News

We are very pleased to release our 2013 brochure: 56 pages packed with amazing programming!

The brochure contains the faculty, highlights, workshops, and FULL daily schedule of events.

Download by clicking on the cover image!

Our 2014 brochure is now online with our highlights, full program, and daily schedule. Download the pdf by clicking on the cover image.

You can also browse our entire list of classes, workshops, and performance opportunities on offer this summer right here online! Please click on the course title for the full description.

Throwback Thursday – our 2006 KlezKanada Faculty. Photo: David Kaufman.

Our 2014 faculty list is almost complete and is online! Check out this outstanding group of teachers, performers, and lecturers here!

Artwork by Avia Moore.

Our 2015 Brochure is now available to download! Print copies will be available at camp. All programming is also available online, sortable by subject, level, and time!

The 2016 Brochure is now available to view and download!

Please consider saving paper and viewing on your screen. Printed copies of the brochure will be distributed at KlezKanada. The program is also available on our website, where you can sort by period and activity.

Our 2017 brochure is now available as a downloadable PDF!
Printed copies will be distributed at KlezKanada to participants.

You can also view our complete programming online – easy to sort and filter by interest, time, and day. Click on any record to expand and view the full record. To view the programming spreadsheet full-screen, click on “View larger version” in the bottom right hand corner of the spreadsheet. You may also sort or filter the records by area or level. All programming is subject to change.

The full program for 2018 is now available as a downloadable brochure!

Downloaded the PDF brochure by clicking on this link.

Artwork by Avia Moore

You can also find the full program online in a searchable and sortable format. Printed copies of the 2018 brochure will be distributed to participants at KlezKanada.

Photo: Avia Moore

Announcing the theme for KlezKanada 2014…

Yiddish is Undead: The Mystical and Supernatural in Ashkenazic Jewish Folklore and Practice

“Yiddish isn’t dead; if anything, it’s undead. Think about it: Is there anything more unkillable, vaguely erotic, ridiculous, and toothy than the language of the Ashkenazim?” – Josh Lambert, Tablet Magazine

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Monday Aug 17th —  Sunday Aug 23, 2015

Join us for a week of extraordinary programing with talks, workshops, concerts, and dancing!

The theme for KlezKanada 2015 will be di tsukunft, with a focus on Poland and on Y.L. Peretz. Di tsukunft, Yiddish for ‘the future’, historically was the name of both the Youth wing of the Bund (formally called Yugnt-bund “Tsukunft” in poyln – ‘Youth Bund ‘the Future’ in Poland’) and of the world’s oldest Yiddish literary journal. We celebrate our 20th year by simultaneously looking ahead and at our past. The history of the Jews in Poland is so large, complex and intertwined with the history of Poland itself that an entire museum opened this year to tell the story. 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of Y.L. Peretz, z’l’, the great poet, writer, playwright, awakener of Yiddish speaking Jews, instigator of the will for self-emancipation and resistance. His extraordinary, radical work and multi-faceted work will inspire KlezKanada 2015.

Our music faculty in 2015 will include many of our favorite teachers, including Shura Lipovsky, The Klezmatics, Lorin Sklamberg, Suzanna Ghergus and Fima Chorny. Mark your calendars for KlezKanada 2015!

“The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.” – Michelangelo

The Middle Ages are over… The Renaissance is here and Enlightenment is not far ahead! So grab your lutes, gauntlets, tunics, and gowns, because the theme for KlezKanada 2017 is Yiddish Renaissance.

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the world of Yiddish culture and music experienced a rebirth throughout North American and into Europe that became known as the Klezmer Revival. “Archaic things come back,” says Hankus Netsky. “ The blues came back; And the same thing eventually happened when our generation came of age and said, “Wait a minute. What Happened? Where’s our folk music?” (The Essential Klezmer, Seth Rogovoy)

This summer we will celebrate that renaissance. In 1981 the Klezmer Conservatory band released its first album, Yiddishe Renaissance, and in honor of its 36th year anniversary, we are happy to have KCB band members Hankus Netsky, Ilene Stahl, Judy Bressler, Grant Smith and Jim Guttmann join us at KlezKanada.

We are also thrilled to welcome back KlezKanada veteran and revivalist extraordinaire Peter Sokolow. Cookie Seigelstein, Joshua Horowitz and Stuart Brotman of Veretski Pass will also be returning this summer. Stay tuned for more programming updates in the coming weeks and months.

Ghetto(s)

500 year after the opening of the world’s first ‘ghetto’ – the Jewish ghetto in Venice was established in 1516 – KlezKanada looks at the reality and the idea of ghettos, Jewish and others. ‘Ghetto’ is a highly charged word and concept, fraught with multiple meanings and associations. The Venetian Jewish ghetto was both a separation and an integration, an opening and a closing off, liberation and restriction. Max Weinreich, in his paper “The Reality of Jewishness versus the Ghetto Myth” asserted that “without a separate community there is no separate language,” to which we add ‘or separate culture, music, cuisine, identity.’ Ghetto as incubator of culture and identity; ghetto(s) as historical and contemporary reality.

Sholem Aleichem!

The application for the 2017 KlezKanada Youth Scholarship Program is now online!

Every year, KlezKanada’s Summer Institute provides interdisciplinary youth scholarships for emerging artists and scholars, ages 16 to 35. This internationally renowned program offers students an opportunity to study with many of the leading teachers of Yiddish/Jewish music and culture, and make friends and form artistic partnerships that will last a lifetime. Often graduating to positions on KlezKanada’s faculty, our scholarship students carry their art and expertise worldwide, becoming the innovative culture makers and teachers of the new Yiddish/Jewish world of today and tomorrow.

More information can be found at klezkanada.org/scholarships.

Apply by May 1st.

Photo: Avia Moore

For over 20 years, the KlezKanada Scholarship Program has brought emerging artists and scholars to study at our Laurentian Retreat. One-of-a-kind in the Jewish arts world, the program has allowed hundreds of young artists and scholars of all backgrounds to study Yiddish music and Jewish culture in a uniquely immersive environment.

This internationally renowned program offers students from all over the world an opportunity to study with many of today’s leading teachers of klezmer music and Yiddish song, Yiddish dance and theatre, and Jewish history, literature, and culture. The experience forges artistic mentorships, builds lasting friendships, and launches promising careers.

We invite applications in any field, ages 16-35. Candidates must provide a small portfolio of their work to apply. Program information and the application are available here.

If you have any questions about the program or the application process, please reach out to our Scholarship Coordinator, Avia Moore at klezkanada [dot] scholarships [at] gmail [dot] com.

Sur demande, l’application est disponible aussi en français.

Applications are due May 1, 2018.
Please note: while late applications will be accepted, they will be placed on a waiting list.

August 24, 2014 7:30PM
Der Groyser Kontsert Internationale

Der Groyser Kontsert Internationale is the not-to-be missed klezmer event of the year. Featuring 17 of the world’s leading Jewish music instrumentalists and Yiddish song interpreters, from Hungary, the US, France, Israel, the UK,the Netherlands, Russia and Canada, this is authentic Eastern-European soul music straight out of old Bukhovina. With the scintillating vocals of Shura Lipovsky (NL), the quirky multi-national quartet the Brothers Nazaroff (DE/US/RU/HU), the ever charming local-boy-hero Josh Dolgin (CA) and the Klezmatics’ Lorin Sklamberg (US), this thrilling lineup of art song singers, clarinet virtuosi, Yiddish troubadours and brass-band mavens is sure to have you scissor-kicking in the aisles and all in benefit of the KlezKanada Scholarship Program.

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KlezKanada is thrilled to announce that Berlin’s own Trio Yas will be joining for us for the first time at our retreat this summer. It’s a powerhouse ensemble of three all-star klezmorim, Christian Dawid (clarinet), Guy Schalom (drums) and– making her KlezKanada debut– Sanne Mörricke (accordion). They have played festivals and concert stages throughout Europe and released the fantastic Get Up! a double record of over 100 minutes of pure Yiddish dance music. Don’t miss their Tuesday night performance and daytime workshops!

Trio Yas is presented with the generous support of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Montreal.

Already know some Yiddish and want to practise interacting with others? Rivke Margolis is teaching Intermediate Yiddish Language this summer! A relaxed atmosphere, guided conversation exercises, games, songs, outdoor treks, and other fun activities await you! Rivke has taught Yiddish in a variety of settings, from Yiddish retreats to intensive Yiddish language programs. She has been a professor in the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Jewish Studies Program since 2006. Now’s the time to brush up on your Yiddish!

Photo credit: Lindsay Margolis

KlezKanada is pleased to present the Canadian premiere of BEYLE, a new film from the Yiddish Book Center and the Wexler Oral History Project of the Yiddish Book Center. Yiddish poet, artist, and songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman’s story is told through personal interviews and archival footage, providing insight into her work and the Yiddish community she fostered.

Watch the trailer below:

Chanukah Blowout!
Presented by The Segal Centre and KlezKanada
Featuring: Josh Dolgin, Shtreiml and Fanfare Severni

Celebrate the Festival of Lights in style with a concert featuring some of the finest performers on the new Jewish music scene. Join Josh Dolgin, the extraordinary mind behind Socalled, Montreal’s blues infused klezmer outfit Shtreiml and super brass band fantasteek! Fanfare Severni as they romp through a rep- ertoire of holiday classics, klezmer dance tunes and original barn burners. Special guests include Berlin’s clarinet maven Christian Dawid and Montreal’s mother of yiddish folk song Abigail Rosenbaltt. Chanukah surprises abound.

Tickets: 514-739-7944 or www.segalcentre.org

Une grande soirée festive de Hanoukah!
Présenté par le Centre Segal et KlezKanada
Avec Josh Dolgin, Shtreiml et Fanfare Severni

Célébrez le Festival des lumières avec classe, en assistant à un concert réunissant quelques-uns des meilleurs inter- prètes de la nouvelle scène musicale juive! Joignez-vous à Josh Dolgin, la personnalité extraordinaire qui se cache der- rière Socalled, au groupe montréalais de musique klezmer teintée de blues Shtreiml et à la super et fantastique Fanfare Severni, qui joueront avec entrain tout un répertoire de clas- siques du temps des Fêtes, de musiques de danse klezmer et de succès originaux. Des invités spéciaux seront de la fête, comme le virtuose berlinois de la clarinette Christian Dawid et la mère de la musique folklorique Yiddish à Montréal, Abigail Rosenbaltt. Chanukah ne manque pas de surprises!

Billets: 514-739-7944 ou www.segalcentre.org

At KlezKanada 2016, we were joined by Daveed Goldman, one of the founders of the tremendously popular Choir!Choir!Choir! Daveed led his arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, with a new Yiddish translation by Daniel Kahn. Now, through our video, you can experience the event again!

“Halleluja” composed by Leonard Cohen
Yiddish Translation – Dan Kahn
Arrangement/Director – Choir!Choir!Choir! Daveed Goldman
Performers – die gantse 2016 klezkanada mishpokhe
Sound engineer – Bruno Paquin
First camera and video edit – Magdalena Hutter
Second camera – Jespa Kleinfeld
Sound engineer post-production – Christopher McDonald
Recorded at KlezKanada’s Laurentian Retreat, 2016

Each year, we have the opportunity to feature faculty members who have created new work, or who are at KlezKanada’s Laurentian Retreat for the first time. Here are a selection of the concerts that will be presented at KlezKanada 2014.

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An all-star evening of Yiddish song and music as part of THE DORA WASSERMAN YIDDISH THEATRE’S The New Jewish Scene

March 26, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Segal Centre
Tickets: ($28 – $20)
Available on-line at
www.segalcentre.org
or by phone at (514) 739-7944

Join this wonderful group of musicians, all former KlezKanada scholarship recipients, including So-Called (Josh Dolgin/ voice, accordion), Sarah Gordon (voice), Michael Winograd (clarinet), Rachel Lemisch (trombone) and Joel Kerr (bass) as they interpret the music of Dave Tarras, Mickey Katz, Aaron Lebedeff, Moishe Oysher, and many more. The evening will commence with the music of Ihtimanska featuring enchanting melodies of the Balkans with Yoni Kaston (accordion) and Ariane Morin (Saxophone).

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Beloved KlezKanada faculty members Michael Wex and Shane Baker bring 1920s and ’30s Warsaw Yiddish cabarets to you! Get ready for the new project that Wex created for and debuted at Yiddish Summer Weimar, which will have it’s North American debut at our cabaret this summer! Don’t miss it!

Presented in association with Yiddish Summer Weimar and The Other Music Academy e.V. Sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Want to come to KlezKanada’s Summer Retreat but can’t make it for the whole week?
A limited number of day passes and evening concert passes are now available!

More information available here:
https://klezkanada.org/laurentian-retreat/day-tickets-and-evening-concert-passes/

The deadline to apply for the 2016 KlezKanada Scholarship Program is fast approaching! Apply now to experience this life-changing program.

Join us on December 10th for a Sing-a-Long and Latkas.
Celebrate with DWYT and KlezKanada at 7:30 pm at the Segal Centre in Montreal.

KlezKanada presents

Der Groyser Kontsert: A Tribute to Theodore Bikel (1924-2015)
Sunday, August 23 at 7:30 pm · Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, Montreal

A masterful performer, singer, actor, raconteur and author, Mr. Bikel died in Los Angeles on July 21st at the age of 91. The concert will celebrate his life and career, presenting the most highly acclaimed musicians on the international Jewish music scene. Endlessly inspired by his life and work, and his kindness and generosity of spirit, we are honoured that Theodore Bikel considered himself part of the KlezKanada family. It is appropriate that the Groyser Kontsert benefit the KlezKanada Scholarship Fund.

“A place of learning, a place of teaching, a place of listening, of playing, of singing, of giving and receiving – that is what KlezKanada has come to mean to me. More important, it is a place of Yiddish song, poetry, and humor and a place of unforced Yiddishkayt. KlezKanada may be only one week out of the year but one takes away from it a sense of belonging, a sense of family with a song that lasts through winter and spring.” – Theodore Bikel

Born in May of 1924, the legendary Theodore Bikel led a unique career spanning over seven decades. An Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner, he is perhaps best known as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, a role he performed on stage over 2,000 times. As a folksinger and storyteller he recorded over 30 albums and captivated audiences on virtually every continent. A true Renaissance Man, he viewed his work and life in terms of survival, saying, “You must explore your roots in the past in order to pinpoint your place in the present or to be entitled to a future.”

The extraordinary, one night only, line up includes Grammy award-winning klezmer supergroup The Klezmatics; Montreal’s own Yiddish hip-hop sensation Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled); New York’s finest post-war klezmer tribute band The Tarras Band; the golden-voiced Shura Lipovsky from The Netherlands; pioneers of the post-Soviet klezmer renaissance, Efim Chorney and Suzanne Ghergus of Moldova; and Yiddish author and bon vivant Michael Wex as MC.
Oscar Peterson Hall 7141 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, QC
TICKETS: $50 orchestra and balcony / $36 mezzanine + taxes; service charges may apply
Available through Admission.com at 1-855-790-1245; or at the door

Comfortable in Yiddish and want to discuss Yiddish texts in depth this summer? Advanced Yiddish Reading & Discussion: The Beginnings of Modern Yiddish Literature with Eugene Orenstein is perfect for you! You will get to read and study three texts from the beginning of modern Yiddish literature from the late 18th and early 19th century. Eugene recently retired after a 39-year academic career in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University and has been a Guest Professor at Yiddish programs around the world. If you love Yiddish literature, this class is for you!

Want to come to KlezKanada’s Summer Retreat but can’t make it for the whole week? Passes are now available to some of our evening concerts!

Passes include admission to that evening’s concert plus dancing and the start of our famous late night cabaret! All concerts will take place at Camp B’nai Brith.

Costs:
Adults $36
Children (under 18): $18

Concerts:
Tuesday, August 21st: Joey Weisenberg
Wednesday, August 22nd: Beyond the Mekhitse
Thursday, August 23rd: The KlezKanada Black and White Ball (Dance Party)
Saturday, August 25th: Student Concert

Passes are only available in limited numbers. Call Stefanie now at 514.476.7833 to reserve now. Payment is accepted by credit card in advance or cash at the door (exact change appreciated!)

Evening guests are not allowed to use their vehicles on camp premises; all cars for evening guests must be left in the parking lot at the front of camp. Evening Pass Holders may enter the camp no earlier than 8pm and must leave camp no later than 1am.

(photo: Avia Moore)

Tsibele, a band hailing from Brooklyn, is making their KlezKanada debut in the first of our nightly concerts this summer! All of the members of the band have been scholarship students and fellows in years past and we are thrilled to welcome them back as featured performers and faculty members this year. Tsibele’s music is a melting pot of traditional Eastern European klezmer, politically charged anthems, and beautiful new arrangements of Yiddish songs. Their 2017 album, In Droysn iz Finster // It’s Dark Outside, explores themes of life and love under capitalism, tyranny and heteropatriarchy.

Photo by Blaine Speigel.

Last month, B.C.’s Simon Fraser University announced the life work of Canadian writer and poet Adeena Karasick would be added to its Bennett Library Contemporary Literature Collection. The collection focuses on 20th century avant-garde, experimental, formally innovative and “underground” writing in English, most of it poetry. Karasick was a great fit, according to Tony Power, curator of the collection. “Her language is intensely playful and she’s very much a media and performance artist,” he reflected. “We wanted her work because she’s closely associated with a lot of the poets we’ve collected including Warren Tallman, her mentor at the University of British Columbia, and bill bissett.”

Karasick is co-founder of the KlezKanada Poetry Retreat.

Read about it in the Canadian Jewish News: JEWISH POET ADEENA KARASICK’S WORK ADDED TO SFU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Karasick is a New York based, Canadian poet, cultural theorist, media ecologist and author of seven books of poetry and poetics; a multimedia arts practitioner with work that includes videopoems, live and recorded pechakucha regularly screened at festivals, conferences and in classrooms worldwide. Born in 1965, in Winnipeg Manitoba, to Russian immigrant parents, she became dedicated to the play of language as a powerful tool for transformation and change.Writing at the intersection of Conceptualism and neo-Fluxus performatics, her urban, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard) and noted for their “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theatre and theory” (Charles Bernstein) “a twined virtuosity of mind and ear which leaves the reader deliciously lost in Karasick’s signature “syllabic labyrinth” (Craig Dworkin). Most recently is Salome: Woman of Valor (University of Padova Press, 2017), the libretto of the opera she has created with Frank London, which rereads the apocryphal legend through a feminist Kabbalistic lens; transposing her from villainess to freedom fighter, and will debut at the Chutzpah Festival, February, 2018.

The KlezKanada Poetry Retreat, 2013

Karasick grew up in Vancouver, BC where she studied with Warren Tallman at UBC received her BA in English (1988) and moved to Toronto to work, study and perform with poets, bill bissett and bpNichol. Receiving her MA from York University (1991), and a Ph.D in Kabbalah and Derrida at Concordia University (Montreal), and enjoyed a close friendship with Jacques Derrida for the 10 years prior to his death. Her doctoral dissertation, “Of Poetik Thinking: A ‘Pataphysical Investigation of Cixous, Derrida and the Kabbalah” established her as a foremost Kabbalah scholar, recently cited as the “Kabbalah Kohenet (High Priestess), morah (teacher) and scholar” (Stephen Pickering, Kabbalah Fractals Project). Karasick went on to publish 8 books that incorporate these teachings and a love of language, and has been the generous recipient of numerous awards and grants including Canada Council for the Arts Grant for Professional Writers (2010), Canada Council for the Arts, Spoken Word and Storytelling Program Award (2010, 2008, 1999), Canada Council for the Arts Travel Awards (2011, 2009, 2008, 2003, 2002), Canadian External Affairs Award (1998, 1997, 1994, 1993, 1992), Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Award, for Amuse Bouche (2006), for The House That Hijack Built, (2005, 2004), Best Book of 2012, Daily Forward for This Poem (2012), Best Book of 2009 for Amuse Bouche (AboutBooks.com), Exuberance is Beauty Book Award for Amuse Bouche, 2009, ReLit Award for Dyssemia Sleaze, 2000, Bumbershoot Book Fair Award, “Most Adventurous Publication” for Dyssemia Sleaze, 2000, British Columbia Book Award (Silver) for Mêmewars (1994), and in 2008, at Book Expo America, received the MPS Mobile Award (For being the World’s First “Mobile Poet”), whereby her work was made available on over 4 billion mobile devices (cell phones and Smart Phones including the iPhone, all Blackberry, Android and Symbian devices) throughout the world, 2008. She is a 2016 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award recipient and winner of the 2016 Voce Donna Italia award for her contributions to feminist thinking. For the past 30 years she has taught at a number of American and European Institutions, including Fordham University, St. John’s University, and at the Gutenberg Universität Mainz as “The Mainz Scholar”. She is presently Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute in New York, and is the Poetry Co-coordinator for Klezkanada Poetry Retreat, an International Festival for Language, Music and Culture, held in the Laurentian Mountains. Her books have been received as both poetry and hybrid-genre essays on writing and interpretive technologies, and have been adopted in both English and Media Studies Departments, including University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, Simon Fraser University, McGill University, the Ontario College of Art and Design, Rutgers University, The Gutenberg Universität Mainz and Bath Spa University in the UK. In them, she brings an urban, feminist aesthetic, infused with a collage of academic and pop cultural idioms to bear on the process of writing as a radical grafting of links and perversions conjugated at the threshold of dissociation, questioning many consumerist assumptions about language and normative procedures of meaning production.Karasick’s work has been featured in a wide variety of national and international journals, anthologies and blog sites, has been the subject of over 80 interviews (on television, radio and in print) and “inserts itself amongst the corpus of texts that are changing, and being changed by, contemporary pedagogies” (Canadian Literature).Her large-scale performance, Salomé: Woman of Valor, incorporating, poetry, history, theory, visual projections Klezmer-Bhangra live music (compositions by Frank London), and Tribal Belly Dancers, which re-visions the Apocryphal story of Salomé through a feminist perspective debuted at the Tribeca New Music Festival in May of this year in New York to a wildly receptive sold out audience. Stemming from an ethnic heritage of nomadicism, exile, and infusion, Karasick remains dedicated to extending the notion of the book – whether through hybrid-style essays which include full-color mash-ups and collage, a variety of typefaces and multiple covers, or through new technologies which combine, multi-media, enriched graphics; or text based performances, incorporating visual projections and electronic music; exploring ways language, as both a physical and material object and as medium of transference can be brought into a public space highlighting interactive creativity. In this last year alone, Karasick has given hundreds of public lectures and performances, including presentations at the Institute of General Semantics, the 74th New York State Communication Association Conference, the Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Art Festival 2016 at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC., the 74th Annual New York State Communication Association Conference, the 17th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association, University of Pennsylvania, University of Bologna, DISCI (Dipartmento Storia Culture Civiltà), Bologna, Italy; the annual meeting of the Media Ecology Association, the annual meeting of the New York State Communication Association, and Book Expo America 2016, recognizing her as being “the future of E-Books.” (Kathleen Sweeney); opening up the possibilities for re-visoning language as a performance, as theatre, and how that language, with all its power and sublimity, its (in)finite permutation and combination, is inseparable from our lives. She teaches for the Humanities and Media Studies Dept. at Pratt University in New York.

Congratulations to one of our 2017 Featured Faculty, Mark Slobin, on his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences!

http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/04/12/slobin-elected-member-of-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences/

For the first time, Mark will be joining us at KlezKanada! Mark’s writings and studies on Eastern European Jewish and Afghani music traditions have been celebrated for decades.

Mark Slobin is the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music at Wesleyan University and the author or editor of many books, on Afghanistan and Central Asia, eastern European Jewish music, film music, and ethnomusicology theory, two of which have received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award: “Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World” and “Tenement Songs: Popular Music of the Jewish Immigrants.” He has been President of the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Society for Asian Music.His forthcoming book is on music in his hometown, Detroit, in the 1940s-60s.

Register now for the opportunity to learn from this amazing scholar: https://klezkanada.org/registration/

Our 2016 Faculty are now online (check back, as the list keeps growing!).

KlezKanada is pleased to introduce some of our new faculty for 2016!

Paul Shapiro (Saxophones, winds, composition, improvisation)

Paul is a mainstay on the Downtown NY Jazz funk and improv scene. With 4 cd’s on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, his bands include Midnight Minyan, the Ribs and Brisket Review, and many more. Paul has played with everyone — Lou Reed, David Byrne, Jay-Z, Rufus Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons — all while leading bands at literally 1,000s of weddings. Read more about Paul…

Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin (composing, arranging & strings)

Hailed by the New York Times as “dizzyingly versatile… an eclectic with an ear for texture… strikingly original and soulful”, LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) divides his time between composing for the concert stage, contemporary dance & film, leading his own ensemble LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND, as well as a busy career as a freelance violist, violinist & musical arranger. Among recent projects is a commission from the City of London Sinfonia, a string quartet for Brooklyn Rider new works for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, The Knights, Sybarite5 and A Far Cry, as well arrangements for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Alan Pierson and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. More about Ljova…

Ohkuma Wataru, Kogure Miwazo, Naoki Hishinuma, members of Jinta-La-Mvta

KlezKanada is proud to present the Japanese band, Jinta-la-Mvta, a musical group founded in 2004 by Ohkuma Wataru, clarinetist and bandleader of the groundbreaking Japanese experimental folk band Cicala Mvta and his partner and drummer Kogure Miwazo.

18 May, 2020

KlezKanada is pleased to announce that our annual 25th Anniversary Summer Retreat will be held online this year, August 24-28th! While full program details will be released next month, we wanted to let you know some important information about this exciting event.

For this celebration, the Retreat will feature an all-star faculty of the world’s finest practitioners of klezmer music and Yiddish culture from across Canada and around the world. Join us for four full days of programming for all ages, backgrounds, and levels. You can expect a wide variety of offerings in instrumental klezmer music, song, and dance, classes and lectures on Yiddish language and culture, film screenings, first-class concerts, late night programming, plus social gatherings, opportunities for connection, and so much more. As best we can, we’ll be recreating some of our most beloved traditions, while building some new ones for the digital age.

KlezKanada is committed to keeping this virtual retreat as accessible and affordable as possible. Participation fees will be kept as low as possible and registrants will be able to sign up for a single session or concert, a multiple-day long course, or an all-access pass to the whole week’s worth of programming. We’ll have ample assistance available to help participants navigate new technologies and platforms, and programming will be spread throughout the day and evening, so anyone anywhere in any time zone can join us!

This summer we have also expanded the opportunities available through our Azrieli Scholarship Program for up to 100 recipients. Learn more about this program, open to emerging artists and scholars ages 16-35, and by clicking here. Apply now! (Priority deadline is June 15th, 2020!)

If you had already registered and paid a deposit for KlezKanada’s in-person retreat, please consider donating these funds to support our work during these challenging times. You may also use this deposit as payment towards the cost of a week-long pass for this summer’s virtual retreat, or you may request a refund. Please email at info@klezkanada.org and we’ll be happy to make the arrangements.

KlezKanada is proud to announce our support and participation in the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network – QAHN‘s newest project “A Different Tune”: Musical Heritage in English-Speaking Quebec!

As an organization that sustains and nurtures Yiddish culture, KlezKanada fosters a minority culture in Quebec. This 15-month program provides an opportunity for minority language Quebecers to share their musical heritage within their communities and beyond.

Stay tuned for updates!

Learn more about QAHN on their website below:

http://qahn.org/

Three Millennia of Poetic Subversion

Explore the hidden secrets of the letters
Tap into the power of ancestral culture
Hone your interlingual dexterity
Prepare to be amazed

For a full course outline of the 2014 KlezKanada Poetry Retreat, click here.

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Thanks to a generous grant from Federation CJA and the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal, KlezKanada piloted a new program this fall entitled Klezmer in the Schools.

Led by KlezKanada faculty member Rachel Lemisch, this initiative brought a full klezmer curriculum to a group of Grade 10 boys at Montreal’s Selwyn House school. Over the course of several weeks, the students learned the basics of playing klezmer and a bit of Jewish history and culture too!

Mazl-tov, yinglekh!

This summer’s program is filled with amazing opportunities to learn, play, sing, dance, act, speak and hear Yiddish, collaborate, create art, and be a part of our vibrant cultural community. We are currently updating this very website with a list of classes, workshops, and performance opportunities on offer this summer. This growing course list can be found here – please click on the course title for the full description. Keep checking back as we are adding new content every day!

KlezKanada is proud to present the theme for this summer’s Laurentian Retreat: UPRISING // RISING UP! Drawing upon the richness of Jewish history, the power of Jewish memory, and vitality of Jewish culture today, this is a program you do not want to miss.

Registration for KlezKanada’s 2018 Laurentian Retreat (Monday, August 20th to Sunday, August 26th) is available here.

UPRISING

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when a band of Jewish resistance fighters held off the Nazi Army for more than a month. In the midst of the ultimate horror, Jews with divergent political ideologies came together to fight, illuminating the awesome power of people when they unite and rise up. The uprising not only halted deportations, but news from the Warsaw Ghetto spread quickly and inspired Jews throughout occupied Europe. In honour of their sacrifice, in memory of the lives lost, and in recognition of their struggle, this summer KlezKanada will feature special programming throughout the week. (Photo: Bob Blacksberg)

The news of the uprising lifted our spirits and made us proud… And although we were in agony at their unequal struggle… we felt relieved… Our hearts became winged….” Shmerke Kaczerginski

RISING UP

This year we remember and celebrate the life and work of Elaine Hoffman Watts z”l, an
extraordinary musician and teacher in the world of contemporary klezmer percussion. As a woman in a mostly male profession, Elaine paved her own course and challenged people’s perceptions of what a klezmer drummer could look like. Part of a klezmer dynasty going back to Ukraine, Elaine passed on the tradition in her own family. But she didn’t stop there. Her generosity knew no bounds. She shared her trove of knowledge with thousands of students. And she empowered female musicians to rise up against the status quo, making sure that everyone knows that girls do play drums. Her experience, music, and groove was and remains a guiding light.

With Elaine as our inspiration, this summer we’ll reflect on how our art and music can break barriers and rise above expectations. So, join us as we think, play, and dance at concerts, films, lectures, and more all devoted to the funkiest beat around! (Photo: Jonas Becker)

Photo by Erika Kapin

From the Board of Directors

Frank London approached the Management Committee shortly before this year’s KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat with a request for a sabbatical year to permit him to pursue fully the projects that he describes in the message to the KlezKanada community below.

We are very pleased to report that after consideration of a short list of candidates drawn from those highly experienced with KlezKanada, Frank and we, working together, have selected Michael Winograd to perform the responsibilities of Artist . Director for the 2017 KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat. We look forward, as well, to Frank’s return to his responsibilities after next year’s program.

The following messages from Frank and Michael explain Frank’s request and our decision in more detail. We trust that our entire community will will join us in welcoming Michael to this responsibility and help us make the 2017 KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat even better than this year’s. A tall order indeed.

From Frank London

Dear KlezKanada Community,

This summer’s KlezKanada was a stupendous success, a highlight of the year for many of us. The joy of the dancing, singing, playing, the wedding, concerts; it continues to resonate. We are blessed to be a part of such a vibrant, creative and supportive community.

I have a number of large, exciting projects on my plate in the upcoming year that I’d like to share with you. My Yiddish-Cuban opera, Hatuey Memory of Fire, will be premiered by La Opera de la Calle in Havana, Cuba in March, 2017 as part of the First Havana Celebration of Jewish Culture. The Klezmatics are celebrating our 30th Anniversary with the release of our latest cd, Apikorsim/Heretics, and expanded world touring. KlezKanada poetry instructor Adeena Karasick and I are creating the multimedia dance poetry video music spectacle, Salomé: Woman of Valor, which is scheduled for its world premiere in the Winter. My newest group, the Hungarian-New York Glass House Orchestra, just released our cd Astro-Hungarian Jewish Music and will be touring in Europe. On top of that, I will be starting new Jewish music projects in Tokyo and in Venice; continuing my work with Eleanor Reissa and the Klezmer Brass Allstars (our new cd is Vilde Mekhaye), and with the amazing Cantor Yanky Lemmer, Michael Winograd, and our group, Ahava Raba; performing John Zorn’s Masada Nigunim; and returning to Montreal to reprise the wonderful collaboration that Lorin Sklamberg and I did with the ensemble, Constantinople.

Because of the amount of time and energy I’ll be putting into all of these projects, I have asked the Board for a pause in my responsibilities for the 2017 year, giving me a sabbatical year to take the time necessary to pursue all of these projects fully. After much consultation and search, the Management Committee, Board of KlezKanada and I are thrilled to announce that Michael Winograd will be serving as my substitute Artistic Director for the 2017 Retreat. I intend to resume my Artistic Director responsibilities after the 2017 program.

Michael needs no introduction; he has attended and taught at KlezKanada (and KlezKamp, and Yiddish Summer Weimar, and every other important festival of Yiddish music). He is a prolific musician, working with his own bands Sandaraa, Tarras Band, and the Yiddish Art Trio, in my band and the groups of Dan Kahn and Socalled, producing recordings for Josh Waletzky and Miryem-khaye Segal. He and I have worked together closely on the newly-formed Yiddish New York festival and on five Adrienne Cooper memorial Dreaming in Yiddish events. He is more than just a member of our community, he is a leader and an inspiration. His knowledge and experience will serve us all well. Personally, I cannot wait to see what he comes up with.

I look forward to returning to my duties as Artistic Director of KlezKanada’s Laurentian Retreat next Summer, 2018, and look forward to our all being together at CBB for this year’s KlezKanada.

Frank London

From Michael Winograd

Greetings KlezKanada family,

I’m absolutely thrilled, honored and excited to step in for Frank as Artistic Director of the 2017 KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat. Since first attending as a scholarship student in 2003, KlezKanada has been both a hub for my creative and artistic development, as well as a community centerpiece, spurring both professional and personal relationships with artists and friends living all over the world. For many, if not most of us, the Klezmer and Yiddish cultural community serves as our extended family, impacting and shaping our lives in more ways than words can express. I grew up in this family and it is with a great pride that I fill this role of Artistic Director.

In the coming months please lookout for newsletters keeping you up to date with the development in next summer’s program. Already there are very interesting and exciting preliminary plans in the works for concerts, classes and other programs for the August retreat, and I can’t wait to share them with you, so hold tight!

I’m fired up and ready to get to work! I hope you are too! I look forward to seeing you all at KlezKanada next summer, and many of you throughout the year. Thank you to the entire community for your endless work in keeping Yiddish culture fresh, relevant, and exciting. Thank you to Frank London for keeping our minds open to what Klezmer and Yiddish is and could be, through bold programming and artistic vision. Thank you to Hy and Sandy for their endless hard work and sacrifice that keeps KlezKanada running and available for us all to enjoy year after year.

Lets do this!!
best,
Michael Winograd

Registration for 2019 and applications for the Azrieli Scholarship Program are now closed. If you wish to be on the waitlist for registration, please fill out the form by clicking here. There are still a limited number of day and evening passes available.

KlezKanada will be held from Monday, August 21 to Sunday, August 27, 2017!

Online registration is now open. Rates for 2017 can also be found on our registration page. We are working hard to improve the registration process and assure that we have correct information for every person who will be attending KlezKanada. To assure that, This form must be filled out for each registrant, whether registering as one person or for a group. Find the registration form at: klezkanada.org/registration.

Between 1946 and 1970, folk-singer, scholar, and champion field recorder Ruth Rubin, who grew up in Montreal, collected over 1,500 recordings of Yiddish songs performed by some of the most extraordinary traditional singers of the 20th century. Thanks to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, her archives are now publicly accessible. Faculty members Hannah Temple, Sasha Lurje, Joanne Borts, Daniel Kahn, Cantor Jeff Warschauer and Ethel Raim will celebrate this remarkable collection, performing selections from the Ruth Rubin Legacy Archive during our Tuesday night concert this summer! A vocal workshop that will focus on some of the treasures of Jewish folk song found in Rubin’s archives will also unfold over the course of the week.

The archive is available online on YIVO’s website! See more about Ruth’s incredible legacy here.

Join us in the Mountains for the 19th edition of the KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat, Canada’s largest annual festival of Jewish/Yiddish culture and the arts. Featuring: an all-star faculty, world-class concerts, workshops for instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and visual artists of all levels, films and lectures on Jewish history, literature, language and culture, children’s and teen programs that set the standard for learning and creativity.

This will be one of the most fidl-oriented KlezKanada summers ever. This year’s gloriously international string faculty includes violinists Deb Strauss, Mark Kovnatsky (Russia/Germany), Amit Weisberger (France/Israel), Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin (Russia/USA), Jake Shulman-Ment (USA with a strong dose of Hungary), Amy Zakar and fidl Fellow Abigail Reisman. Classes will focus on technique, style, repertoire, the fidl music of Carpathia, Roma/Gypsy styles, Belf’s Orkestar and other historical bands, writing and arranging for strings, and non-stop playing for dancing.

This year’s diverse string faculty also includes tsimbl-players Pete Rushefsky and Zev Feldman; Turkish oud player Nicolas Royer-Artuso; acoustic guitarist & mandolinist Jeff Warschauer; electric guitarist/composer/improvisor/bandleader Yoshie Fruchter; and two virtuoso bassists, Martin Lillich (from Germany) and Montreal’s Joel Kerr, master of modern Jewish bass.

For the first time ever, we have three different and unique saxophone/multi-instrumentalists who are all deeply imbued in Jewish music: composer/arranger/bandleader/funkmeister-supreme & Tzadik recording artist Paul Shapiro; Tokyo’s Wataru Okuma, master of chindon (street advertising music, the commercial medium before the advent of TV) and its predecessor, Jinta (original Japanese brass band music, a form for anti-establishment expression); and Afrobeat-ska-klezmer sax man Zach Mayer (from the band Zion 80). Each of their music is a mixture of old and new, east and west, north and south, borrowing openly from Klezmer, Jewish simkhe music, Turkish, African, African-American and Balkan music, progressive rock, punk, free jazz and folk to create its own world.

For May 2017 only, KlezKanada is offering a discounted registration special!

Have you been telling your family about KlezKanada for years? Do your friends wish they could join you? Bring someone new to KlezKanada and you will BOTH get a $50 discount on your registration!

NEW registrants should not have attended KlezKanada in the past five years. New registrants will receive a $50 discount for each adult registered, or a $75 discount per family registration.

RETURNING registrants will receive a $50 discount for the first new adult or new family registration they bring to KlezKanada. While the discount is not cumulative, if you bring more than three adult individuals or more than one family, we will take an additional $50 off your registration.

Register for KlezKanada 2017 at: klezkanada.org/registration

To apply this special, register before the end of May 2017 and use the promotional code SPREADTHEWORD plus the name of the new person/people you are bringing or the person who is bringing you. Discounts will be applied only after both parties have registered.

Special does not apply to Scholarship applicants.

We are excited to welcome back one of the foremost clarinetists of the klezmer revival: Margot Leverett! Leverett was the original clarinetist in the Klezmatics and founded her own band “Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys”, which combines klezmer and bluegrass. She will be teaching workshops throughout the week and her concert on the art of the klezmer clarinet is not to be missed!

The Glory Days of Summer!

As part of our 2019 theme UNTOLD STORIES, KlezKanada is proud to feature Yiddish Glory. Curated and developed by Yiddish scholar Anna Shternshis (University of Toronto) and the legendary singer-songwriter-scholar Psoy Korolenko, Yiddish Glory: The Long Songs of World War II is a project of music brought back to life.

Originally complied by ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovski, this is the repertoire of Jewish Red Army soldiers, of refugees, of the victims and survivors of Ukrainian ghettos, and of other forgotten voices of the Soviet Jewish experience during the Second World War. Long thought lost or destroyed, these texts have been found again, re-imagined through meticulous research and creative composition, and fashioned into a program of beautiful and rich new-old music. The recipient of rave reviews on every continent, Yiddish Glory was nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award in the category of Best World Music Album!

At KlezKanada this summer, you’ll not only have the chance to listen to Yiddish Glory, but to learn directly from its creators. Join us as we delve deeper into these unique archival sources, uncover further treasures, and come together as a community to make anew that, which was thought to be lost.

From Freylekhs to Foxtrot, from Sher to Swing, from Terkisher to Tango! As the famous song popularized by clarinetist Naftule Brandwein asks: “Where were you during prohibition?” The KlezKanada Speakeasy, of course!

It’s time to deck out, so don’t be shy – slip into your finest 1920s attire and inconspicuously make your way to the dance party of the year! Thursday night at our Summer Retreat will feature all of your favourite Yiddish dances, as well as social dances of the 20s, 30s and 40s. But wait, there’s more: KlezKanada’s premier singers, thespians, comedians and more are also on call to make this truly a once in a summer experience!

Photo credit: the Hulton Archive

KlezKanada’s friends at the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre in Montreal are in the midst of their  run of The Dybbuk.  If you find yourself with a few days or hours in Montreal, we recommend taking in this classic of the Yiddish stage. The production features music arranged by KlezKanada faculty Josh Dolgin (aka SoCalled).

Read more about this production of the Dybbuk in the Montreal Gazette.

Please enjoy excerpts from the 2015 KlezKanada concerts in tribute to Theodore Bikel, z”l and Yaela Hertz, z”l.

With thanks to David Kaufman for video and editing.

KlezKanada and the Museum of Jewish Montreal (MJM) invite you to a

The Choreography of Jewishness: Klezmer Music, Dance and Gesture in Ashkenazic Culture

Feb. 16, 2017 – 7:30 pm
MJM, 4040 St. Laurent #R01, corner Duluth at.

The workshop/lecture will give the participants/audience access to a deeper understanding of Jewishness through a talk and guided listening and movement to selected pieces of the klezmer music of Eastern Europe.

The evening will feature Walter Zev Feldman, who has recently published Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Walter Zev Feldman is Visiting Professor of Music at New York University Abu Dhabi, Director of the An-sky Institute for Traditional Jewish Expressive Culture at the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (NYC), and Board Member of Corpus Musicae OƩomanicae (University of Münster).

Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory “is the first comprehensive study of the musical structure and social history of klezmer music, the music of the Jewish musicians’ guild of Eastern Europe. It reveals the artistic transformations of the liturgy of the Ashkenazic synagogue in klezmer wedding melodies, and presents the most extended study available in any language of the relationship of Jewish dance to the rich and varied Klezmer music of Eastern Europe.”

Admission fee: $10.00 (at the door)
Online tickets on Eventbrite

What is KlezKanada’s Artistic Director Frank London up to on his sabbatical year from KlezKanada? Well, to start, he is off to Cuba next week for the premiere of a new Yiddish Opera called Hatuey: Memory of Fire.

Read more about the project in the New York Times and in Tablet Magazine.

KlezKanada is pleased to announce that, starting in December, Sebastian Schulman will be joining our team as Executive Director!

Photo: Sergei Tkachuk

Sebastian comes to KlezKanada most recently from the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he worked as a development officer and directed translation initiatives for the past several years. To this position at KlezKanada he brings almost ten years of experience in non-profit management and fundraising, and a background as a scholar, teacher, and translator of Yiddish culture and Jewish history.

Sebastian is already a part of the KlezKanada family, having served on the faculty several times since he first attended the festival in 2009. Borekh-habo et bienvenue! Please join us in welcoming Sebastian!

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, a multi-year KlezKanada scholarship recipient, specializes in Yiddish song, Hasidic nigunim, and chazones.

“KlezKanada helped me figure out what the constellations of the Jewish music world are; the people who founded the institutions that we’re all benefiting from, and the up-and-comers who are creating the institutions of tomorrow.”

Eager to tell others about KlezKanada, especially young musicians, Anthony relates, “Knowing a place like KlezKanada exists, knowing those things happen every year, gives me an immense amount of freedom about the possibilities what I could do musically – not only to be creative but to collaborate with others, to be part of a creative movement. When I meet someone who is even remotely interested in any of those things, especially younger people, I want to give them that experience. I encourage them to go to KlezKanada because it opens up all these horizons, both internal and external.”

Though he is a singer, he has also enjoyed participating in vocals-adjacent programming at KlezKanada, experiencing music as a dancer in dance classes, and connecting to the instrumentalists’ perspective in ensemble workshops.

After his first experience at KlezKanada, Anthony wished connect with the folk music from his own African-American tradition. “As I began to learn more about it and about Ashkenazi folk and religious music, it just felt natural to try and combine them where the texts and melodies seemed to interact and have dialogue with each other.”

Following this theme, Anthony has collaborated to create an album, “Convergence”, with Jewish band Veretski Pass, whose members he got to know better over the course of their work at KlezKanada. “Convergence” combines over a hundred years of African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish music to explore themes of exile, spirituality, hope and redemption.

In November, Anthony will be performing in Berlin at a Yiddish culture festival, telling his story as a singer of Yiddish through monologue and wordless nigunim. “The wordless melody is one of the most direct, approachable, emotional parts of Jewish music – a way to tell a story.” At KlezKanada, nigunim are shared at Shabbes Tisch (led by Sruli Dresdner, Lisa Mayer, Jeff Warschauer, and Deborah Strauss); Anthony, among many others, highlights this as a particularly beloved experience.

Anthony eagerly anticipates being reunited with distant friends at KlezKanada. “A whole part of the KlezKanada experience is getting off the bus and seeing someone you haven’t seen the entire year, running towards them screaming. When you actually see them… It’s magical.”

This post is part of a new series of interview-articles by Ari Lewis-Weigens.

For many participants, KlezKanada’s youth scholarship programs are a life-changing experience. We feel a great sense of nakhes as we watch the participants and alumni of our program become performers, teachers, and leaders around the world. We thought it was about time that we caught up with some of our current and “graduated” scholarship students to feature their experiences of KlezKanada (and beyond).

Daniel Toretsky has attended KlezKanada as a scholarship student since 2008, with his father Jeffrey and sister Abigail, who all play together in the klezmer band Mrs. Toretsky’s Nightmare.

As an architect, Daniel pays particular attention to the importance of places and spaces. “KlezKanada gave my musical and Jewish identity a new centre, geographically, and socially. For some people their Jewish centre is Jerusalem, the Western Wall, their synagogue, or somewhere else – but without a doubt I would say KlezKanada.”

As a trombonist, Daniel has attended KlezKanada’s low brass instrumental classes taught by Dan Blacksberg and Rachel Lemisch.

“Those classes are always a treat! It’s like brass yoga in the morning, a moment to recalibrate yourself with your horn – a solid starting point for the day, un-chaotic, just you and that deep drone around you.”

Daniel also participates in the larger ensemble classes where he enjoys learning tunes by ear and connecting with the other musicians to play both new and old Jewish music. Though he is primarily an instrumentalist, Daniel participates in the diverse range of programming offered at KlezKanada. Since he often plays in dance bands, Daniel has also enjoyed opportunities to take dance classes.

As a matter of fact, what Daniel considers the highlight of his week at KlezKanada involves no instruments at all: the nigunim. After dinner on Shabbes, KlezKanadians can join Sruli Dresdner, Lisa Mayer, Jeff Warschauer, and Deborah Strauss at the Shabbes Tish. Daniel finds himself speechless trying to convey what the Tish is and why it means so much to him. “I’ve never been able to explain it to anyone who hasn’t already been there.” In a darkened room lit only by trays of candles, people gather closely, sitting shoulder to shoulder, and join together in wordless song. The room becomes filled by the warmth and joy of people connected in a timeless meditative moment, extended for hours from melody to melody. Throughout the week at KlezKanada, Daniel attends the Nigunim for Peace class led by Sruli Dresdner and Zach Mayer, learning nigunim and other Hasidic vocal melodies, which will be sung on Friday night at the Tisch. Daniel especially appreciates that the Tisch reflects KlezKanada as an inclusive community and environment. “If you look up these nigunim on Youtube, they’re sung by men in shtreimls at a wedding, while the women are somewhere unseen. We’re the heirs to this incredibly rich history, and singing it with diversity of race, gender, sexuality is really important for bringing it into the 21st century.”

For Daniel, the ubiquitous jam sessions are another high point. At KlezKanada there is always a jam happening somewhere. “I learned so much by just jamming really late into the night with professional musicians – listening to them, having them nudge me and telling me to start playing. I was able to learn from them even if we didn’t speak the same language.”

You can see more of Daniel’s work at his website www.danieltoretsky.com
Music in the embedded video is by Abraham Inc.

This post is part of a new series of interview-articles by Ari Lewis-Weigens.

Never taken Yiddish before? Conversational Yiddish for Beginners is for you! Come learn the basics of Yiddish conversation, reading, and writing in a relaxed and fun “crash course” style environment with Asya Vaisman Schulman this summer. Asya is the director of the Yiddish Language Institute at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. She is also a Yiddish dance teacher, singer, and songwriter and has participated in and taught at klezmer festivals around the world. If you don’t already love Yiddish, taking this class will ensure that you do!

Photo credit: Ben Banhart

KlezKanada is thrilled to announce that noted poet and activist, Irena Klepfisz, will be leading this summer’s intensive Poetry Workshop. Irena’s extensive body of writing reflects her commitment to socialist secular Jewish identity and to Yiddish women’s creative and intellectual work. She will also be leading a literary workshop on stories by Yiddish women writers. Irena is the author of a collection of essays, Dreams of an Insomniac and of poems, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue. Most recently, she co-edited The Stars Bear Witness: The Jewish Labor Bund 1897-2017. She was awarded an NEA fellowship in poetry and recognized with the Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award.

Irena Klepfisz is co-presented with the Polish Cultural Institute, New York.