Following rehearsals and concerts in Vienna and
Krakow, the 14 Other European musicians return home
to Weimar for the culminating concert of this
project, presenting the klezmer and lautari
ensembles separately, smaller mixed ensembles
combining musicians from both groups, and the
14-piece ensemble of all the musicians together.
Cimbalom virtuoso Kalman Balogh from Budapest is a
living legend in contemporary and traditional World
Music. As a member of The Other Europeans band, in
2008-09 he stunned audiences in Weimar, Vienna and
Krakow. Now, as a special event of Yiddish Summer
2009, we present him with his own sensational band
of Budapest musicians, Kalman Balogh & The Gypsy
Cimbalom Band. Saxophonist Péter Bede, guitarist
Mihály György, violinist Frankie Lato, trumpeter/violinist
and bassist Csaba Novák are all innovative virtuosi
and pioneers of the unique mixture of Hungarian
Gypsy music, Balkan music, and jazz that young
musicians developed in Budapest in the last decade.
Together with Balogh, they create musical fireworks
that must be heard to be believed. For lovers of
contemporary Roma and Balkan music and Balkan jazz,
this is a concert not be missed. Listen to tracks
from the band’s latest CD at:
www.myspace.com/kalmanbalogh
Klezmer & Lautari – final concert instrumental
workshop
The
2009 Yiddish Summer instrumental workshop has
attracted young musicians from all over the world
for advanced study of klezmer and lautar music with
the 14 master musicians of the Other Europeans band.
In this final workshop concert, students from West &
East Europe, North & South America, Japan and Israel
perform the very special music created by Jewish and
Roma musicians who lived side-by-side for many
generations in Northern Moldova and Southern
Ukraine. The music is full of soul, beautiful melody
and fiery rhythm. In addition to student ensembles
directed by the Other Europeans master musicians,
the concert also features the 2009 Yiddish Summer
Klezmer/Lautari Gala Orchestra conducted by Marin
Bunea, conductor of the Moldavian President’s Folk
Orchestra in Chisinau, performing Moldavian music
for large folk ensemble that is rarely heard outside
of Moldova.
Taraf de Edinets - Lautari Brass from North
Moldova
Anatol
Ciobanu - accordion
Vaniusha Popov - trumpet
Constantin Lachi - trombone
Vasile
Bunea - trombone
Victor
Ciobanu - drums and cimbalom
Balkan
brass bands are the stars of World Music festivals,
but their style is often commercialized to appeal to
Western audiences. Not this time! The Taraf de
Edinets are five senior musicians who play for
weddings and parties in their own communities in and
around Edinets, Moldova. We met them in November
2008 during an Other Europeans music research trip
to North Moldova. Think of an old-time Dixieland
brass band with trumpets, trombones and clarinets
blaring in joyful independence of each other. Now
imagine that sound but with the melodies, harmonies
and rhythms of Yiddish and Roma music, and you begin
to imagine the wild sound of the Taraf de Edinets.
Joined for this concert by Other Europeans trumpeter
Adam Stinga and violinist Marin Bunea, Yiddish
Summer is very pleased to present Taraf de Edinets
in their first ever concert in Germany. Watch videos
of our meeting in Moldova on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alet6XEeTh8&feature=PlayList&p=227818CB9A958016
Moldavian dance ball with Taraf de Edinets &
Yiddish Summer Klezmorim
Unless
you happen to be invited to a wedding in North
Moldova this summer, this Moldavian dance ball is
your only chance to listen and dance to the hottest
dance music you’ve ever heard. The final event of
the Yiddish Summer 2009 dance workshop, the ball
features Taraf de Edinets with Marin Buneau and Adam
Stinga together with a klezmer dance band led by
Christian Dawid and Alan Bern, in an evening of
Moldavian and Yiddish dance music for circles, lines
and couples. Dance workshop teachers Pavel Popa (Moldova),
Steven Weintraub (USA), Zev Feldman (USA/Israel),
Andreas Schmitges (Germany) and others will be on
hand to help even those with two left feet find the
steps, and should you decide just to watch and
listen you will dance in your seat. Come join us!
Bern, Brody & Rodach: Triophilia CD release
concert
Bern,
Brody & Rodach features two musicians long familiar
to Weimar audiences (Alan Bern, piano/accordion,
artistic director of Yiddish Summer; Paul Brody:
trumpet, member of The Other Europeans & Diaspora
Redux) together with one of the most original and
respected jazz guitarists in Germany today, Berlin’s
Michael Rodach. All three bring years of experience
in theater, film, and Hörspiel to the trio, blended
with jazz to make imaginary musical landscapes of
great beauty and fantasy. The opening concert of the
first Other Music Festival is also the official
release of the trio’s first CD, “Triophilia,” on the
prize-winning Jazzwerkstatt label.
Alan Bern (Berlin; piano/accordion) is artistic
director of Yiddish Summer Weimar. In 2009 he received an Ehrenruth for
his lifework at the Tanz- & Folk Festival
Rudolstadt. He directs The Other Europeans, Diaspora
Redux, and Brave Old World, and also plays with
avant-garde accordionist Guy Klucevsek. He has
recorded on Winter & Winter, Jazzwerkstatt,
Pinorrekk, EMI, and many other labels.
www.myspace.com/alanbern
Paul Brody (Berlin: trumpet) is a Tzadik
recording artist. A frequent teacher and performer
at Yiddish Summer Weimar, he is known for a style
that is lyrical, narrative, and often humorous. He
directs Sadawi and composes for theater and radio
projects around the world, and he performed John
Zorn, Blixa Bargeld, Frank London, David Krakauer,
Barry White, and David Moss, among many others.
www.paulbrody.net
Michael Rodach (Berlin: electric guitar/guitar)
has worked with Teo Macero, Tiger Okoshi, Kevin
Coyne Bob Moses, David Moss and has solo CDs on
Traumton Records. For the past twenty years he has
composed for countless contemporary dance projects
in Europe and America, films, and has won awards for
his music oriented radio plays. He has worked with
such directors and choreographers as Dieter Heitkamp,
Claudia Feest, Gayle Tufts, and Roberto Galvan.
www.michaelrodach.com
Naye Khvalyes (neue jiddische Welle) with Dan
Kahn & The Painted Bird, Fayvish & guests Paul Brody
& Alan Bern
The
second evening of the Other Music Festival features
two bands at the forefront of a new generation of
Yiddish singer/songwriter bands making waves from
New York, Berlin and Moscow to Tel Aviv. The raucous,
theatrical and critical style of Dan Kahn & the
Painted Bird contrasts with the cool, jazzy,
minimalist sound of Fabian Schnedler’s Fayvish
project, and both bands will be joined by Alan Bern
and Paul Brody as special guests. Kahn and Schnedler
co-edited the Bear Family/Büchergilde compilation CD
“Naye Khvalyes” (to be released in 2010), and both
are regular teachers and participants of Yiddish
Summer Weimar.
Dan
Kahn & The Painted Bird
Daniel
Kahn (Detroit/Berlin) studied acting, directing,
playwriting and poetry. He lived, played music,
recorded, acted, directed plays and composed theatre
music in New Orleans, Detroit, New York and Ann
Arbor. He has received awards for his playwriting,
poetry, acting, and composing. In summer 2005 Daniel
moved to Berlin, and has became an integral part of
the international Yiddish and klezmer scene. He soon
formed his own band, featuring some of Berlin and
New York's best young players. "The Painted Bird"
concocts a mixture of Klezmer, radical Yiddish song,
political cabaret and punk folk, kept together by
Kahn's amazing abilities as a songwriter, translator
and performer; telling stories of outrageous
incidents, poetically dark, tragically humorous and
politically incorrect. "The Painted Bird" has
brought "Yiddish Punk Cabaret" to rock clubs,
theatres, festivals and shtetls, from Berlin to
Boston, Leningrad to Louisiana. The band has been
called "The Yiddish Pogues," and Kahn was once
described as "someone between Leonard Cohen, Bob
Dylan and Tom Waits - but Yiddish.
bringt
zusammen, was bisher sorgfältig getrennt wurde -
Popmusik und jiddischen Gesang. Yiddpop (Yiddish Pop
Music)
nennt
Bandleader Fabian Schnedler das Ergebnis dieser
Kreuzung. FAYVISH zitiert und montiert traditionelle
Musik und jiddische Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts von
Dichtergrößen wie Peretz Markish, Beyle
Schaechter-Gottesman oder Peretz Miranski und stellt
sie in neue Zusammenhänge. Die Songs erzählen
Geschichten von heute – von Abschiedsweh,
Revolutionswut und sexy Vermieterinnen, darunter
auch neue jiddische Texte aus der Feder von Fabian
Schnedler. In der Zusammenarbeit mit Steffen Illner
(Kontrabaß) und Philipp Bernhardt (Schlagzeug) ist
ein sehr eigener minimalistischer Sound entstanden,
ein dichter Teppich aus jiddischem Text, lyrischen
Gesangslinien und komplexen Rhythmusfiguren.
FAYVISH ist jiddische Popmusik für die Gegenwart,
ein Bastard, der u.a. beim Yiddish Summer Weimar
2007 ein begeistertes Publikum gefunden hat. Special
Guests von FAYVISH sind Alan Bern (Akkordeon)
und Paul Brody (Trompete).
„Hejmisch, unkoscher, fetzt.“ (Oszillo)
www.myspace.com/fayvish
(photo: Ricarda Hantzsch)
Extreme Piano: Shiau-uen Ding (Taiwan) performs
cutting
edge acoustic & electroacoustic music of Jodlowski,
Eggert, Dodge, Liszt
A
native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising
presence on the new and electroacoustic music scenes,
an original and energetic performer of traditional
solo and chamber repertoire, and founding director
of NeXT Ens, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning
and performing live electro-acoustic music. She
studied piano with Eugene Pridonoff, Elizabeth
Pridonoff, and Lina Yeh, computer music with Mara
Helmuth and Christopher Bailey, and contemporary
improvisation with Alan Bern at National Taiwan
Normal University and University of Cincinnati,
where she received her doctoral degree. She has
performed in France and throughout the US and
Taiwan. Her virtuosic and sensitive interpretations
have won standing ovations, and she was called “a
powerful force on the new music scene” by Array for
her performance at Spark Festival in Minneapolis.
She was a semifinalist in both International
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam and
Concours International de Piano d’Orléans. She has
collaborated with internationally renowned
performers and composers, including Steve Reich,
Michael Kugel, George Tsontakis, who refers to her
performance of his Ghost Variations as a “monster
performance,” and Moritz Eggert, who dedicated his
Hämmerklavier XIX: Hymnen der Welt (Afghanistan bis
Zimbabwe) to her. In addition, new compositions have
been written for her by Mara Helmuth, Christopher
Bailey, Eric Lyon, Burton Beerman, and Naxos artist
Gao Ping. She has recorded for Capstone, Centaur,
Innova and Electric Music Collective.
Songs of the world: Multicultural music palette for
an encounter with our history
This
concert, with songs from around the world, is the
result of two vocal workshops presented in
Strasbourg by Courant d'Art, one for teenagers and
one for adults, directed by Isabelle Marx. The MUS-E
Choir is accompanied by pianist/vocalist Ri chard
Doust, the only man in the choir. In our
consume-driven, competitive society, Courant d'Art
promotes opening, listening and sharing values in
multicultural and intergenerational projects open to
all. Through exploring vocal techniques in various
societies and cultures, this project helps create
better understanding among people, while building a
repertoire reflecting our common values and joys.
The Choir also regularly works with improvisation to
explore the inner creative potential of everyone.
Created in 1993, the European MUS-E program
initiated by the International Yehudi Menuhin
Foundation located in Brussels, represents a tool
against violence, discrimination and social
exclusion, aimed at children from underpriviledged
suburbs. The aim is to make artists from different
disciplines intervene in different schools and to
make children take part in their workshops. As a
result the proposed repertoire is charactarized by a
great variety of world songs. These songs - which
have reached our ears, have touched us, which we
wanted to savour, to share, which made us travel
along the rivers, within the towns, an d even over
the boarders – we will sing them loudly at the edge
of the cliffs to make them cross the seas.
Hometown Soroka – song concert in honour of
Arkadi Gendler
Soroka,
in North Moldova, is the birthplace of Arkadi
Gendler, in his late 80s the most senior and
distinguished Yiddish singer in the world, Arkadi
will be joined in this concert by the rest of the
2009 Song Workshop faculty, performing traditional
and original Yiddish, non-Yiddish and Roma songs
from Moldova and elsewhere. Singer/songwriter Efim
Chorny and pianist Susan Ghergus from Chisinau,
violinist/guitarist/singer Tcha Limberger from
Transylvania and special guest Tom Burke from New
York will be joined by Yiddish Summer favorites
Roswitha Dasch (violin/voice) and Katharina Müther (accordion/voice)
and Yiddish Summer artistic director Alan Bern
(piano/accordion) in a concert to honour Arkadi
Gendler’s life and work.
The
2009 Yiddish Summer Song Workshop has the most
interesting variety of students yet, including
participants from Russia, Latvia, Austria, Germany,
England, Israel, North and South America, and a
women’s choir from Strasbourg! During a week of
intense group and individual instruction, they study
traditional and contemporary Yiddish, Moldavian and
Roma repertoire, style and technique with master
musicians and teachers Alan Bern, Tom Burke, Efim
Chorny, Roswitha Dasch, Arkadi Gendler, Susan
Ghergus and Katharina Müther. This concert presents
student ensembles, soloists, and choirs under the
direction of the workshop coaches, as well as some
surprises. This is a concert for lovers of beautiful
song in any language, and most especially for fans
of Yiddish.
Trace - an evening of "Devised Theater",
directed by Avia Moore
On
August 7, 2009 an international group of artists led
by the young Canadian director Avia Moore will
inaugurate the Other Music Academy building (the
former Kessler Elementary School, Ernst-Kohl-Straße
23, Weimar) with a performance of "devised theater."
Instead of starting with a script, "devised theater"
uses stories, images, objects, music, and anything
else that the performers bring themselves or find
relevant to the performance space. To prepare, Moore
and many of the performers will participate in
Yiddish Summer, absorbing music, dance, stories,
images, events, and the environment and history of
Weimar itself. Then, in a one-week intensive
rehearsal process in the future Other Music Academy
home, they will use these materials to create a
theatrical performance that explores impressions,
memory and imagination. The Other Music Academy
building is itself a "work-in-progress" undergoing
major renovations starting in 2009. Through "Trace,"
Moore and her colleagues will present audiences
their own very personal artistic vision of this
moment of intersection between past and possibility.
nennt
Bandleader Fabian Schnedler das Ergebnis dieser
Kreuzung. FAYVISH zitiert und montiert traditionelle
Musik und jiddische Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts von
Dichtergrößen wie Peretz Markish, Beyle
Schaechter-Gottesman oder Peretz Miranski und stellt
sie in neue Zusammenhänge. Die Songs erzählen
Geschichten von heute – von Abschiedsweh,
Revolutionswut und sexy Vermieterinnen, darunter
auch neue jiddische Texte aus der Feder von Fabian
Schnedler. In der Zusammenarbeit mit Steffen Illner
(Kontrabaß) und Philipp Bernhardt (Schlagzeug) ist
ein sehr eigener minimalistischer Sound entstanden,
ein dichter Teppich aus jiddischem Text, lyrischen
Gesangslinien und komplexen Rhythmusfiguren.
A
native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising
presence on the new and electroacoustic music scenes,
an original and energetic performer of traditional
solo and chamber repertoire, and founding director
of NeXT Ens, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning
and performing live electro-acoustic music. She
studied piano with Eugene Pridonoff, Elizabeth
Pridonoff, and Lina Yeh, computer music with Mara
Helmuth and Christopher Bailey, and contemporary
improvisation with Alan Bern at National Taiwan
Normal University and University of Cincinnati,
where she received her doctoral degree. She has
performed in France and throughout the US and
Taiwan. Her virtuosic and sensitive interpretations
have won standing ovations, and she was called “a
powerful force on the new music scene” by Array for
her performance at Spark Festival in Minneapolis.
She was a semifinalist in both International
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam and
Concours International de Piano d’Orléans. She has
collaborated with internationally renowned
performers and composers, including Steve Reich,
Michael Kugel, George Tsontakis, who refers to her
performance of his Ghost Variations as a “monster
performance,” and Moritz Eggert, who dedicated his
Hämmerklavier XIX: Hymnen der Welt (Afghanistan bis
Zimbabwe) to her. In addition, new compositions have
been written for her by Mara Helmuth, Christopher
Bailey, Eric Lyon, Burton Beerman, and Naxos artist
Gao Ping. She has recorded for Capstone, Centaur,
Innova and Electric Music Collective. 