JMI KlezFest Faculty 2010
modified December 30, 2009
- Michael Alpert
- Ilana Cravitz
- Ros Hawley
- Shura Lipovsky
- Frank London
- Guy Schalom
- Andreas Schmitges
- Merlin Shepherd
- Polina Shepherd
- Sophie Solomon
- Emma Stiman
- Deborah Strauss
- Paul Tkachenko
- Jeff Warshauer
- Abbi Wood
We are lucky to have to have the following notable Klezmer performers with us at KlezFest this year:
- Thomas Fritze
- Mark Kovnatskiy
- Vivi Lachs
- Judith Plowman
- Sally Russell
- Yair Schleider
- Ilya Shneyveys
- Sue Shortland Webb
- Bernd Spehl
- Jacques Verheyen
Michael Alpert(New York) dance and fiddle
A pioneering figure in the renaissance of klezmer and Yiddish dance, Michael is an acclaimed performer with Brave Old World, Khevrisa, Kapelye and an esteemed interpreter of traditional Yiddish song, he is recognized as well for his original Yiddish songs on contemporary themes, and his ethnographic research on klezmer music, Yiddish song, and dance.
Ilana Cravitz (London: Klezmer teacher, organizer,
author)
Ilana has been involved with JMI and KlezFest for many years. Her role
has 
grown
over previous years and she is now the key tuition provider, giving lessons
for students who need extra help with technique and developing repertoire.
Ilana has been the JMI Klezmer teacher at SOAS for many years.
As well as being one of the UK's top Klezmer fiddlers, Ilana Cravitz also plays the baroque violin and viola da gamba.
Based in London, Ilana regularly performs with klezmer bands and period instrument ensembles on stage and at weddings, bar mitzvahs and parties, as well as teaching classes, workshops and private students. She specialises in klezmer ceilidhs - Yiddish dance events with live traditional Jewish music.
Ros Hawley (Manchester: Clarinet, education)
Ros
studied at the Royal Northern College of music. She has taken one-on-one
masterclasses with many of the world's imminent klezmer clarinetists,
including Kurt Bjorling, Merlin Shepherd and Christian David in the USA,
Germany and UK. She is very active in promoting and performing klezmer
in the UK, and has given many workshops and enthused countless individuals
through performances with the duo Klezmer Gourmet and the band Klezmeruk.
Her new band the Deli Babies was voted ' Best Band 2007' in Studio Salford's
Embryo Awards at the King's Arms pub and theatre venue in Salford. As
a result they were invited to run a klezmer music residency at the Kings
Arms which will be developing into a weekly night including a klezmer
class for instrumentalists, music jam and performance by the Deli Babies.
Shura Lipovsky (Amsterdam: Yiddish song)
She has
a an incredible folk voice and when she sings you just cant help smiling
- she is very magnetic. Shura is a great 
teacher,
passing on the Yiddish song tradition aurally giving her students a deep
insight into Eastern European Jewish song traditions.
Shura Lipovsky is one of the best-known singers of Yiddish song in Europe. She has performed and taught also in Russia, the USA and Canada. She studied singing at the Rotterdam conservatory and she had a folk dance education, after which she specialised in Judaic mysticism and dance. She is widely appreciated for her teaching of the Yiddish song repertoire combined with contextual study of the history and background of the composers and poets. She conducts masterclasses for singers and workshops in Chasidic dances, songs and stories.
Frank London (New York: trumpet, course leader)
Charismatic
front-man of Grammy award-winning band Klezmatics, Frank London has made
a huge contribution to Klezmer and Jewish Music over the last 20 years.
He also leads Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and Hassidic New Wave,
and has written and performed music for several films. This is the fourth
year that London has directed KlezFest and his involvement has been outstanding.
He inspires creativity among KlezFest students and leaves a huge amount
of warmth in his wake.
Guy Schalom (London: dance, rhythm, percussion)
Guy Schalom is among the most in-demand klezmer drummers in 
Europe.
His class on Klezmer Rhythm is hugely popular and is very useful for musicians,dancers
and singers, who want to understand the rhythmic structure of the music.
He has a busy touring schedule and has worked with, among others, Frank
London, The Klezmatics, Josh "SoCalled" Dolgin , Michael
Alpert, Susan Watts and David Krakauer.
He is a founding member of the pan-European Klezmer Alliance as well Ukrainian Village Brass Band Konsonans Retro featuring Berlin's Christian Dawid. Guy also runs his own duo Schalom-Bakhshayesh featuring the expressive violin playing and singing Jilah Bakhshayesh.
Andreas Schmitges (Cologne: dance leader,
mandolin, guitar)
Over the past seven years Andreas has been developing a yiddish dance
element in KlezFest. Last year, for the first time, the dance strand took
off with dance-specific classes all through the day, meaning that people
can now come to KlezFest just to dance if they wish.
A fluent Yiddish speaker, Andreas has attended Klezmer-Workshops and Yiddish
Courses in Oxford, London, Weimar and New York. He works as a teacher
for Yiddish Dance at Festivals in London, Kiev, Odessa and Weimar and
has given concerts, dance- and Klezmer-workshops at festivals of Jewish
and Yiddish culture in Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Enschede,
Berlin, Munich, Gelsenkirchen and Weimar. Andreas has performed internationally
in Paris, London, Washington D.C. and Amsterdam with his bands 'A Tickle
In The Heart' and 'Klezmer Alliance'. His highly successful collaboration
with Yiddish storyteller and teacher Pesakh Fiszman from New York in a
Yiddish Music & Language Programme won high acclaim.
Merlin Shepherd (Brighton: clarinet, saxophone)
Merlin is another long-term inmate as far as KlezFest is concerned. He
is well known for his dry sense 
of
humour and he is a much loved member of the KlezFest team. He is an inventive
and inspiring teacher and a great entertainer.
As well as teaching Klezmer all over the world, Merlin has also been Musical Director for The Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London. He is one of the world's leading players of traditional East European Klezmer Clarinet style, and apart from his own ensembles he has worked and toured throughout Britain and Europe with Budowitz, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and the Burning Bush.
More recently Merlin has been working with cutting edge artist Max Pashm, mixing Klezmer and ethnic dance beats as well as forming his own band......The Merlin Shepherd Kapelye featuring The Former Soviet Union Klezmer Allstars recently releasing a CD Intimate Hopes & Terrors, tales from the kishkes
Polina Shepherd (Brighton: vocals, piano)
Polina has become a familiar face at KlezFest over the past few years.
Known for her incredible voice which reaches places that even Heineken
cannot, she is also a wonderful arranger and accompanist. She has become
indelibly linked to the KlezFest Choir, where musicians and singers alike
congregate to shift some serious vocal muscles.
Composer, singer, pianist and the leading choral conductor of 
Yiddish
song in the Former USSR. She has performed and taught internationally.
Her specially developed choral teaching methods are based on instrumental
ornamentation and Jewish modes. Polina performs with her own a cappella
ensemble, ‘The Vocal Quartet Ahkenazim’, The Max Pashm Band
and works with the Sound & Light Cinematic Duo, who play live accompaniment
to rare black and white silent Jewish films. Polina's music is performed
by choirs and soloists all over the world.
Sophie Solomon (London: Violin)
Sophie
Solomon's voice is her violin. Whether she's performing with the LSO or
playing with her own band, her music is a thrilling combination of technique
and passion that refuses to be confined by the conventional parameters
of the instrument.
"When I play, the violin is like an extension of my body," she says. "I'm not thinking about anything else. I don't completely understand what happens but it's definitely as if the spirit takes over."
Her unique musical vision reaches its full flowering on her self-composed Decca debut solo album ‘Poison Sweet Madeira’, an audacious mix of different styles and influences given purpose and unity by her extraordinary violin playing.
Emma Stiman (Cologne: clarinet)
The native Londoner (living in Cologne since 2005) studied classical clarinet at the Royal College of Music, London and the Birmingham Conservatoire. She has performed as principal clarinetist in the "National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain" and under the baton of the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the "Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra".
Emma has participated in various international klezmer workshops, learning from renowned klezmer artists. She now teaches klezmer clarinet, plays for dancing and performs at Yiddish and klezmer music festivals all around Europe. Emma writes original klezmer music and Yiddish songs which have also been recorded and performed by other esteemed colleagues.
Deborah Strauss (New York: violin, accordion,
vocals, dance)
The other half (some would say beautiful half) of the Strauss-Warschauer
Duo is Deborah Strauss, who has similarly been a much loved KlezFest
Faculty member since the beginning of KlezFest in 2000. She is one of
the most endearing teachers and 
mentors
and knows how to get the best out of her students.
She is one of the finest of the contemporary klezmer instrumentalists and a true musical descendent of the most eloquent traditional Jewish violinists. She has appeared on numerous recordings and was a long-time member of the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble. She studied violin at Rutgers University and ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago.
Paul Tkachenko (London: tuba, double bass,
sound)
Paul joined the KlezFest team for the firs
t
time in 2007 and has rapidly made himself indispensable. This year this
multi-instrumentalist and Klezmer enthusiast will continue to work with
KlezFest providing brass instrument tuition, sound engineering and playing
with the dance band. Paul has worked as a primary and secondary music teacher as well as playing
for several outfits including The Yiddish Twist Orchestra, Shekoyokh, FDT Klezmorim, Shtetl Superstars, Hadar Manor, Tatcho Drom, Chancery Blame and the Gadjo Club, Yurodny and Stuart Curtis.
Paul's MA about Turkish nationalism was published in 2009 and he is currently writing up a PhD about Klezmer musicians in London.
Jeff Warschauer (New York: guitar, mandolin,
vocals)
As one half of the Strauss-Warschauer Duo Jeff is a much loved
member of 
KlezFest
Faculty since the beginning of KlezFest time. He has a great understanding
of modal theory and a practical way of teaching modal development to KlezFest
students. He is also a wonderful singer who always teaches the most beautiful
niggunim. He is a great lover of the Yiddish language and is particularly
focussed on the way the language and the music entertwine. As well as
producing beautiful spiritual music with his other half, Deborah Strauss,
Jeff also likes to let loose with electric instruments and colliding Klezmer
and rock music together.
Jeff Warschauer is internationally renowned as a mandolinist, guitarist, Yiddish singer and teacher. He is a member of the faculty at Columbia University, and is a program director for KlezKanada. Jeff is also a composer whose music has been heard in films and theater productions, on Public Radio International and on HBO. Jeff's solo CD, The Singing Waltz: Klezmer Guitar and Mandolin, has received widespread critical acclaim.
Abbi Wood (London: recorder, Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music,
SOAS, University of London)
Dr Abigail Wood was appointed the Jewish Music Lecturer at SOAS in 2006
and through her passion for the genre, is making Klezmer a big priority.
For 2008/9 she is has 12 students studying klezmer and three of them (all
graduates of KlezFest) specializing in klezmer for masters degrees.
Thomas Fritze (Cologne: double bass, guitar and percussion) studied 
electric bass at the Arnheim Conservatory and since the completion of his studies, has been a freelance musician and accompanist. Thomas is most at home playing in the styles of Jazz, Rock, Blues and Klezmer. He has played in numerous Ensembles from Blues-Trio to Jazz Big Band. However, today he is known foremost for his contributions as a double-bass player within the genre of Klezmer. Thomas has transcribed and arranged numerous Klezmer pieces and continues to compose in this style. He is always able to keep the public dancing with his playing, be it at Weddings, Barmitzvahs, parties or Klezmer concerts.
Mark Kovnatskiy (Russia/Germany: violin) Despite his young age, Mark is an already much-travelled and respected violonist. He is also a highly estimed Yiddish composer and dance specialist.
He
has performed and taught at the Ashkenaz Festival Toronto (CAN), KlezKanada Montreal (CAN), KlezFest London, Kiev and Saint-Petersburg (UK, UA, RUS), Festival of Jewish Culture Kraków (PL), Musica Viva Veruela (ES), Folk Festival Ottawa (CAN), Nine Gates Praha (CZ), Sheshory Festival (UA), YiddishFest Moscow (RUS), Helsinki Klezmer Festival (FI), Klezmore (AUS), Limmud (LI) etc.
In addition to his own projects, Mark performs with the Merlin Shepherd Kapelye (UK/GUS) and Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh (USA) and continues to teach Yiddish music and dance world-wide.
He came to Hamburg, Germany in 2004, and founded the Hamburg Klezmer Band in 2007. In 2009 he was the musical director of the KlezmerFest in Hamburg.
His Klezmer compositions have been played by groups from all over the world.
Vivi Lachs (London: singing, dance) is the singer and dance leader 
in the longstanding Klezmer band, Klezmer Klub. The band’s recent CD Whitechapel, mayn Vaytshapl is the product of her research into Yiddish songs of London. Vivi gives talks on the social, cultural and political histories the songs contain, and has been published in journals, as well as featured in both Jewish and non-Jewish press. The research is ongoing, including interviewing elderly Eastenders. Vivi has studied Yiddish for 10 years, wishes she had more time to devote to it, but works full time in education in Hackney.
Judith Plowman (Glossop, Derbyshire:
Klezmer Dance 
Leader/Teacher) came late to dance, and even later to Klezmer Dance! In 2006 she went to Weimar's Klezmer Dance Workshop led by Michael Alpert and Zev Feldman ~ wonderful links with the 'dancing past'. Since then, Judith has attended any Klezmer that living in the Pennines allows. She runs Klezmer dance sessions, workshops and Klezmer ceilidhs across Northern England with 'The Klatsh' klezmer band. In March, she was part of the team that created the 'KlezNorth Weekend' an event that pulled a 100 people to a Village Hall, deep in the Peak District.
Bernd Spehl (Cologne, Germany: clarinet) considers himself a dance 
musician in the truest sense of the word. With 'A Tickle in the Heart' and the 'Klezmer Alliance' he has performed within the whole of Europe in countless recitals for occasions including concerts, weddings, barmitzvahs and many other simchas.
He received mentorship from two American Klezmer greats, the late Howie Lees and Ray Musiker and he has celebrated numerous highly successful tours with Yiddish story teller Pesakh Fiszman from New York.
Sally Russell (London: cello) Sally is a versatile cellist and music 
educator, specialising in klezmer, folk, pop/rock and experimental music. Her first exposure to klezmer was at Klezfest 2002, at the tender age of 18 and she has never looked back! Sally studied music at the University of Strathclyde and ethnomusicology at SOAS, where she wrote her dissertation on the contemporary UK klezmer scene with Abigail Wood, and studied klezmer performance with Merlin Shepherd and Ilana Cravitz. She is a 'Wider Opportunities' strings tutor for Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service, facilitates music workshops, and gives performances in and around London.
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