Vice President of IFYC
Zalmen Mlotek is the Executive Director of the Folksbiene Theatre New
York, the only such institution in America. His musical and theatrical
career span the worlds of music direction and composition for theatre,
film and recording, orchestral and choral conducting, festival production,
teaching and publishing.
Considered one of the foremost champions of Yiddish music worldwide today
Mlotek gives concerts, lectures, and master classes throughout North America,
Europe, Russia and Israel.
As executive director of The Folksbiene Yiddish theatre, America's oldest
and only permanent Yiddish theatre, he is bringing Yiddish theatre to
communities all over the United States. He pioneered the development of
contemporary musical theatre about the Jewish-American experience, including
the dramas Desk, Those Were The Days, and the internationally-toured hit,
The Golden Land. Mlotek was music director for Isaac Bashevis Singer's
Shlemiel. He designed and continues to direct the annual Lincoln Center
Summer Klezmer All-Star Concert, which was featured on the TV special
Itzhak Perlman: In The Fiddler's House. In addition to recording collaborations
with Sheldon Harnick and Michel LeGrand, his choral conducting is featured
on Mandy Patinkin's CD, Mameloshen with his group The New Yiddish Chorale.
His music arrangements for film include In the Presence of Mine Enemies
(Showtime) and The Devil's Arithmetic. Recording credits include Pearls
of Yiddish Song, On Wings of Song, the US Holocaust Memorial Museums CDs
Remember the Children and Hidden Histories: Songs of the Kovno Ghetto
and Ghetto Tango (with Adrienne Cooper) Among the world's authorities
on Yiddish music, Mlotek collaborated with his parents, Chane and the
late Yosl Mlotek in preparing their four-volume collection of Yiddish
songs. He is director of National Arts Programming for the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter
Ring.
last modified: 20 April 2004
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