Yiddish Songwriting Lab
Come to these all-level Yiddish songwriting sessions to develop your Yiddish songwriting skills in a supportive environment.
Led by Adah Hetko
June 11, 2023 at 2PM – Session 1: Experiments with Melody
Led by Adah Hetko
In this session, we will explore writing new music for existing Yiddish poetry, using excerpts from the work of Montreal poet Rokhl Korn. No previous composition experience required.
June 18, 2023 at 2PM– Session 2: Focus on Yiddish Lyrics
Led by Josh Waletzky
Bring your original lyrics in progress for advice and fine-tuning help from a leading Yiddish kulter-tuer. Participants of this session should submit drafts and specific questions in advance to avia.moore@klezkanada.org.
June 25, 2023 at 2PM – Session 3: Sharing Circle
Led by Adah Hetko
Come share your original Yiddish songs in progress, and hear work from your peers! Share simply for the joy of it, or to gather feedback from workshop leaders.
About the Facilitators
Adah Hetko is a Yiddish singer, songwriter, and educator living in Somerville, Massachusetts. She graduated with a master’s in Jewish Studies from Indiana University in 2018 and worked as a Graduate Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center from 2018-2019. Adah has been a fellow and staff member for Yiddish New York and she coordinated multidisciplinary programs for KlezKanada’s 2020 and 2021 retreats. Adah is lead vocalist and dance leader for the klezmer band Burikes and performs with the Yiddish song trio, Levyosn, which will be releasing their debut album in May 2023. In addition to performing traditional songs, she composes new Yiddish songs and poetry settings, and English-language adaptations and translations.
Josh Waletzky, born in Brooklyn in 1948, has sung, taught and composed Yiddish music all his life. He co-produced the Grammy-nominated CD Partisans of Vilna (1989), and his groundbreaking CD of original Yiddish songs, Crossing the Shadows (2001), was greeted as “a classic of the American-Jewish folk revival” (Chana Mlotek). Upon the release of his newest album of original Yiddish songs, PASAZHIRN/Passengers (2017), Waletzky was hailed by Mark Slobin as “the poet-laureate of new Yiddish songwriting.” His latest project is aYiddish song cycle, “pleytem tsuzamen / Refugees Together,” commissioned in 2019 by Yiddish Summer Weimar, and presented in a new theatrical version (book by Jeyn Levison) at New York's National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene in the spring of 2023. Waletzky has taught Yiddish song and songwriting internationally, including at Klezkanada, Yiddish New York, and Yiddish Summer Weimar. He continues to lead a weekly song-learning, song-exploring session (currently on Zoom) from his Brooklyn home—the Yiddish Singing Society—geared to the full range of Yiddish speakers and non-speakers, trained musicians and people who think they “can't carry a tune.”
This program will be led in English. Ce programme se déroulera en anglais.
Buy your tickets here: $15 CAD Suggested Price for 1 session, $36 CAD Suggested Price for the full series. No one turned away for lack of funds.
This online series will be held on Zoom. Participants will receive a link to join the workshop with their registration confirmation and a few days prior to the event as a reminder. Program will be recorded for archival purposes only.
What are KlezKanada Picnic Tables?
KlezKanada Picnic Tables began when we asked what the social and creative energy of lunchtime conversations at KlezKanada’s Summer Retreat might look like in an online space. The Picnic Tables are about creating a cohort, facilitating mentorship, sparking and incubating collaborations, and establishing networks that reach far beyond the Summer Retreat. An evolving form, KlezKanada Picnic Tables will provide opportunities for our community to connect throughout the year, engaging in peer-led conversations, learning together, and sharing and giving feedback on new work.