KlezFest: Music, Song and Dance

Sunday 10 - Friday 15 August
Registration and official opening: Sunday 4:00pm
Workshops and activities: Monday to Friday 9:00am to 11:00pm

KlezFest is a stimulating week of intensive, inspirational workshops and masterclasses in Klezmer, Yiddish Song and Yiddish folk dance based in the centre of London. Led by top professionals in the field from all over the world, and offering a packed programme designed to suit participants from a wide variety of experiences, Klezfest is ideal for amateur or professional musicians, singers and dancers of all backgrounds. Find out if you can take part in KlezFest...

Create your own KlezFest
Students can try out different skills and talents choosing between instrumental, repertoire and core subject workshops and ensembles choosing between or combining classes of music, song and dance. (See the timetable...)

Who's Who?
Frank London (USA) of Grammy award winning band The Klezmatics leads the instrumental workshops which includes instrument specific classes and the opportunity to study a subject in depth in the core subject workshops.

Renowned vocalist Shura Lipovsky (Netherlands) directs the vocal workshops which this year explore four major areas of Yiddish song: Folk song, Theatre song, Art song and New Yiddish song with opportunities to develop repertoire and to hone performance skills through individual Masterclasses.

Under the combined talents of Steve Weintraub and Andreas Schmitges and with the help of band leader Cookie Segelstein, there are dance specific workshops designed for dancers as well as musicians.

KlezFest keeps evolving
There are three star guest faculty members this year, each bringing something to KlezFest that hasn't happened before. We have a special guest Clarinet artist Moshe Berlin from Israel to open up the world of Hassidic Klezmer and the Meron style for the first time in the UK. Broadway theatre star Joanne Borts (USA) will be joining us to teach Yiddish theatre songs and adding a glint of razzmatazz to the vocal masterclasses. Steve Weintraub (USA) (aka the Yiddish Fred Astaire) will be donning his bottle-dance hat and dance shoes to help everyone discover more about Yiddish dances including some special show-off manoeuvres to try out at your friends weddings.

They will be joined by KlezFest stalwarts from the USA: Deborah Strauss (violin), Jeff Warschauer (plucked strings), Joshua Horowitz (accordion), Cookie Segelstein (violin), Mark Rubin (bass) and our own UK team: Merlin and Polina Shepherd, Guy Schalom, Ilana Cravitz, SOAS Lecturer in Jewish Music Abbi Wood and Paul Tkachenko.

KlezFest Concerts
Whether or not you can play music, sing in tune or dance a hora, you will thoroughly enjoy our KlezFest concerts.

Klezmer Klimax! - the ultimate Klezmer Concert - 13 August @ West London Synagogue. This annual extravaganza of Klezmer delights brings to London some of the biggest names in Klezmer directed by Award Winning Frank London (Klezmatics, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars, Hassidic New Wave). This year expect to see performances from our special guests: Joanne Borts will be transforming the West London Synagogue into a glamorous Yiddish Theatre, the mesmerising Moshe Berlin will be turning it into a Hassidic frenzy with his meron-style clarinet playing.

Tickets for this amazing event will be available nearer the time. to register your interest, please contact JMI on 020 7909 2445

KlezFest in Hyde Park
Unfortunately, KlezFest in the Park is not happening this year, due to it coinciding with the Jewish holy day of Tisha B'av. It will be back next year though so watch out! If you need a fix of Klezmer this summer, make sure you come to the Klezmer Klimax Concert on 13 August.

Presented by the Jewish Music Institute
At West London Synagogue, 33 Seymour place, London W1H 6AT
Nearest tube: Marble Arch
Fees and registration: 020 8909 2445
Online registration form

Updated 17 June 2008