JMI KlezFest Faculty 2008
modified 17 June 2008

• Frank London
• Moshe Berlin
• Steve Weintraub
• Joanne Borts
• Andralamoussia
• Cookie Segelstein
• Josh Horowitz
• Jeff Warschauer
• Deborah Strauss
• Merlin Shepherd
• Mark Rubin
• Shura Lipovsky
• Polina Shepherd
• Andreas Schmitges
• Guy Schalom
• Paul Tkachenko
• Ilana Cravitz
• Abbi Wood
• Monica Acosta

Frank London (USA; Director, trumpet, advanced course)
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.

Moshe Berlin (Israel; clarinet)
This is Moshe Berlin's first appearance in KlezFest and indeed in London. Berlin is a characterful clarinettist who focusses on the Meron repertoire - hasidic tunes brought over in the 18th century by the great pre-Zionist, post-Chielmenicki Hasidic migration to Tsfat. This is a departure from the American Klezmer style usually taught at KlezFest and therefore opens up students to more Klezmer possibilities. More info...

Steve Weintraub (USA; dance)
For his first time at KlezFest, Steve Weintraub is working with Andreas Schmitges to develop the UKs only Eastern European Jewish dance course. Steve will be showing us not only the dance steps and configurations loved by many KlezFesters over the years but will be looking at regional differences in yiddish dance, introducing new steps and ideas and showing us how to recreate some of the great moves of the past. More info...

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Joanne Borts (New York; vocals)
Another first-timer to KlezFest London, Joanne Borts is a very exciting addition to the vocal team. She is a Broadway actress who specialises in Yiddish and is therefore well placed to teach a course on Yiddish Theatre song. She is fantastic at getting the most out of singers performing in her masterclasses, getting singers "under the skin of the song". More info...

AndraLaMoussia (Israel; Band)
Andralamoussia is a world music band based in Jerusalem. Old meets new and East meets West in the streets of Jerusalem, and Andralamoussia harnesses all these contrasts to create a modern Mediterranean ethnic sound. AndraLaMoussia will be leading one of the ensembles as well as performing and bringing some of their Israeli Klezmer and world music sounds to KlezFest. More info...

Her playing is mesmerising, enchanting and intoxicating and she is a great teacher and role model. With a background in 19th Century violin and viola outside of her Klezmer engagements she is the principal violist in Orchestra New England and assistant principal in the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Her acheivements in the Klezmer world are just as impressive: she is the founder and director of Veretski Pass, a founding member of The Youngers of Zion with Henry Sapoznik, and has recently joined Budowitz.

Joshua Horowitz (USA; accordion, tsimbl)
As with Cookie, Josh is coming back to KlezFest for the third year in succession and is now an invaluable member of the team. His understanding of Jewish modes is almost unparralleled as is his understanding of how Klezmer fits with other Eastern European music styles. Josh comes to KlezFest as an accordionist, although he is also a master Tsimbl player. Following a masters degree in Composition and Music theory from the Academy of Music in Graz, Austria, Horowitz stayed there to teach music theory and served as Research fellow and director of the Klezmer Music Research project. He is the founder and director of Budowitz and has performed with many of the Klezmer elite including Brave Old World, Adrienne Cooper and Ruth Yaakov. He has also developed musicological books which have become major reference tools for many musicians including The Sephardic Songbook and The Ultimate Klezmer.

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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.

Deborah Strauss (New York; violin, accordion, vocals, dance)
The other half (some would say beautiful half) of the Strass-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.

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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

Mark Rubin (USA; bass)
Mark first appeared at KlezFest in 2007 and has already amassed a crowd of adoring fans! He is an experienced Klezmer bass / tuba player having played with top names including Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and has also worked on the faculty of other Klezmer festivals including KlezKamp. He covers a range of musical styles including Klezmer (Henry Sapoznik and The Youngers of Zion and the Big Bang Boys), Old Time, blues and swing. He was the founder of the seminal American Alt-Folk pioneers The Bad Livers as well as an in-demand sideman on the Texas honky tonk and ethnic dancehall scene. The multi-talented Mark has also produced music for two major motion pictures, hosted a popular late night radio program in Austin for nearly a decade and has produced dozens of American folk music CD's, including the Grammy nominated Corason de Piedra for Tex-Mex legend Santiago Jimenez, Jr.

As well as teaching bass instruments at KlezFest Mark will be working with Cookie Segelstein in developing music for the yiddish dance classes led by Andreas Schmitges and Steve Weintraub.

Shura Lipovsky (Amersterdam, Director of Yiddish song)
This is Shura's fourth year as Director of Yiddish song school. 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 folkdance 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.

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Polina Shepherd (Brighton; vocalist, pianist)
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 wondeful arranger and accompanist. She has become indelibly linked to the KlezFest Choir, where musicians and singers alike congregate to shift some seious 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 capella 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.

Andreas Schmitges (Germany; dance, mandolin)
Over the past five 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. This year he will be working in collaboration with Steve Weintraub to make an even better, internationally recognised course.

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 has won high acclaim.

Guy Schalom (London; rhythm, sound)
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.

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Paul Tkachenko (London; bass, sound)
Paul joined the KlezFest team for the first time in 2007 and has rapidly made himself indispensible. He worked with Mark Rubin teaching bass as well as organised sound and provided advice on sound production throughout KlezFest 07. 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 music teacher as well as musical director for several outfits including, most recently the sold out show Masque of the Red Death at Battersea Arts Centre. He also currently performs with Greek/Turkish/Jewish group Troia Nova.

Ilana Cravitz (London; Klezmer Consultant)
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.

Abbi Wood (London; Klezmer Consultant)
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. She will be appearing at KlezFest working alongside Deborah Strauss looking at what is Klezmer, a course designed for newcomers to Klezmer.

Monica Acosta (London; Ladino Song)
Monica has taught Ladino Song for JMI for the past two years and has worked on several projects performing and teaching Sephardi music (Judeo-Spanish) and Tango songs. With a classical and folk song background, Monica is at home with Opera as she is with traditional music. She performed a Ladino Solo in Noam Sherrif's Sephardic Passion at the Dartington International Summer School in 2005 and performed a concert of Sephardi music from the Sephardic Songbook at Central Synagogue for JMI in 2006.

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