KlezCalendar

STEVEN GREENMAN

Violinist

Recognized internationally as one of the finest practitioners of traditional East European Jewish Klezmer violin, Steven Greenman is a seasoned performer of "Klezmer" music as well as a serious composer of traditional Klezmer music, a teacher, musical arranger and lecturer. His current project, "The Dream of Stempenyu" involves a CD recording of his own original Jewish and Klezmer violin compositions, a series of concerts of the music and a future publication of the material. One of the first American born klezmer violinists to create a program and performance style based entirely on the repertoire of European Klezmer violin music, Steven co-founded the Khevrisa ensemble together with the cimbalist, Walter Zev Feldman in 1998. Steven has performed internationally with Khevrisa and other notable klezmer ensembles such as the Klezmatics, Budowitz, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and Kapelye. His own ensemble, the Steven Greenman Klezmer Ensemble is dedicated to performing his own compositions and the transitional Jewish/Moldavian Klezmer repertoire.

As a teacher of Klezmer music Steven received a grant to be the first recipient of the Louis E. Emsheimer Memorial Artist in Residence Program in Cleveland, Ohio (2002) for which he lead Klezmer workshops for classical string players and lectured on Klezmer music. He has taught Klezmer violin and led string ensembles at the KlezKanada festival, Living Traditions’ KlezKamp, and KlezFest London. Working with educators Mitchell Korn and Amy McClellan of the Cleveland Orchestra educational department’s "Learning Through Music" program Steven was selected as a "Teaching Artist" and developed a children’s program combining story telling and klezmer music.

Steven has collaborated with New York dancer/choreographer David Dorfman and the Cleveland State Dance ensemble as musical director in Dorfman’s "Moving Histories", a modern dance piece dealing with Jewish identity, and performed with members of the Klezmatics in their 1997 performance of Tony Kushner’s adaptation of S. Ansky’s "Dybbuk." Steven has lectured and performed at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland and has been a regular performer with various ensembles at Toronto’s Ashkenaz-A Festival of New Yiddish Culture.

In addition to his involvement with Klezmer music Steven is an accomplished performer of urban Gypsy violin styles, in particular, Hungarian "Nota", Romanian "Lautari" music and Slovak folk music. Steven has devoted his life to the study of these styles learning East-European violin style and ornamentation from professional Gypsy and folk musicians from Slovakia, Romania, the Ukraine and Hungary in addition to transcribing and arranging hundreds of tunes. As a concert soloist, Steven has been a regular guest soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra performing his own arrangements of traditional East European Gypsy violin music. Steven will be featured on a forthcoming CD of urban Romanian Gypsy violin music together with the cimbalist, Alexander Fedoriouk. As a classical violinist Steven received both his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Linda Sharon Cerone, Dr. Eugene Gratovich and the late Bernhard Goldshmidt. Steven has also performed as a member of the Canton and Akron Symphony Orchestras and has participated in the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

Steven is lead performer, producer and the composer of the music of his upcoming Klezmer violin CD project, "The Dream of Stempenyu". Together with Walter Zev Feldman, Steven co-produced and is featured on the recording Khevrisa-European Klezmer Music on the Smithsonian Folkways label. Steven is also featured on the following recordings: Budowitz’ "Mother Tongue"; as violinist and musical producer/arranger with Yiddish vocalist Lori Cahan-Simon with "Songs My Bubbe Should Have Taught Me" (Vol. 1) and lead violinist on "Vessel of Song-The Music of Mikhl Gelbart". In addition Steven has recorded with Alicia Svigals and with "The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band".

PETE RUSHEFSKY

Tsimblist

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) is a leading revivalist of the tsimbl, or Jewish hammered dulcimer. He performs with some of the finest practitioners of traditional Yiddish and klezmer music including Steven Greenman, Rebecca Kaplan, Joel Rubin and Alicia Svigals. He won much critical acclaim for his CD with violinist Elie Rosenblatt entitled "Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music for Hammered Dulcimer & Violin" (Hatikvah Music) and he appears with Michael Alpert and Deborah Strauss on Yiddish poet/songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman's CD "Af di gasn fun der shtot - On the Streets of the City" (Yiddishland Records). His upcoming Yiddishland Records release with Rebecca Kaplan is entitled "Oyf di vegelekh / On the Paths: Yiddish Songs with Tsimbl." Pete is also the author of a pioneering instructional book on adapting the American 5-string banjo for klezmer.