Music Festival recorded Arkady Gendler at Fantasy Studios, after the wildly enthusiastic reception he received from more than a thousand concert-goers at our 15th Annual Festival in March, 2000. Everyone connected with the production donated their services so that all profits would go directly to Mr. Gendler.

The cost of the CD is $18 plus $2.00 shipping. Group orders are possible. Credit card orders can be taken by phone at 510-848-0237 × 226. Checks can be mailed to: The Jewish Music Festival, c/o JCCEB, 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA, 94709

Online Sales available soon!

Personnel on this recording:

Arkady Gendler: vocals
Jeanette Lewicki: accordion
Jeanette Lewicki, Jim Rebhan: arrangements

Songs

Potatoes (Zelik Berditshever) 1:46
When a Jew has a business (Zelik Berditshever) 1:52
Send me a ray of light (unknown) 3:51
Night songs (H. Rivkin) 2:16
Manger’s Testament (attributed to Itzik Manger) 2:24
Sholem Aleykhem (S. Berenstein) 2:00
The Swing (Arkady Gendler) 3:17
Ele-Bele! (Zelik Berditshever) 2:26
When we went to see the Rebbe (trad.) 2:01
Purim Song (trad.) 0:57
Purim Purim Purim (trad.) 1:07
Tumbalalaika (trad.) 3:21
Doina (I. Manger) 3:13
The street girl 4:18
Lay your head upon my knee 1:56
My hometown Soroke 2:10

How to do an archival recording right:

A review by Ari Davidow from The Klezmer Shack

Arkady Gendler / My Hometown Soroke, a project of the Jewish Music Festival, itself a project of the [Jewish Community Center of the East Bay], /.

The collapse of the former Soviet Union, and the small attempts to rebuild Jewish life all over Eastern and Central Europe have yielded, in return, amazing gems of Jewish culture. According to the liner notes, Ellie Shapiro, of the Jewish Music Festival in Berkeley, first heard Gendler in a Klezmer Festival in St. Petersburg in 1999. Shapiro, who has spent years working with folk traditions around the world (including significant work as research on a Pete Seeger biography) was amazed at his voice, his memory, and the songs that he knew, several of which were unknown, and some of which contained missing verses or variants on famous Yiddish folk songs of the last century. The connection many listeners will quickly make, however, hearing Gendler’s voice, is with a blues singer who sang about “Avalon, my home town”, Mississippi John Hurt.

Gendler did not begin his life as a professional singer. Originally from Bessarabia, he fled during WWII deeper into the Soviet Union and became a plastics engineer. Shapiro managed to convince folks in Berkeley to get Gendler over from the Ukraine to sing in the Jewish Music Festival. In the last few hours before he returned home, they recorded this album. Given the circumstances, it is amazing how good the resultant recording is. What we have here is a perfect example of how you record the music of older musicians whose knowledge and songs you wish to preserve. The recording quality is excellent. Jeanette Lewicki’s occasional accordion accompaniment provides the perfect counter to his voice without clutter. Some songs are a capella. A few are introduced by Gendler in Yiddish. Gendler’s voice is warm, strong, and tuneful. The songs are great. The production on the album is impeccable: There are background notes by ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin and Michael Alpert (of Brave Old World, and numerous Jewish folklore projects). The words that Gendler wrote out longhand in Yiddish have been painstakingly typeset in Yiddish, with transliteration, and translated. Jim Rebhan (Ellis Island, California Klezmer) notated most of the music.

Whether Gendler is singing a well-known song like “Tumbalalaika,” one of his own compositions, or a song by Itzik Manger about him and his friends, “Manger’s Testament,” one is transported to another world—not a world of nostalgia, but one in which the songs, current when Gendler learned them (in some cases, wrote them) are still current, still live, and still sound fresh. My subconscious must have understood this better than the fingers transcribing my thoughts. As I type this review, having heard the album innumerable times over the last few months, the CD changer puts on the next album, that of another older singer dear to my heart and recorded at her best after a career outside of music—blues singer Alberta Hunter. It was an apt choice.

Major kudos to everyone involved in producing this album—to Arkady Gendler who keeps the songs alive, and worth hearing, to Donald Brody, Shapiro, Lewicki, Rebhan, and everyone else involved in bringing Gendler to the States and to making the recording, to Matthew Fass for excellent typesetting, to Miriam Klein Stahl for the beautiful papercut which graces the cover, to everyone at the enormously wonderful Jewish Music Festival which has brought so many worlds of diverse and wonderful music to Berkeley for so many years, and to the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center where all of this lives and thrives—a community center in the very best sense of the word.

Reviewed by Ari Davidow 10 Feb 2002
Editor, The Klezmer Shack

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Major Sponsors

Major Sponsors
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Anisman/Sherman Family and Julie Sherman
Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
Gaia Fund
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Gottesman-Biddle Family Philanthropic Fund (JCEF)
Guzik Foundation
Walter and Elise Haas Fund
The Jewish Community Federation and Foundation of the Greater East Bay
Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture (JCEF)
Koret Foundation
Forest Creatures Entertainment

Volunteer signup form

To volunteer for the 2008 Jewish Music Festival, you can fill out this form, email the volunteer coordinator, download the printable form as a Word file or download the printable form as a PDF file and fax to 510.848-0170 or mail it in (address at the bottom of this page).

We will do our best to match your request! Event tickets are received in exchange for hours worked. Four hours of time is equivalent to one show.

Contact Email

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Home Phone

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Have you volunteered for us before? Yes No

What was your job?

I want to volunteer... I want to volunteer BEFORE the festival
I want to volunteer DURING the festival

Schedule Requested
Date/Event/Location	Shifts
Various, Pre-Festival Hospitality Pick-ups, Mailings, etc.	Pre-Concert Concert Post-Concert
Thurs 3/13 Yiddish Art Songs with Heather Lauren Klein, JCC East Bay, Berkeley	Meyn Yiddishe Velt
Sat 3/22 A Night in the Old Marketplace, Berkeley Rep, Roda Stage & Donor Party	A Night in the Old Marketplace A Night in the Old Marketplace Donor Party
Thurs 3/23 Cantor Benzion Miller, Netivot Shalom, Berkeley	Benzion Miller
Sat 3/25 Teslim, First Unitarian Church, Oakland	Teslim
Sat 3/26 Golem, The Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco	Golem
Sun 3/27 Israel @ 60: Chen Zimbalista, St. John’s Church, Berkeley	Israel at 60
Thurs 3/29 The Ark, JCC San Francisco	The Ark
Thurs 3/30 Community Dance Party, JCC East Bay	Community Dance Party

Volunteers are especially needed for Community Music Day, 11 - 5:00, Sunday, March 25th, JCCEB. Tasks include assisting at the Instrument Petting Zoo, product sales, production help, traffic control, parking monitors, volunteers-at-large... let us know your specific skills.

VOLUNTEER JOBS – Place an “X” in the box(es) of jobs in which you are interested and capable.
Distributing flyers before festival	Donor Party - Serving/Greeting
Donor Party Coordinating	Tickets or Will Call
Miscellaneous Pre-Festival Projects	Concession Sales
CD Sales	Ushering or Handing out Programs
Line Control	Food donations or Hospitality
Greeters or ticket tearers	Cleaning Up
Patron Table or Donor Seating	* Post-show production(tearing down and loading out equipment, cleaning hospitality.Lifting)
* Pre-Show Production (loading and setting up equipment and hospitality area; lifting)	As needed or Specific skills

*Production jobs require lifting –30 lbs+.

Notes

THANK YOU!

PLEASE SUBMIT THIS FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO THE JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL OFFICE; FAX THE PRINTABLE FORM TO 510.848-0170; OR EMAIL THE VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR.

Victoria Ehrlich

Cellist Victoria Ehrlich performed with the Santa Fe Opera and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival prior to joining the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 1984. She has performed with the San Francisco Ballet and Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and California and Berkeley Symphonies, and is an active chamber musician, appearing with the Ariel String Quartet, Gold Coast Chamber Players, and other groups.

Randall Weiss

Randall Weiss made his solo violin debut as winner of the Victoria, B.C. Concerto Competition. Currently Assistant Concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley, he previously served for 17 years as Assistant Concertmaster for the San Jose Symphony. In 1999 he founded Music in the Mishkan, a chamber music series at San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav.

Peter Apfelbaum

Peter Apfelbaum, master of a wide variety of instruments, founded the original 17-piece Hieroglyphics Ensemble in 1977 while a student at Berkeley High School, as a vehicle for composing and exploring non-traditional musical forms. The Grateful Dead championed the band, inviting them to open several of their shows. They secured a record deal with Antilles/Island and released Signs Of Life in 1990 (which received a Grammy nomination for the composition “Candles and Stones” and “Jodoji Brightness” in 1992.) The band won the 1992 Down Beat Critics Poll award for Big Band, Talent Deserving Wider Recognition. In February, 2003 he formed the 11-piece New York Hieroglyphics which performed last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival and at Yoshi’s.

Apfelbaum’s music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet, the National Swedish Radio Orchestra of Stockholm, the Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra, Harry Belafonte, Kamikaze Ground Crew and the Trey Anastasio Band, among others. He also continues to perform regularly with Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, and with many other artists.

Peter Apfelbaum Website

Steven Bernstein

Berkeley native, Steven Bernstein is a Grammy-nominated trumpeter/slide trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and composer who lives outside of musical convention. He has released three critically acclaimed CDs – Diaspora Soul (named one of the Top 10 CDs of 1999 by the Wall Street Journal), Diaspora Blues (featuring the Sam Rivers Trio), and his most recent, Diaspora Hollywood. on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. His band Sex Mob has been together ten years and has been featured on MTV, Saturday Night Live and NPR. They are currently nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Bernstein was musical director for I’m Your Man, a documentary on Leonard Cohen released in 2006. He recently filmed an hour-long segment for Solos, on Canadian TV. He was also the subject of a recent feature entitled “Creative Spaces” on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and was interviewed by Terry Gross in 2002. Bernstein wrote the horn arrangements for Bill Frissel’s Grammy-winning 2004 recording Unspeakable, and he has also written for artists such as Elton John, the Kronos Quartet and the Bang On a Can All Stars. Recent awards include Down Beat Critics Poll 2006 (#1 Rising Star Arranger, #4 Rising Star Trumpeter) and Down Beat Critics Poll 2005 (#1 Rising Star Arranger).

Steven Bernstein Website

Pharaoh's Daughter

In 2006, Pharoah’s Daughter received awards in the categories of Best Middle Eastern Blend and Best World Music at the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival.

Group founder *Basya Schechter*’s Hasidic music background and travel to the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Egypt, Central Africa, Turkey, Greece and Kurdistan inspired a retuning of her guitar to sound like a cross between an Arabic oud and a Turkish saz. The result lends itself to the harmonic minor melodies and odd time signatures that create her unique sound. She has recorded four albums, three with Pharaoh’s Daughter and one instrumental exploration with Persian santur player, Alan Kushan. The band also appears on three Tzadik label compilations: Voices in the Wilderness: the ten year anniversary of John Zorn’s Masada compositions, a collection of Sasha Argov music, and the music of Brazilian Jewish composer Jacob Du Bandolim, one of the founders of Brazil’s choro style.

Pharaoh’s Daughter has toured extensively through America and Eastern and Western Europe. The band had its debut at Central Park’s Summer Stage series in August 2004 and has played such prestigious stages as Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. When she is not touring or performing, Basya plays darbuka, riq and frame drum as part of the B’nai Jeshurun music ensemble that accompanies Friday night services.

Basya has been the recipient of numerous compositional and project grants from NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts) American Composers Forum (for Trance, and multilayered sound and video installation collaboration with filmmaker Pearl Gluck) and the American Music Center.

Pharaoh's Daughter Website

Klezmer Buenos Aires - Lerner Moguilevsky Duo

Born of Russian and Polish grandparents who immigrated to Argentina at the turn of the century, Cesar Lerner and Marcel Moguilevsky have been the main proponents of klezmer in that country for the past decade. Now on the international circuit, they bring audiences to their feet from Poland to Canada with breathtaking intensity.

Klezmer Buenos Aires - Lerner Moguilevsky Duo Website

Ensemble Lucidarium

Founded in 1991, this international award-winning group specializes in Medieval and Renaissance music. Much of Ensemble Lucidarium’s research is dedicated to repertoires meant for daily use and represents a mirror of the taste and mentality of the era. In 2004, the Ensemble won the European Association for Jewish Culture award for musical creation for “La Istoria de Purim: Music and Poetry of the Jews of Renaissance Italy.” Since then, the program, recorded for K617 in 2005, and has had more than 35 performances in nine countries.

Lucidarium is currently in residence at the Abbey of Royaumont, for a project dedicated to the reconstruction and realization of Angelo Poliziano’s Fabula d’Orpheo, the 1480 precursor of the modern opera. The project, which premiered in August of 2006, is a co-production of the Fondation Royaumont – CERIMM, the Centre de Musique Ancienne de Genève, the Konzertgebouw Bruges and Les Chemins du Baroque (Sarrebourg.)

Ensemble Lucidarium Website

Noa

Known in Israel by her given name Achinoam Nini, Noa is Israel’s leading international concert and recording artist. Born in Tel- Aviv in 1969, Noa lived in New York City from age 2 until her return to Israel alone at the age of 17. Her family is originally from Yemen. After serving the mandatory two years in the Israeli Army in a military entertainment unit, Noa studied music at the Rimon School where she met her long-time partner and collaborator Gil Dor.

Noa’s strongest influences come from the singer-songwriters of the 60s, like Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. These musical and lyrical sensibilities, combined with Noa’s Yemenite roots and Dor’s strong background in jazz, classical and rock, have created a unique sound, manifested in hundreds of songs written and performed together. Noa plays percussion, guitar and piano.

Noa Website

Avi Avital

Avi Avital is an Israeli mandolin master who recently won first prize of the international competition for plucked strings “Città di Voghera” (Italy); and has played solo with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Milano and others.

He has also garnered first prize in the “Giovani Talenti” (Italy), the Tzvi Rotenberg National String Instruments competition (Israel), the Paul Ben-Haim National competition (Israel), the Sharon Tavor – Pintz competition for Soloists (Israel) and the Edna Sarny competitions (Israel). He has been awarded scholarships from the America – Israel Cultural Foundation and from the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy and Conservatorio Cesare Pollini of Padove.

Avi Avital Website

Duo46

Since 1994, guitarist Matt Gould and violinist Beth Ilana Schneider have commissioned, recorded and performed new music around the world, as well as conducted ensemble residencies at schools such as Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Uludag Conservatory in Turkey. On faculty at Eastern Mediterranean University on the island of Cyprus from 2000-2005, Duo46 organized bi-annual composition residencies on campus with many composers of new music, including Jorge Liderman. Their second recording on Summit Records, “Untaming the Fury,” features new American works they commissioned in commemoration of 9/11. Their latest recording on Albany Records, “Aires de Sefarad” features 46 Spanish Songs for Violin and Guitar by Jorge Liderman.

Duo46 Website

Jorge Liderman

Jorge Liderman received his doctorate in composition from the University of Chicago and in 1989, he joined the composition faculty at UC Berkeley. Liderman’s works have been commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Orchestra, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, among others, as well as by artists such as Oliver Knussen, Esa Pekka Salonen, David Tanenbaum, Carla Kihlstedt, and Gloria Cheng. His opera Antigona Furiosa was filmed by German TV in 1992 and received the BMW International Music Theater Prize for that year in conjunction with the 3rd Munich Biennale. That same year Liderman was awarded the Argentine Tribune of Composers’ Prize for his chamber work Yzkor. His music has been recorded by CRI, Cadenza, ERM, Albany and Bridge Records.

Jorge Liderman Website

Rumen Sali Shopov

Rumen Sali Shopov hails from Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. An astonishing master of the tambura (long necked mandolin), bouzouki, and an accomplished drummer and vocalist, Rumen was the concertmaster of the Nevrokopski Folk Ensemble, Bulgaria’s first national folk ensemble, for more than 20 years. He was also lead member of two of the Pirin region’s hottest bands: “Shturo Make” and “Orkestar Orbita.”. Now residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has assembled a band that captures and showcases the sparkling fretwork, incendiary rhythms, and expressive soul of his native Bulgarian/Turkish-Romani musical tradition.

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble started in 1979 as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse backgrounds who met regularly to share their passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, lush harmonies, and resonant strength of Eastern European women’s vocal music. Kitka has grown to earn recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chorus America, and the American Choral Directors’ Association as one of this country’s premier vocal ensembles. In addition to performing traditional folk music from Eastern Europe, Kitka has presented premieres of new music by more than twenty-five composers.

Get the Kitka Davka DVD

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble Website

Michael Alpert

Michael Alpert has been a pioneering figure in the current renaissance of East European Jewish klezmer music for over twenty-five years. He is internationally known for his work with Brave Old World, Khevrisa, Kapelye, David Krakauer, and other artists. He is considered the finest traditional Yiddish singer of his generation. Adept at 20 languages, he is also the leading contemporary researcher and teacher of East European Jewish traditional dance.

Michael Alpert Website

Dan Cantrell

Award-winning composer Dan Cantrell began composing at age 11. His main instruments, piano, accordion, and musical saw have given way to a unique stylistic voice at once eloquent, eclectic and eerily harmonious. In 2002, Dan earned an Emmy award for his composition work on the KQED documentary “Home Front”. The same year his score for “Divided Loyalties” earned him the Golden Gate award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Dan is also the co-founder of the record label Odd Shaped Case, an organization that features some of the best and most unique Bay Area artists and musicians.

Dan Cantrell Website

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Support the 23rd Annual JMF by purchasing ad space in our printed Program

To advertise in the 2008 Jewish Music Festival program, please download the Program Advertising Contract. It lists available ad sizes and prices, and contains the mechanical specs your designer will need, includes our contact information, and acts as a simple contract.

Download the 2008 JMF Ad Contract PDF

file: 2008-volunteer-form.doc [47.50KB]

Have any questions? Please phone (510) 848-0237 ext. 121 and leave a message for Josie Krieger-Bates, our advertising representative. Please specify if you are a new advertiser.

About the Jewish Music Festival

The mission of the Jewish Music Festival is to present music that celebrates the Jewish experience and explores what it means to be Jewish in a multicultural world. The Festival produces creative and entertaining programs, challenges stereotypes, and fosters engagement with the broader community.

The Jewish Music Festival is a program of the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay (JCC East Bay)

Staff · National Artistic Advisors · Steering Committee · Programming Committee ·

STAFF

Eleanor Shapiro, Director 2004 –present; Co-Director JMF 1997-2003

Former Development Director, The Crowden School & Crowden Center for Music in the Community; Public Relations Officer, San Francisco Municipal Railway; Public Information Officer, San Francisco Public Library; Staff Writer, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. Community Outreach for SF Jewish Film Festival and the Magnes Museum; former singer/performer with Young Audiences (a program that brings music to public schools); teacher and journalist, based in Jerusalem, 1983-1990. BA, History and Judaic and Near East Studies, Oberlin College; MA, Journalism, UC Berkeley. Currently a PhD student in Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.

Rebecca Turnbull, Assistant Director

Formerly JMF Community Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator. Rebecca’s non-profit work experience includes the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. She is a former editorial assistant and customer service agent with Turning Wheel Magazine, McSweeney’s, and Chronicle Books; and has published several articles in Turning Wheel Magazine and The Believer. Rebecca graduated from Oberlin College in 2006 with a BA in Religion and Politics.

Jaclyn Fromer, Outreach and Volunteer coordinator

Jaclyn’s deep love of Jewish music began at the age of twelve. A native of Los Angeles, her adolescent years were spent singing sacred classical liturgy with Stephen S. Wise Temple’s M’shor’im singers. While still in high school, she began working as a cantorial soloist. Jaclyn has led services for congregations in Los Angeles, Davis, Marin, and San Francisco. Jaclyn received her BA in Religious Studies and Music from UC Davis in 2006. At Davis, Jaclyn co-founded the first all women’s a cappella group, called The Spokes. In addition to the Music Festival, Jaclyn also works as a Jewish educator at two Bay Area synagogues.

Marjorie Wolf, Executive Director, JCC East Bay

Twenty years experience in health care management, including independent health care consultant worth with USAID, government officials and health care leaders in Eastern Europe on strategic planning, hospital operations, health care delivery systems and financial systems. Former interim director Judah L. Magnes Jewish Museum; president, Operation Dignity, Oakland, a five million dollar program serving homeless veterans and their families; past president Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay; past president of Woman Health Care Executives of Northern California.

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National Artistic Advisors

Michael Alpert is internationally known for his performances and recordings of klezmer music with Brave Old World, Kapelye and other groups. A research associate with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, he is considered a major authority on traditional Eastern European Jewish music and dance. Alpert is the Emmy Award-winning musical director of the PBS Great Performances special Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler’s House. He was executive producer of Perlman’s two recordings of klezmer music on Angel/EMI, and directed the subsequent international concert tours.

Theodore Bikel (Honorary) made his concert debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1956 in a folk song program. Every year since then, he has performed in concerts throughout the U.S.A., Canada, and Europe; including appearances with more than a dozen symphony orchestras. Mr. Bikel has recorded 20 record albums mostly for the Elektra label in addition to releases on Columbia, Peter Pan, and Reprise and was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival. His book Folksongs and Footnotes, published by Meridian Books (World Publishing) in 1961, had three reprint editions. He is also internationally acclaimed as a film and theater actor.

Yair Dalal is a leading figure on the Israeli and international world music scene, both as a soloist and in collaboration with his ensemble Al Ol. Born in Israel in 1955 to Iraqi parents, he has performed worldwide with artists including the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, specializing in original music inspired by music of the Middle East.

Ronnie Gilbert is a former member of the celebrated group, The Weavers, which brought folk rhythms and social activism to the mainstream, even as they were blacklisted during the McCarthy era. She has worked for many years as an actor, including work with Joseph Chaikin in The Open Theater and as a solo performer. She has more than two dozen CDs to her credit, as a soloist and with other artists.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is professor of Performance Studies at NYU. Her teaching, research, and writing encompass the aesthetics of everyday life, world’s fairs, museum theater, tourist productions, food and performance, Jewish performance, folklore, and ethnography.

Frank London is a Grammy-award winning musician and composer who plays trumpet and keyboards as a member of the internationally renowned klezmer ensemble the Klezmatics. He has performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni, Gypsy legend Esma Redzepova, and many others. His original work can be found on almost a dozen CDs. His film credits include John Sayles’ The Brother From Another Planet and Men With Guns. He has been featured on HBO’s Sex And The City, at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Francesco Spagnolo is Head of Research at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley. Formerly the Executive Director of the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History in New York. Since moving to the U.S. from his native Italy, he has worked as the Music Curator of the Judah L. Magnes Museum (Berkeley) and as a Lecturer in the Music and Literature departments of the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1997, he founded Yuval Italia, the Italian Center for the Study of Jewish Music. In 2001, the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem jointly issued his groundbreaking CD anthology, Italian Jewish Musical Traditions. He is a Research Fellow of the Jewish Music Research Center (Jerusalem) and recently completed his PhD in Musicology at Hebrew University.

Cantor Ramon Tasat sings in Hebrew, Ladino, Spanish, Italian and English. He holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in Voice Performance. A featured artist in international music festivals, he has produced 9 recordings and a book, Sephardic Songs for All. Dr. Tasat is an expert and a scholar in Sephardic music, and is the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to teach Sephardic music at universities throughout the country. He has performed on stages throughout the world, including at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Israeli Embassy; Italian Consulate (NY) Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island; Harvard University, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.

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Steering Committee

Rachel Biale
Regional Director, Progressive Jewish Alliance
Former Director, Community Education, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 1999  2006,
Former Senior Clinician, Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay; author of Women and Jewish Law, published by Schocken Books, 1984. The book received the Kenneth Smilen Award of the Jewish Museum, New York in 1985 in the category of Jewish Thought, and was re-issued in a new edition in 1995. She was born and raised on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, Israel. BA and MA Jewish History, UCLA; MSW, Yeshiva University, NY.

Denah S. Bookstein
Artist
Former Board Member, JCCEB (formerly Berkeley Richmond JCC), social worker; gallery owner. Former chair, subcommittee on disabilities, SF Jewish Family and Children’s Service; participant, Mitzvah Care Program – a joint program of SFJFCS and the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. BS, MA, MSW, University of Michigan.

Arthur Goldman
Vice President, Ritchie Commercial Corporation
Past president, JCCEB (formerly BRJCC); trustee, board member and past president, Congregation Beth El, Berkeley; former board member Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay. Former assistant director, National Commission on Urban Problems, Washington, D.C. (a Presidential Commission); former planner Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C. BA, Brown University; Masters of City Planning, Harvard University.

Tracy Lutz
Operations Manager, San Francisco Symphony
Has over 12 years of experience in production management and finance in live music, events and film / television industries. She currently serves as operations manager for the San Francisco Symphony and has worked at Chochmat HaLev, Bill Graham Presents, Lucasfilm, House of Blues, Disney and MTV networks. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.B.A. from Rollins College.

Tony Phillips
Attorney
San Francisco native; twenty years experience in general business litigation practice, with emphasis on legal malpractice and insurance coverage disputes; former Senior Editor of the Stanford Law Review, and federal appellate court clerk. Musician playing mandolin, fiddle, guitar and related instruments with various Jewish music, world music, bluegrass, and other groups; member, Steering Committee of the San Francisco Mandolin Festival; legal advisor, KlezCalifornia, an annual Yiddish music and cultural program. BA, Harvard College; JD, Stanford Law School.

Janis Plotkin
Programmer, Mill Valley Film Festival; Film Curator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
An internationally recognized leader in the field of independent Jewish subject cinema; former Executive Artistic Director, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, 1982 – 2002; instrumental in building diverse audiences that reached 35,000 attendees; programmer for KQED broadcasts of Jewish subject cinema; co-producer of the first Jewish Film Festival in Moscow, 1990; co-producer of the Jewish Film Festival, Madrid, commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Jewish Expulsion. Co-author, editor and publisher, Independent Jewish Film. B.A., Social Welfare, University of Washington-Seattle; dual Masters in Social Work and Jewish Community Studies, USC, and the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Former Instructor, Stanford University, Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew Union College, 2001.

Jonathan Reinis
Tony Award winning Producer, Jonathan Reinis Productions, 1975
Recent productions include Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues; Josh Kornbluth’s Love & Taxes; Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam (Tony Award, 2003); Sam Sheppard’s The Late Henry Moss; Dame Edna; Ennio, His Way; Sandra Bernhardt; Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile; John Leguizamo’s premiere of Freak; the award-winning Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; and Forever Tango. Forever Tango, Freak, Def Poetry Jam and Dame Edna transferred to Broadway after their successful San Francisco runs at Reinis’ theatre, Theatre on the Square, which he built in 1982 in San Francisco and operated for more than twenty years. BA, Anthropology, UC Berkeley, (Phi Beta Kappa).

Laura Sheppard
Director of Events, Mechanics’ Institute Library, SF 1999 –
Former producer, Jewish Music Festival, 1998-99; past producer, opening parties for the Degas Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1988) and Earth Day, Times Square and other locations (1990-1992) as well as other public festivals and events for more than 25 years. Former actor and recipient of two NEA Awards; former NEA theatre site reviewer. BFA, Theatre, Boston University’s School of Fine Arts.

Julie Sherman
Outreach Coordinator, Jewish Music Festival, 2005
Former program director, Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County, a non-profit health organization working with a low-income population; quilt display coordinator, NAMES Project, Israel Tour, 1990; lay leader of the Jewish community in Santa Cruz, 1982 – 1995; former board member of Aquarian Minyan.

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Programming Committee

Carole Baden, Program Associate, JMF 2005; recipient Dean’s Talent Award, Oberlin Conservatory; Sephardic and Mizrahi music specialist.

Steve Baker, Director, Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse and the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music.

Ben Brinner, Professor of Ethnomusicology, UC Berkeley, Department of Music.

Paul Hamburg, Judaica Librarian, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Laura Sheppard, Events Director, Mechanics Institute Library, San Francisco. Former producer of Jewish Music Festival (1998, 1999); Board Member, KlezCalifornia.

Ed Silberman, Early Childhood Educator; folk, klezmer and Yiddish music specialist.

Dore Stein, Producer/Host of “Tangents”, a KALW radio program that explores world and roots music, and creative jazz hybrids; former music director at KKSF, where he was a five time Gavin Award nominee, a major industry award recognizing excellence in radio music programming.

Susan Swerdlow, Conductor of choral music at the College Preparatory School in Oakland. She also trains choruses for Oakland Opera Theater and Berkeley Opera. Former music director of Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus.

Ilya Tovbis, Program Director, Jewish Community Center of the East Bay. Former Outreach and Operations Coordinator, Stern Grove Festival, former Volunteer Coordinator, Mill Valley Film Festival.

Alexandra Wall, former Staff Writer at J Weekly, the Bay Area’s Jewish newspaper, with special interest in the arts and inter-cultural relations.

Raya Zion, Workforce Development Manager, San Mateo County Central Labor Council; Fundraising Committee Chair, Chen Shapira Jewish Culture Fund; Israeli-born specialist in Sephardic, Mizrahi and Arabic music.

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Listen to Jewish Music Festival mp3's

Click the arrow to play, the square to stop.

More coming soon, please check back!

Avi Avital: Hora
Kaila Flexer: Stones Throw
Golem: Warsaw is Khelm

Tickets

This year we are using Brown Paper Tickets for our online orders.

Tickets now on sale! ( direct links below )

NEW THIS YEAR: Buy a Festival Pass!

Get a fast pass and reserved seating for all festival concerts! Buy your pass NOW!

Group rate: 20% discount for groups of 10 or more. Please call Jaclyn Fromer, our Outreach Coordinator at (510) 848-0237 ×139.

How to order:

Phone: (800) 838-3006
(Brown Paper Tickets 24 hours/7 days)

Internet: www.brownpapertickets.com
(24 hours/7 days)

Mail:
Send order form to:
JMF Box Office, c/o JCCEB (Jewish Community Center of the East Bay), 1414 Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709

Fax: (510) 848-0170 (24 hours/7 days)

In Person: JMF Box Office, JCCEB (Jewish Community Center of the East Bay), 1414 Walnut St. Berkeley.

Special Instructions: Please let us know if you require wheelchair accommodation. Call Rebecca at (510) 848-0237 ×119

Delivery Instructions: Tickets will be mailed to the billing address. Orders received less than 2 weeks prior to performance will be held at Will Call.

“Day of show”/on-site info:

Tickets will be available by internet and phone up to 12 hours before the event starts.
Tickets will be available on site one hour prior to the concert.
Doors open 30 minutes prior to the show

Forms of payment accepted:

Check: (please have ID available) payable to the Jewish Music Festival Box Office
Credit Card: (please have ID available) — Visa, Mastercard and Amex
Cash

The Fine Print

Each person must have a ticket regardless of age
Each order is charged a non-refundable processing fee ($.99 + 2.5% of ticket price)
Mail order processing fee $6.00
Returned check fee is $25
When purchasing for a group of buyers, please submit only one type of payment for the order.

Cancellation Policy

No refunds or exchanges

Direct links

New this year: Festival Pass, 9 concerts for $110

Mayn Yiddishe Velt
» Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM: Tix | Info
Frank London’s A Night in the Old Marketplace
» Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 8:00 PM: Tix | Info
Benzion Miller
» Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
Ladder of Gold
» Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
Golem
» Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 9:00 PM: Tix | Info
Israel @ 60
» Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
The Ark presents CYCLICAL RITUALS (part 1): Spring
» Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM: Tix | Info
Community Dance Party 2008
» Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 4:00 PM: Tix | Info

This year we are using Brown Paper Tickets for our online orders.

Tickets now on sale! ( direct links below )

NEW THIS YEAR: Buy a Festival Pass!

Get a fast pass and reserved seating for all festival concerts! Buy your pass NOW!

Group rate: 20% discount for groups of 10 or more. Please call Jaclyn Fromer, our Outreach Coordinator at (510) 848-0237 ×139.

How to order:

Phone: (800) 838-3006
(Brown Paper Tickets 24 hours/7 days)

Internet: www.brownpapertickets.com
(24 hours/7 days)

Mail:
Send order form to:
JMF Box Office, c/o JCCEB (Jewish Community Center of the East Bay), 1414 Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709

Fax: (510) 848-0170 (24 hours/7 days)

In Person: JMF Box Office, JCCEB (Jewish Community Center of the East Bay), 1414 Walnut St. Berkeley.

Special Instructions: Please let us know if you require wheelchair accommodation. Call Rebecca at (510) 848-0237 ×119

Delivery Instructions: Tickets will be mailed to the billing address. Orders received less than 2 weeks prior to performance will be held at Will Call.

“Day of show”/on-site info:

Tickets will be available by internet and phone up to 12 hours before the event starts.
Tickets will be available on site one hour prior to the concert.
Doors open 30 minutes prior to the show

Forms of payment accepted:

Check: (please have ID available) payable to the Jewish Music Festival Box Office
Credit Card: (please have ID available) — Visa, Mastercard and Amex
Cash

The Fine Print

Each person must have a ticket regardless of age
Each order is charged a non-refundable processing fee ($.99 + 2.5% of ticket price)
Mail order processing fee $6.00
Returned check fee is $25
When purchasing for a group of buyers, please submit only one type of payment for the order.

Cancellation Policy

No refunds or exchanges

Direct links

New this year: Festival Pass, 9 concerts for $110

Mayn Yiddishe Velt
» Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM: Tix | Info
Frank London’s A Night in the Old Marketplace
» Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 8:00 PM: Tix | Info
Benzion Miller
» Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
Ladder of Gold
» Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
Golem
» Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 9:00 PM: Tix | Info
Israel @ 60
» Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 7:30 PM: Tix | Info
The Ark presents CYCLICAL RITUALS (part 1): Spring
» Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM: Tix | Info
Community Dance Party 2008
» Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 4:00 PM: Tix | Info

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1414 Walnut St

Berkeley, CA 94709

(510) 848-0237

Arkady Gendler CD now available, ONLY from the Jewish Music Festival