KlezCalendar

Dr. Maria Krupoves is an artist and folklorist, internationally acclaimed singer, and musical interpreter of the songs of Central and Eastern Europe. A native of Vilnius, she sings in Yiddish, Polish, Lithuanian, Byelorussian, Russian, Gypsy, Karaim, Tatar and other languages. She has performed her multicultural program in Lithuania, Poland, Germany, France, United States, Canada, Israel, Japan and other countries. She performed for the BBC, WDR (West Deutshe Rundfunk), Lithuanian and Polish Radio and TV and others. Her songs will be heard in the documentary film "Vilna: the Vanished City" (New York), about the prewar Jewish community of that city.

The focus of Maria Krupoves' art is presenting the uniqueness and beauty of the different cultures while revealing their similarities and universality. She sings in 15 languages and speaks in 7 of them. The singer's rendition of Yiddish songs is especially heartfelt, such as the programs she has performed (also in Hebrew and Ladino) at international festivals including the European Festival of Jewish Music, Leverkusen, Germany, 1993; XVI Folk Festival of the European Broadcasting Union, Zakopane, Poland, 1995; Yiddish Summit, Strasbourg, France, 2000, at the UNESCO Conference "Dialogue among Civilizations", Vilnius, Lithuania, 2001; at The First World Congress of the Lithuanian Jews (Litvakes), Vilnius, Lithuania, 2001; Frankfurt Book Fair, Munich, Germany, 2002, and others. She also performed for Jewish communities and sinagogues in Europe and North America (Montreal, Toronto, New York).

Dr. Krupoves is also a scholar. Her dissertation theme was Polish folksong in Lithuania in the context of the Lithuanian and Byelorussian music folklore (Warsaw, 1999). For the last three years she has been involved in the project of collecting the Yiddish songs of Litvakes, in Lithuania and Belarus. She teaches in the Vilnius Yiddish Institute and Center for Stateless Cultures at the Vilnius University, lecturing on the history of Jewish music, and the culture and comparative folklore of the stateless cultures of Lithuania -Yiddish, Karaim, Tatar, Gypsy (Roma) and Russian Old Believers. Maria Krupoves speaks and writes fluent Yiddish, and several articles of hers were published in the New York 'Forverts'and 'YIVO Yedies' (YIVO News). Her repertory of Yiddish music includes some unknown songs which she recorded from Holocaust survivors. In 2001 Dr. Krupoves won the Vladimir and Pearl Heyfetz Fellowship in YIVO, New York. She delivered lectures about Yiddish culture in Lithuania and performed Yiddish songs in Indiana University, Bloomington; YIVO; Brooklyn College; Yeshiva University, NYC.

Recently she performed at the opening ceremony of the Shtetl Museum in Rishon LeTsion, Israel, and in New York with one of the most distinguished Yiddish artists, Mr. Zalmen Mlotek. Dr. Krupoves has recorded several CDs with her multicultural repertory, among them "Songs of the Vilna Ghetto", recorded live in the former Vilna Ghetto Theatre.