KlezCalendar

This is our third annual KlezFest and it will be more than ever designed to meet the needs of instrumentalists, singers and dancers. The most outstanding faculty members have been invited to guide and inspire and impart their vast knowledge of Eastern European Jewish music and Yiddish song. Expect to see on the KlezFest faculty for 2003:

Michael Alpert - Dance and Ballads
Helen Beer - ballads and drama
Kurt Bjorling – Woodwinds Tsimbl
Stuart Brotman – Rhythm Section
Alan Bern – Piano, Accordion
Christian Dawid - Clarinet
Josh Dolgin – Piano, Accordion
Frank London - Brass
Zalman Mlotek - Yiddish song and Chorus
Sophie Solomon - Violin
Deborah Strauss - Violin
Jeff Warschauer – Plucked strings

Ruti Halvani and Judith Silver will also be working with singers in small groups, making arrangements for two three and four voices of Yiddish songs. Alan Bern will be the music co-ordinator and he has prepared a vigorous curriculum with clear emphasis on the elements of Klezmer, the style, ornamentation, rhythms and how to set up a band.

There will be masterclasses for serious Yiddish singers as well as the fabulous Yiddish chorus, led by the incomparable Zalmen Mlotek.

We will even have Josh Dolgin the master of HIP HOP klez so anything can happen. Bands attending as a group hopefully get to perform to each other and the public in the ‘Klezmer: the new Generation’ concert. Our own Sophie Solomon of Oi-Va-Voi and others will be on board, so do book up now for an exhilarating week.

Any musician or singer interested in any aspect of Jewish music will be thrilled with what the JMI KlezFest at SOAS University of London has to offer - whether you are a composer, member of an orchestra, a soloist, a student at a conservatoire, a band leader or member, a jazz player or a cantor, or you play, sing or dance just for fun, there is so much for you to enjoy and imbibe.

Klezfest opens on the South Bank on Sunday 6 July

Registration will be from 11.00am in the QEH foyer.

From 1.00–2.00pm KlezFesters should join the biggest klezmer band in the UK. Last year in Regents Park we sported 120 players. Lets break this KlezFest record this year!

The public can attend workshops in klezmer for any instrument from 10.00am–12.30pm and join KlezFesters at 1.00pm for the big band. Between 2.30pm and 7.00pm there will be showings for KlezFesters and the public in The Voice Box of Simon Broughton’s renowned klezmer film ‘Fiddler on the Hoof’ made in 1991 for the BBC. KlezFesters may also take the opportunity of having a ride on the London Eye next door.