KlezCalendar

Ot Azoy! Yiddish Crash Course Sunday 6-Friday 11 August

KlezFest is preceded by Ot Azoy! (6-11 August). Ot Azoy' means 'This is the way' and it really is the way for beginners to advanced students to learn to read, write and speak Yiddish quickly and easily in only one week in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Includes intensive tuition and conversation sessions with expert tuition from Peysakh Fiszman of New York, Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz of the Buber Institute in Brussels and Lily Kahn under the Direction of Helen (Khayele) Beer of University College London. Learn Yiddish also through song with exquisite Yiddish Singer Shura Lipovsky from Amsterdam and through Yiddish films selected and introduced by Barry Davis of London. For complete beginners to advanced students in four levels. Beginners will be taken through the Hebrew-Yiddish alphabet (much easier than it looks), will learn some every-day vocabulary and a generous helping of grammar, so that by the end of the week you will be able to string together your first sentences in Yiddish! Intermediate and advanced Yiddish speakers will be given more challenging texts and grammatical lessons and will get lots of opportunities to converse in this extraordinary language. Who says Yiddish is Kaput? This will be the 5th JMI Yiddish Crash course.

Register for Ot Azoy!

Website www.jmi.org.uk

Details of fees and registration forms are now available. Full fees are £285; Students £185. There is an early booking discount of £15 if booked by 15 April and paid in full by 31 May. Further discounts if attending with an ensemble and if booking for Ot Azoy! as well as KlezFest or Song School. Some scholarships are available, to apply fill in a registration form and send with deposit and letter describing the need for financial assistance and the reason you want to do the courses. Book soon and have the benefit of the early booking discount. Website www.jmi.org.uk to register

JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are part of the European Yiddish and Klezmer Academy 2006 for the Transmission of the Yiddish cultural heritage. Four European institutions in London, Paris, Weimar and Vilnius give you the chance to learn Yiddish language and song and Klezmer music. This programme is supported by the Culture Program 2000 of the European Union. Participate in one course or in several. Some European scholarships are available. See the website for details of each European Academy course: www.yiddish-klezmer.net

JMI KlezFest London, the Song School and Ot Azoy! are also part of a World Music Summer School at SOAS University of London www.SOAS.ac.uk/summermusic

KlezFest, Song School and Ot Azoy! will be held this year again at West London Synagogue, 33 Seymour Place, London, W1, and KlezFest and Song School will end with KlezFesters invited to participate with their voices and instruments in a moving service welcoming the Sabbath in the sanctuary and optional partaking of a meal with the community on Friday 18 August.

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Yiddish Summer Weimar 2006: Basarabye!
The Weimar Klezmer Weeks, runs this year from July 11 through August 10 in Weimar, Germany.

• Jul 11–18: Beginning and Intermediate Yiddish language
• Jul 11–13: Workshop—Learning music by ear
• Jul 15–17: Introduction to klezmer music
• Jul 19–26: Yiddish song workshop
• Jul 27–Aug 1: Yiddish dance music for musicians
• Jul 29–Aug 1: workshop Yiddish dance
• Aug 3–10: Advanced workshop klezmer music

Possibly the most romanticized of all the "old worlds" of Yiddish, Bessarabia (part of present-day Moldova) is still mythic in Jewish memory and imagination today. Much of the modern klezmer "sound" as well as many Yiddish dances and songs point back to Bessarabian origins. Devastated by war and politics, the remnants of Bessarabian Yiddish culture survived the 20th century scattered throughout the world. In 2006, Weimar Yiddish Summer (formerly Weimar Klezmer Weeks) will gather together artists and musicians from the USA, Moldova, the Ukraine and elsewhere to conduct a unique, month-long, intensive workshop/festival focusing on Bessarabian Yiddish expressive culture.

As in past years, Weimar Yiddish Summer explores one subject at a time in workshops lasting from 3–7 days. In 2006 our subjects are: Yiddish Language (beginning and intermediate), Learning By Ear, Introduction to Klezmer Music, Yiddish Song, Dance Music for Musicians, Yiddish Dance, and Advanced Klezmer Music (see schedule).

Program director Alan Bern has given Weimar Yiddish Summer 2006 an even stronger emphasis on interculturality: in addition to the regular group of eminent faculty, guests in 2006 include clarinetist German Goldenshteyn (Bessarabia/USA), singer Arkady Gendler (Ukraine), singer/songwriter Efim Chorny (Moldova), dance teacher Nicolae Grinbincea (Moldova), and many others. Michael Alpert and Zev Feldman will lead us through Bessarabian Yiddish history and ethnography as well as Yiddish dance.

As always, daytime classes are complemented by evening programs including public jam sessions in Weimar's cafes, concerts, dances, films, lectures, and more. Participants come from all over Europe, North America, and even Asia, and often form personal and professional relationships that extend far beyond Weimar. Whether for a single workshop or for the entire period, we invite you to join us in 2006 for what promises to be the most exciting and challenging Weimar Yiddish Summer yet!

www.klezmer-wochen-weimar.de

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Sunday, Aug 6, Alicia Svigal's Klezmer Fiddle Party Band
4:45 p.m. at Lincoln Center Out of Doors
With special guest dance instructor Steve Weintraub. Band includes Pete Rushefsky on tsimbl, Jim Guttman on bass, Mimi Rabson on violin. (Time subject to change)

Violinist Alicia Svigals, considered by many to be the world's leading klezmer fiddler, founded Jewish roots band the Klezmatics and her current group, the all-female Mikveh. As a musician and composer, she's worked with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, the Ben Folds Five, playwrights Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Eve Ensler (the Vagina Monologues), poet Allen Ginsburg, violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, Jewish spiritual singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman, cantor Avraham Fried and many others. She has appeared on David Letterman, MTV, Good Morning America, PBS' Great Performances, and NPR's Prairie Home Companion, Weekend Edition and New Sounds. Her solo album Fidl is the world's first klezmer violin CD. She loves to play weddings and bat/bar mitzvahs and can be reached at her website: www.aliciasvigals.com. "...violin playing with depth and urgency..." L.A. Times

Posted by Ari Davidow at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Klingon Klezmer
Sunday - 8/6: Long Island Foundation, 120 Long Beach Blvd, Loveladies, NJ, for infor go to website or call 609-494-1241

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