KlezCalendar

The program is a result of a decade of Lori’s research into the music written and composed for the yidishe veltlekhe shuln (the Yiddish secular schools) of the Americas and Russia between 1910 and 1970 by esteemed Yiddish authors and composers.

These treasures were unearthed by Lori in libraries and private collections around the world and are seldom, if at all, performed. They deserve a wider audience.

Lori Cahan-Simon, singer/folklorist, has been singing for as long as she can remember, professionally since the age of 14, and has performed in countries and venues throughout the world ever since. She has worked as a songwriter for Motown Records in Los Angeles, and has sung in festivals, Atlantic City Casino showrooms, venues in many countries, has been a featured performer on radio in the United States and Mexico, and has done much studio work in the United States, including jingles, children’s material, comedy, and in Rock, R&B, and Jazz styles. Lori has been called a “compelling, theatrical vocalist” by Seth Rogovoy, author of The Essential Klezmer. Aside from her own ensemble, she is the vocalist with the Workmen’s Circle Klezmer Orchestra, and with “oldies” group, N.O.S. Music from her Passover album is used in the Menscher Brothers film "Seder!". Lori is Chairperson of the Workmen’s Circle School Board, and has taught Yiddish Culture and Language at the in Cleveland through the visual, performing, and culinary arts, for the last decade.

Walt Mahovlich began playing Croatian and Macedonian weddings at the age of 19 with traditional village musicians and began playing klezmer music in 1973. He has played frequent concert tours of Europe and throughout North America, was a featured artist at the Smithsonian’s 1976 Festival of American Folklife, has performed at Smotra Foklora in Zagreb, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center. A staff member at the Buffalo on the Roof klezmer workshops, Walt toured and recorded with Budowitz. He made his off-Broadway debut in Tony Kushner’s A Dybbuk at New York’s Public Theater. Walt currently leads the East European folk group Harmonia. Walt studied ethnomusicology at Sarajevo and produced the Unesco award winning album, Nova Domovina: Balkan Slavic Music from the Industrial Midwest. Walt appears on Lori's other Yiddish recordings.