KlezFest, Ot Azoy! and Jewish Song School
2006
modified 18 December 2005
Dates:
KlezFest London 2006 Sunday 13—Friday 18
August
Jewish Song School Sunday
13—Friday
18 August
Ot Azoy! Yiddish Course Sunday 6—Friday 11 August
Fees and Registration The Faculty Download the KlezFest Flyer
(pdf)
KlezFest London is a hands-on learning experience with luminaries of the Klezmer revival from Europe and America, focusing on the style, ornamentation, rhythm and repertoire of Eastern European Jewish music, song and dance. It is an inspirational and life-enhancing experience for amateur and professional instrumentalists and singers. In 2006, KlezFest includes a special parallel strand for professional klezmer players as well as the parallel Song School . KlezFest is preceded by a fantastic one-week Yiddish course ideal for complete beginners and for singers but catering also for advanced language students.
All the students of KlezFest and Song School, work together each morning till tea break - learning the Shers and Bulgars – the dances of old Europe to a live band led by Merlin Shepherd and singing Chassidic nigunim. After parallel sessions for instrumentalists and singers everyone comes together again in the last session to join in vocal ensembles. Meals and evening entertainment are included and taken together (except on Wednesday which is a free afternoon).
KlezFest, Song School and Ot Azoy! will be held this year again at West London Synagogue, 33 Seymour Place, London, W1, and KlezFest and Song School will end with KlezFesters invited to participate with their voices and instruments in a moving service welcoming the Sabbath in the sanctuary at 7.15 pm on Friday 18. Thereafter we invite you all to partake of a Sabbath Kiddush with wine and Challah and tea and cake courtesy of West London Synagogue. KlezFest officially ends at about 9.00pm – but the building is open to 11 – so we can take our leave and say our goodbyes
KlezFest London 2006 Sunday 13—Friday 18 August
'Dr Klez' himself (AKA Joshua Horowitz – the renowned performer and scholar of klezmer music of Budowitz and other fame), will be a principal guest at the JMI’s 6 th annual KlezFest London in 2006. Frank London, who created an outstanding programme last year with the Klezmatics will again be the Programme Director and this time has invited Josh to bring his new ensemble Veretski Pass to be the resident band.
This means that not only will we have Joshua Horowitz, an expert on button accordion and tsimbl, but we will have the exciting fiddler Cookie Segelstein for the first time on the violin faculty, and Stuart Brotman will be back dealing with bass instruments. Other returnees are of course Deborah Strauss (fiddle), Jeff Warschauer (plucked strings), Merlin Shepherd and Christian Dawid (clarinets), Sanne Moerike (accordion), Guy Schalom (percussion), Ilana Cravitz (fiddle assistant) and Andreas Schmitges dance-leader assisted by Helene Domergue. Also special to JMI KlezFest London is a contingent of outstanding musicians and singers from the Former Soviet Union.
New to KlezFest London this year, in addition to the work with amateurs,
is a special strand for professional klezmer players. Professional
bands will have a chance to perform at KlezFest in the Park on
the opening day, and in our showcase of Klezmer: The Next Generation organised
by Laoise
Davidson and Guy Schalom. Professionals will have special lectures and hands-on
workshop sessions as well as individual and ensemble masterclasses with
Josh Horowitz, Frank London and others on composition and ensemble arrangements.
There will be sessions on professional development with music industry
leaders on how to make a demo and get a record deal; how to get gigs,
how to present yourselves on stage, how to manage being a live performer
and how to teach Klezmer.
Read
what students at KlezFest and Jewish Song Summer School had to say about
the experience they had in 2005
See
the pictures of KlezFest 2005
Jewish Song School Sunday 13—Friday 18 August
Alongside KlezFest, with joint classes with instrumentalists in dance
and ensembles will once more be the Jewish Song School . Here
amateur and professional singers led by Shura Lipovsky of Amsterdam
explore the joys of Jewish song in many languages and styles, with special
emphasis on Yiddish song.
She
will be assisted by Karsten Troyka from
Berlin – an expert in Polish Yiddish songs with whom Shura has
worked extensively and recorded. Sephardi song will be taught in
sessions with Monica Acosta working
on songs from ‘The Sephardic Songbook’ edited by Aron Saltiel
and Joshua Horowitz (put a link here to the review of her concert on
our site on the Sephardi pages) and by Mor
Karbasi – who is writing new songs in Ladino.
Register for Jewish Song School
here
Join the weekly
Jewish Song School starting October here
Ot Azoy! Yiddish Crash Course Sunday 6—Friday 11 August
KlezFest
is preceded by Ot Azoy! (6-11 August). Ot Azoy’ means ‘This
is the way’ and it really is the way for beginners to advanced
students to learn to read, write and speak Yiddish quickly and easily
in only one week in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Includes intensive
tuition and conversation sessions with expert tuition from Peysakh
Fiszman of New York,
and Lily
Kahn of University College London under the direction this
year of Heather Valencia of
Stirling University. On the first day (Sunday 6 August) we are
holding a special session in the morning to learn – or brush up
on the alef-beys. In the afternoon we present a tribute
to Majer Bogdanski ‘Majer
Marches On’ with a concert of new Yiddish creativity.
Learn Yiddish also through song with exquisite Yiddish Singer Shura Lipovsky from Amsterdam and learn some Yiddish line and circle dances with Andreas Schmitges and a live Klezmer Band.You will also learn Yiddish through films selected and introduced by Barry Davis, Yiddish teacher and actor of London.
This course is for everyone from complete beginners to advanced level
participants. Beginners will be taken through the Hebrew-Yiddish alphabet
(much easier than it looks), will learn some every-day vocabulary and
a generous helping of grammar, so that by the end of the week you will
be able to string together your first sentences in Yiddish! Intermediate
and advanced Yiddish speakers will be given more challenging texts and
grammatical lessons and will get lots of opportunities to converse in
this extraordinary language. Advanced students also get to delve into
the vast treasury of Yiddish literature. Who says Yiddish is Kaput? This
will be the 5th JMI Yiddish Crash course.Register for Ot Azoy! here
Details
of fees and registration forms:
Full
fees are £285; Students £185.
There is an early booking discount
of £15 if booked by 15 April and paid in full by 31 May.
Further
discounts if attending with an ensemble and if booking for Ot Azoy! as
well as KlezFest or Song School.
Some scholarships are available, to
apply fill in a registration form and send with deposit and letter describing
the need for financial assistance and the reason you want to do the courses.
Book soon and have the benefit of the early booking discount.
Click
here to register.
JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are part of the European
Yiddish and Klezmer Academy 2006 for the Transmission of the Yiddish
cultural heritage. Four European institutions in London , Paris ,
Weimar and Vilnius give you the chance to learn Yiddish language and
song and Klezmer music. This programme is supported by the Culture
Program 2000 of the European Union. Participate in one course or in
several. Some European scholarships are available.
See the website
for details of each European Academy course: www.yiddish-klezmer.net
JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are also part of a World Music Summer School at SOAS University of London www.SOAS.ac.uk/summermusic
These JMI Summer Courses are presented by the Jewish Music Institute,
International Forum for Yiddish Culture, Vice Presidents:
Michael Grade CBE, Lord Janner QC, Zalmen Mlotek.
