KlezCalendar

The concert will be recorded for possible future broadcast and distribution.

We will be introducing our new accordionist, Christina Crowder. Christina studied Scandinavian and Bulgarian accordion in Seattle and performed with the acoustic folk-rock band Bad Karma Banjo. She moved to Hungary in 1993, where she studied Hungarian folk dance and became a founding member of the Budapest-based Yiddish music ensemble Di Naye Kapelye. She appears on their albums Aleph (1995), Di Naye Kapelye (1998), and A Mazeldiker Yid (2001).

At our Albany concert we will be premiering some new songs and bringing back some of our old material as well, including:

• a suite of Hungarian-Yiddish songs;
• newly penned verses to a classic Yiddish song, Motl der Opreyter, about a worker killed in a strike that brings the story up to date in the world of third world sweatshops;
• a midrash about Isaac and Ishmael, ancestors of the Jewish and Arab peoples, pleading for them to make peace with each other;
• a Yiddish vaudeville song about a synagogue fundraiser with new verses about fundraising for Public Radio
• a classic Yiddish vaudeville song about repenting on Yom Kippur with additional verses about "patriotic" politicians and sleazy financiers who bankrupt the country.

We've got some wedding songs, dance music, and more, and we'll be translating the songs, some verbally and some with subtitles for those in attendance at the concert.

Susan Arbetter of WAMC will be interviewing bandleader Yosl Kurland about the concert next Wednesday morning, September 13th at 9:48 AM. Go to www.wamc.org to find how to tune in either on your radio dial or on the web. I'll let you know when the concert itself will be broadcast.