Faculty for Klezfest London 2004
modified 18 June 2004
The Team of Instructors
- Polina Achkinazi-Shepherd, accompanist, choir and Yiddish song
- Michael Alpert, dance, fiddle and ballads
- Khayele Beer, KlezFest Yiddish
- Alan Bern, instrumental Director and piano and accordion and band masterclasses
- Stuart Brotman, bass instruments
- Adrienne Cooper, Vocal programme director and Yiddish song
- Josh Dolgin, piano and accordion and beginners
- Christian Dawid, clarinet and beginners
- Shura Lipovsky, Yiddish song
- Sanne Möricke, accordion and beginners
- Merlin Shepherd, Clarinet and leader of the dance band
- Sophie Solomon, (tbc), fiddle
- Deborah Strauss, fiddle
- Jonathan Walton, brass
- Jeff Warschauer, plucked strings
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Polina Achkinazi-Shepherd (Brighton/Kazan) choir
Polina is a composer, singer, skilled accompanist and Russia's leading
Yiddish choir conductor and arranger. She is a lecturer at Kazan State
University, and a teacher at Kharkov Klezmer Teg, Klezfest Ukraine, and
the Jewish Festival in Kazan. She has worked extensively throughout Europe
and the USA with her vocal quartet Ashkenazim and with Simcha (Russia's
first Klezmer band since Perestroika).
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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.
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Khayele Beer (Oxford) Ot Azoy! Course Director
Khayele Beer, taught Yiddish at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish
Studies and is a veteran of Yiddish Intensive Summer Courses in Oxford,
Brussels, Paris and is the Course Director of Ot Azoy! London. She is
the William Margulies Lecturer in Yiddish, Department of Hebrew and Jewish
Studies, University College London. She produces an annual Yiddish Purim
Shpil with students at UCL and produced a full length Yiddish play in
2002. She is the Director of Yiddish Studies for the JMI International
Forum for Yiddish Culture.
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Alan Bern (Berlin) Instrumental Programme Director, piano and
accordion
A renowned educator, Alan is currently program director of the Weimar
Klezmer Weeks and KlezFest London and teaches annually at KlezKanada and
elsewhere in Europe and the USA. He is director of Brave Old World and
renowned as a leading composer and performer of Jewish music today.
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Stuart Brotman (San Francisco) bass, tsimbl, percussion
A renowned performer with Brave Old World, Stuart is a sought after teacher
at KlezKamp KlezKanada, and at Balkan Music and Dance Workshops. He has
toured and recorded with many famous jazz and klezmer ensembles and played
cimbalom with Ry Cooder at Carnegie Hall. He also performs roles for theatre,
TV and film.
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Adrienne Cooper (New York) Vocal Programme Director, Yiddish song
Adrienne is director of the Centre for Cultural Jewish Life at the Workmen's
Circle NY, she has redefined contemporary performance of Yiddish vocal
music through her concerts, recordings, teaching, and theatre works in
collaboration with Zalmen Mlotek, Klezmatics, Kapelye, Hasidic New Wave,and
others and is co-founder of women's band, Mikveh.
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Josh Dolgin (Socalled) (Montreal) piano and accordion
Josh is a magician, cartoonist, pianist, photographer, animator, DJ, choirmaster
and beat-writer. He gives workshops on hiphopkele - the melding of Jewish
rhythms, modes and melodies with contemporary technological music forms
- at KlezKanada and KlezFest London where he also teaches accordion. He
collaborated with Sophie Solomon to create the HipHopKhasene and performs
and records with his band Shtreimel.
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Christian Dawid (Berlin) clarinet
Christian is one of today's leading klezmer clarinettists. He has taught
at Klezmer academies in Europe and North America and is a welcome guest
at the Krakow Festival of Jewish Culture. He is a member of Budowitz,
the co-founder of the duo, Khupe and has performed with Brave Old World,
Frank London and many other ensembles.
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Shura Lipovsky (Amsterdam) Yiddish Song
Renowned exponent of Yiddish song, Shura has performed with the late Yossel
Mlotek, Lorin Sklamberg, Zalmen Mlotek and Jeff Warschaue at festivals
and Summer Schools in Europe, Israel and America. She is in demand to
perform and record with a wide range of artists.
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Sanne Möricke (Berlin) accordion
One of the most sought-after klezmer accordionists, Sanne performs with
clarinettist Christian Dawid in the acclaimed duo Khupe. They appear regularly
on stages and festivals across the world. She also plays accordion with
Sukke and has performed as a guest with Frank London, The Transsylvanians,
and the Northern Sinfonia.
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Merlin Shepherd (Brighton) Dance Band Co-ordinator and clarinet
Merlin Shepherd is considered amongst the world's leading performers &
teachers of traditional East European Klezmer Clarinet. His has taught
at KlezKamp, KlezFest London, KlezFest St Petersburg, KlezFest Ukraine,
KlezKanada and he was the first Klezmer teacher at SOAS University of
London. He has been Music Director for Shakespeare's Globe, Royal Shakespeare
and Royal National Theatres and has played and composed for numerous theatre
and radio projects, and has performed extensively throughout Europe with
Budowitz, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars, The Burning Bush and
Sukke.
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Sophie Solomon (London) fiddle
Sophie teaches for the Department of Music at SOAS, University of London
where her classes have been called inspirational by her students, as well
as at international summer programmes in the UK, Europe and the US. With
Josh 'so-called' Dolgin, Sophie created and recorded the HipHopKhasene.
She is a founder-member of BBC World Music Award nominated klezmer-breakbeat-fusionists,
Oi- Va-Voi.
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Deborah Strauss (New York) fiddle
Deborah is one of the most widely acclaimed practitioners of traditional
Jewish violin today. She has given workshops all over the world and in
the UK at Oxford, Cambridge, Limmud Nottingham, the west country and the
Yehudi Menuhin School. She is a member of the Strauss/Warschauer Duo,
was a long-time member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Chicago Klezmer
Ensemble, and has performed with Itzhak Perlman on film and in concert.
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Jonathan Walton (London) brass
Oi Va Vo-er with a special interest in Balkan Gypsy styles. Co-founder
of radical Jewish arts organisation YaD, festival programmer, composer
for theatre, world music journalist, radio presenter (Resonance 104.4
FM), and under his alter ego Lemez Lovas he is a Gypsy music DJ, club
promoter and producer of a new album by Kharkov Klezmer Band.
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Jeff Warschauer (New York) plucked strings
Jeff Warschauer is internationally renowned as a mandolinist, guitarist,
Yiddish singer and teacher. He is a member of the Strauss/Warschauer Duo
and was a long-time member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Jeff is on
the faculty of Columbia University, a program director for KlezKanada,
a long-time instructor at KlezKamp and a frequent instructor for the Jewish
Music Institute/SOAS at the University of London.
Programme and faculty may vary.
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KlezFest
London 2004 KlezFest
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