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Stay tuned for registration information and options for our 2025 Summer Retreat
Programming
See our program from the 2024 Summer Retreat!
Faculty
Meet our world-class 2024 faculty!
Explore our Programming
We're already working on the program for the 2025 KlezKanada Summer Retreat!
In the meantime, use the drop-down menu below to explore the workshops, talks, performances, and special programs at our 2024 Summer Retreat! Click on a category to see the description and faculty. Please note that workshops may be cross-listed in more than one category. All programming is subject to change. You can also download the full 2024 Summer Retreat Brochure!
All programming will be led in English and/or Yiddish.
Concert
Vu nemt men a bisele glik – A Night of Yiddish Theatre Music
Highlighting our 2024 disciplinary focus, our Thursday night concert will spotlight music from the Yiddish theatre. From beloved canonical numbers to newly-composed future favourites, performers will showcase how wonderfully broad the Yiddish theatre can be!
Featuring:
Vivi Lachs, who will perform a number of London Yiddish songs from the old East End ranging from a feisty political ballad to a cheeky music-hall romp. Be prepared to join in.
Joanne Borts, who will perform songs from her wide and diverse repertoire, including classics, new works, and out-of-the-box surprises!
Mikhl Yashinsky, who will perform excerpts from his new Yiddish musical Sude fun di zibn zindikers — Feast of the Seven Sinners, with music by Mamaliga. This tragicomic, entirely original klezmer musical in Yiddish, sheds garish light upon the dark underground of 19th-century Vilna — and the dark chambers of the heart.
And more special guests!
Talks
The World of Yiddish Theatre
With Debra Caplan
Discover the fascinating history of the Yiddish stage, from its origins to the present day. Each of the four sessions will consider a different moment in Yiddish theatre history, moving chronologically over the course of the week. Topics include: Purim shpiln, Avrom Golfaden (the “Father of Yiddish Theatre”) Yiddish theatre in 20th century America, Jacob Gordin, Molly Picon, the Vilna Troupe, and contemporary Yiddish theatre today. Each session will feature an opportunity to engage directly with a scene from a Yiddish play related to the session topic. Participants are welcome to join any or all sessions.
The Music of the Yiddish Theatre
Hankus Netsky
The music of the Yiddish theatre offers a front-row perspective on Jewish life in both Jewish Eastern Europe and early 20th century Jewish America. In this lecture series, we'll trace its history and introduce the leading personalities who animated this enduring idiom from its earliest origins through its pre-World-War ll heyday.
Who's Wearing the Trousers? Women in London Yiddish Music-hall Songs
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion.
The songs sung in London's Yiddish music halls at the turn of the Twentieth Century are full of stories about husbands and wives and courting couples. They were sung by male and female actors, with a speciality of cross-dressing. In these songs, women often appear to have a degree of independence and autonomy. Yet, underneath the humour, there is a status quo being powerfully upheld.
Can You Hear Me at the Back? The London Yiddish Stage and the Fight Against Shund
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion.
London's Yiddish popular theatre played to packed, enthusiastic audiences. It was hugely popular but highly controversial. This talk will examine the behaviour of the audience, the arguments against shund and the bitter criticism by a range of intellectuals and religious leaders.
Hert ir mikh fun hinten? Di londener yidishe bine un der kamf kegn shund
Mit Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion in Yiddish.
Di londoner yidishe bine hot geshpilt far entuzyastishe oylems in fulgepakte zaln. Zi iz geveyn gevaldik populer ober hekhst kontroversyal. Di rede vet batrakhtn di firung funem oylem, di argumentn kegn shund, un di bitere kritik mitsad a rey inteligentn un rabonim.
הערט איר מיך פֿון הינטן? די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע און דער קאַמף קעגן שונד.
די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע האָט געשפּילט פֿאַר ענטוזיאַסטישע עולמס אין פֿולגעפּאַקטע זאַלן. זי איז געװען גװאַלדיק פּאָפּולער אָבער העכסט קאָנטראָװערסיאַל. די רעדער װעט באַטראַכטן די פֿירונג פֿונעם עולם, די אַרגומענטן קעגן שונד און די ביטערע קריטיק מיצד אַ רײ אינטעליגענטן און רבנים.
Parading Socialism: Morris Winchevsky’s London Ballads and Anthems
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and song workshop.
Morris Winchevsky was dubbed the zeyde (grandfather) of Jewish socialism and his formative years as a poet were the 15 years he spent in London. There he wrote anthems for the Jewish left to be sung during demonstrations and parades. He wrote the "Londoner siluetn," a series of hugely popular ballads about children and poverty which were put to music and orated from the Yiddish stage, and scores of satirical verse. And all of this with his trademark edgy humour and poignant observations. We will learn a couple of songs and parade and perform them. You’ll never sing ale brider the same way again!
The Theatre of Jenny Romaine
With Jenny Romaine
Jenny Romaine, director, designer, puppeteer, and co-artistic director of the OBIE winning Great Small Works visual theatre collective, has spent several decades creating new Yiddish performance that privileges dance, sculpture, text, and music as equal partners in composition. She specializes in keeping theatre at the heart of social life and making sense of big themes and ideas. Jenny draws on Yiddish/Pan Jewish primary source materials to create art that explores diaspora consciousness.
In this session, Jenny will share past projects and speak about making Yiddish rooted work that reaches for answers to deep questions. Come for this pep talk if you are interested in making ensemble work in real time, through a solid commitment to aesthetics. This session is open to all participants. It is also the first session of the coaching program.
Shtumer Shabes Artist Discussion
With Rokhl Kafrissen
In this session, playwright Rokhl Kafrissen will present a few short excerpts from her most recent play, Shtumer Shabes/Silent Sabbath, and discuss the inspiration for the play and the role of folklore in the creative process.
Panel: Yiddish and Jewish Theatre Today
Moderated by Debra Caplan
The past decade has witnessed an explosion of contemporary Yiddish theatre: from new plays like Mikhl Yashinsky’s Di psure loyt Khayim, to highly successful Yiddish adaptations (Fiddler afn dakh), to new work in dialogue with Yiddish material, like Paula Vogel’s Indecent. At the same time, plays *about* Jews have been an increasingly major fixture in English-language theatre (Prayer for the French Republic, The Ally, Leopoldstadt, etc.) What might the future of Yiddish and Jewish theatre hold?
Join moderator Debra Caplan and a panel of Yiddish theatre artists for a wide-ranging conversation about the dynamics of Yiddish and Jewish theatre in the contemporary theatre scene.
Playwriting
Using Ashkenazi Folklore for New Dramatic Work
With Rokhl Kafrissen
One of the most famous Yiddish plays of all time, S. An-ski’s The Dybbuk, grew directly out of An-ski’s famous ethnographic expedition, which set out to collect the folklore, superstitions, and material culture of Ukraine’s shtetlekh. What else might our folkloric treasures inspire? In this workshop, we will read and discuss a variety of short folklore primary sources and then use those sources to spark our imagination through in-class writing exercises.
Making Dreams Happen: Dora Wasserman and the Yiddish Theatre
With Aron Gonshor
A tour of the history of Montreal's Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, with musical interludes highlighting the timeless songs from its staged musicals. Founded by Dora Wasserman, the DWYT is one of North America’s oldest Yiddish theatre companies. Since 1958, the DWYT has dramatized the Jewish experience and worked to sustain a legacy of Yiddish theatre at home in Montreal and on tour.
Theatre-Making
Who's Wearing the Trousers? Performing Gender: Then and Now
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a performance workshop.
All Levels
We will learn a number of Cockney-Yiddish music-hall songs where women’s role is highlighted, criticized, or made fun of. We will consider what was going on when they were written and workshop how they may have been performed in their time. In groups, we will then consider how a modern sensibility may reinterpret these songs today. Placing renditions side by side, we can discuss the implications of performing in different ways and whether it is possible to create a version that holds a multiplicity of meanings.
Can You Hear Me at the Back? Actors and Audience Interacting
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a performance workshop.
All Levels
We will read parts of playtexts and prose sketches in English translation which display the variety of positions on theatre audience behaviour in London and the row concerning popular culture. We will improvise being different types of audiences and discuss what we can learn from the interaction between actor and audience in London at the turn of the Twentieth Century.
New Yiddish Theatre Adaptation Workshop
With Debra Caplan
Immerse yourself in Yiddish theater by crafting your own collaborative short pieces inspired by historical Yiddish primary sources, music, and plays. We will explore a range of theatrical adaptation and devised theatre strategies in order to create new performances based on pre-existing historical material. No acting or theatre experience necessary, just a creative imagination.
A Little Love in a Big Potato Field: Yiddish Nature Theatre
With Mikhl Yashinsky
All Levels
Inspired by the flora and fauna of their native shtetlekh, the secret nocturnal affairs conducted alongside riverbanks, the invigorating twinned aromas of wildflowers and dung, Yiddish dramatists then wrote plays set in that same terroir. So, too, will we be inspired by our rustic natural environs amidst the Laurentians as we read, rehearse, and workshop scenes from these great Yiddish dramas set in the great outdoors. Also informing our scenes workshop will be excerpts of primary sources from the old Yiddish masters—diaries, treatises, reviews—letting their own approaches to acting meet our own as we bring new life to their works. No Yiddish required, though, naturally, it couldn’t hurt; no performance experience required, either. We will be reading the scenes in their original language, but using transliterated scripts, including word-by-word translations for your ease and comprehension. We will focus on pronunciation, inflection, a passionate but thoughtful technique, a wild and naturally yidishlekh mode of theatrical expression. Sometimes we may bring our work outdoors, letting our scenes play out in the ready-made playhouse of grass and sod that is their most fitting backdrop. Graze on words, bray to the heavens, let your wet noses sniff out the proper tone and gesture. Come and join our Yiddish pastorale.
Kleynkunst Teen Program
Ozzy Irving Gold-Shapiro
In this year’s teen program, join Ozzy Irving Gold-Shapiro in exploring Kleynkunst – literally “small art” in Yiddish. While our primary goal will be getting to know each other, we will have fun developing a variety of short acts using historic Yiddish materials, collected oral histories, and our own life experiences. Through conversation, writing, and movement, we will ask: what is the art of small stories? What is the power of telling a story collectively? And just what does it mean to be a teenager in Yiddishland?
Theatre Song Repertoire
Performing the Music of the Yiddish Theatre
With Joanne Borts and Hankus Netsky
All Levels
The singers and composers of the Yiddish theatre brought the personalities of the Jewish immigrant world to life - through song! In this hands-on workshop we'll listen to and discuss the art of Yiddish theatrical singing as perfected by its greatest twentieth century performers and introduce our students to some of its classic repertoire.
Dramaturgy
Coaching for the Creation of Your New Work
With Jenny Romaine
**By application only**
Do you want to be mentored by Jenny Romaine for a week? Are you looking to balance your well honed craft with the raw, weird, archival and immediate? Ready for the unfolding of new things that are appealing, prismatic and well built? This workshop may be for you. Jenny has spent several decades creating new Yiddish performance that privileges dance, sculpture, text, and music as equal partners in composition. She specializes in keeping theatre at the heart of social life and making sense of big themes and ideas.
Participation in this workshop is by prior application only, as space is limited to three projects. This workshop will run across four days, with two sessions each day. The schedule will include one introductory full group session that will feature a “tell and kvell” where Romaine shares and discusses her work as an artist. Over the following six sessions you’ll focus on your own work, including two mentorship sessions. Jenny Romaine will rotate across the participant projects; each group will have two private sessions with Jenny at the Summer Retreat, as well as a pre-retreat consultation designed to help each group realize their artistic goals. The final session will be a group showing where your glorious art will shine out for other workshop participants to experience. It’s gonna be a blast!
Interested groups should sends an expression of interest Avia Moore, KlezKanada's Artistic Director, by May 1, 2024. Your expression should include a brief summary of your project, a work sample (photos or video), your goals for this workshop, and a list of your group members. Accepted groups must submit a video work sample by July 1, 2024, so that Jenny can review your work prior to the Summer Retreat. Accepted applicants register as regular Summer Retreat participants. Eligible participants may apply for our scholarship and work exchange programs but acceptance in these programs is not guaranteed. KlezKanada will provide letters of support for groups planning to apply for external funding opportunities.
Beginners' Ensemble
With Zoë Aqua
Beginner
Calling all beginners, plus anyone who wants to try their chops at a new instrument. Jump into klezmer without fear in an open and accepting environment. All ages and instruments welcome, no previous experience with klezmer necessary. We will learn by ear, with notation provided at the end for you to take home.
Basic Klezmer Repertoire
With Isaac Beaudet Lefebvre
All Levels
Just because you’re new to klezmer doesn’t mean you can’t play the best stuff! Open to any instrument, this workshop will teach you the hottest tunes and how to play them in a fine klezmer style. Taught by ear (don’t worry, it’s easier than you think!) with sheet music provided at the end of the class.
Drums and Percussion
With David Licht
Intermediate to Advanced
David Licht brings more than 50 years of experience as a percussionist (and painter) to KlezKanada for the first time! Sharing stories and rhythms that reflect his love of klezmer, world music, jazz, and psychedelic rock, David will get into the specifics of klezmer patterns, introduce call and response drumming to the klezmer world, and get you ready to play as an ensemble.
Woodwinds Master Class
With Margot Leverett
Advanced
This class will help each melody instrument player become a better klezmer. Whether you need to work on ornamentation, doinas, supporting other voices with rhythm and harmony, getting a better sound out of your instrument, or just going deeper into the style, we will work on what brings out the best in you.
The Accordion as a Lead Instrument in Klezmer Music
With Lauren Brody
Intermediate to Advanced
On her long-awaited return to KlezKanada, Lauren Brody will guide accordionists in constructive ways to efficiently translate the melodies and ornamentation usually performed on clarinet and/or other wind instruments to the keyboard. We will use our left hands as well!
Brasswind Bandstand
With Jordan Hirsch and Dave Levitt
Intermediate to Advanced
Co-led by NY veterans Dave Levitt and Jordan Hirsch, this ensemble is open to everyone, but with a special emphasis on brass and other wind instrument players. We will be covering a wide range of repertoire, from the New York klezmer bands of the 1950’s and 60’s, like the Epstein Brothers and Rudy Tepel, to the treasures recently unearthed by the Kiselgof Makonovetsky Digitization Project. While we will learn some tunes by ear, it will primarily be a reading ensemble, with the goal of covering as much ground as possible. We will learn how to think about developing repertoire, bandstand communication, and listening to each other to become more expressive melody and harmony players.
Trad Klezmer Ensemble
With Margot Leverett
Intermediate to Advanced
Join klezmer pioneer Margot Leverett to dive into some classic, juicy klezmer repertoire! Margot will share current favourites and guide this ensemble for all instruments through fine stylistics and textbook orchestrations. Together, we'll make everyone jump up and dance at that final concert!
NY Klezmer Ensemble
With Dave Levitt
Intermediate to Advanced
In his first ever appearance at KlezKanada, fourth-generation klezmer Dave Levitt will share gems from the abundantly rich repertoire of his family. This ensemble, open to all instruments, will perform and enjoy a handpicked late 1940s/early 1950s compilation of tunes from Dave’s grandfather, klezmer trombonist Jack Levitt. These songs were staples of the klezmer bandstand between the 1920’s and 1950’s, then archived, transcribed and preserved for another two generations. Sheet music provided.
Mandolin Orchestra
With Yoshie Fruchter
All Levels
Join Yoshie Fruchter for a plucked string ensemble in the great Jewish mandolin orchestra tradition. In addition to mandolins and guitars, the ensemble is also open to ukuleles, cellos, and basses. The group will perform original arrangements of klezmer and related music, and study unique source material that illuminates the history and role of mandolin family of instruments in Jewish musical life.
Little Tunes from Here and There
With Cookie Segelstein
Intermediate to Advanced
In this class we will play through Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, and original repertoire, learn how to do on the spot and prepared arrangements, and combine co-territorial styles and tunes. Open to all instruments.
Fidl Kapelye
With Kirsten Lamb and Abigale Reisman
Intermediate to Advanced
Calling all string players! Come experience the magic of the fidl kapelye led by Abigale Reisman (fidl) and Kirsten Lamb (bass). With over a decade of experience playing together in Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, this dynamic duo will use their unique musical connection to teach rich and detailed ensemble playing. Learn the ins and outs of arranging for the special sounds of vibrating strings, zooming bows, slides and trills, improvisational phrasing, and so much more! Geared toward intermediate and advanced musicians, all tunes will be learned by ear to perform in the participant concert.
Yiddish Fiddling from the Inside Out
With Craig Judelman
Intermediate to Advanced
Klezmorim played in a variety of contexts and for a variety of audiences - Jewish and not, higher and lower class, from larger cities to small shtetlekh. While the klezmer revitalization initially focused on 20th century American repertoire available from 78 recordings and the older musicians still alive at the time, the world of fiddle-centric repertoire has opened up as more early collections, field recordings, and non-Jewish sources have been made accessible. This class will survey a broad view of klezmer repertoire, from the deeply Jewish ‘core’ repertoire to the ‘down-home’ music collected in Poland, Belarus and beyond. Open to all levels and softer ‘non-fiddle’ instruments. We will try to move relatively quickly, working mostly by ear and possibly also with sheet music.
The Strings Sessions
Abigale Reisman
Intermediate
Calling all string players who are looking for a medium paced klezmer session. We will learn repertoire in a variety of ways including by ear, with sheet music, through chordal playing, and with improvisation! We will work on becoming familiar with the Jewish modes (scales) and spend time singing the tunes in order to learn unique klezmer phrasing. There will be space for many questions and we will ultimately aim to create a relaxed and joyous environment.
In der Heym/Down Home Ensemble
With Michael Alpert and Craig Judelman
Intermediate to Advanced
Many European musical traditions share characteristics but use elements like ornamentation, rhythm, tension, and release in distinctive ways to create cultural meaning. Working with multiple traditions enriches the musical vocabularies we have for expressing ourselves in the diverse cultural accents of our lives. In this ensemble we’ll put our own stamp on the approaches explored in Craig and Michael’s recent album In Der Heym/Down Home, bringing together ‘Old Time’ tunes and harmonies from North American, Yiddish, and other East European traditions. Open to all instrumentalists (and patient singers), though bowed, plucked and hammered string players, flautists and percussionists are especially encouraged to participate.
The Art of the Accompaniment
With Kirsten Lamb and Raffi Boden
The best grooves are the ones you can hold down even when you are half asleep! This class will focus on how to reach that irresistible space when every element of the accompaniment is locked in. We’ll focus on various dance styles in the klezmer repertoire and will offer strategies for players looking to supportively add to the groove, from harmonization choices and chord voicings to creating exciting and grounding bass lines. Taught by cellist Raffi Boden and bassist Kirsten Lamb, this class is open to accompanying instruments, melody players trying to fit into an accompanying role, and bandleaders looking to strengthen their band’s rhythmic and harmonic feel.
New Shtetl 2nd Line Brass Band and Mutual Aid Society
Jordan Hirsch
Intermediate to Advanced
We’re gonna take to the streets and make sure you can hear us ten blocks away! In the tradition of the KlezKanada Loud Brass Bands, this group wants you to release your inner Mardi Gras Parade musician and bring the Big Easy to Bukovina! We will channel The Great Klezmer Klave, learning how to play with a polyrhythmic and freewheeling approach to both melody and ensemble playing.
Fiddle me this! Violin Master Class
With Cookie Segelstein
Advanced
This will be a fast paced class, examining repertoire in slow, medium, fast, and improvisatory styles. Through bowing techniques, rhythmic placement, and stylistic elements we will examine many of the repertoire types, and fiddle-istic treatments. Some repertoire will be taught with sheet music and some will be taught by ear. Open to all bowed string instruments.
Khevre Kadabra Ensemble
With Marilyn Lerner and Yoshie Fruchter
Advanced
Working creatively and collaboratively together, we will take a cool klezmer tune and explore, explode, extend, and re-arrange it to create a new work using improvisation and other compositional techniques. It will emerge re-imagined and transformed. A sonic adventure, an exploration. For advanced dreamers only.
Transcription Methods
Transcription, or the ability to synthesize music into your own notation, is an important skill for every well-rounded klezmer musician. Making your own transcriptions requires strengthening your ear training in order to connect audible sound to the written note on the page. In this two-session series, Zoë Aqua will teach techniques for beginner transcribers (how can you dip your toe into transcription if you've never done it before, without getting frustrated and giving up?) and Lauren Brody will share tips for more advanced transcribers (and maybe even some secrets of how she transcribed books of complicated multi-meter Bulgarian tunes!).
Transcription Methods Series 1: Techniques for Beginner Transcribers
Workshop 1, with Zoë Aqua:
Techniques for beginner transcribers: How can you dip your toe into transcription if you've never done it before, without getting frustrated and giving up? Zoë Aqua will share tips and tricks for getting started with transcription from her experience teaching elementary general music. We will practice short transcription exercises designed to sharpen your ears to rhythm patterns you will use in klezmer transcription, and share techniques for melodic transcription.
Transcription Methods Series 2: Complex Ornamentation
Workshop 2, with Lauren Brody:
How do you transcribe complex ornamentation in various kinds of tunes, both metered and unmetered? We will look at some examples from my transcriptions of Bulgarian free-metered melodies, plus a dance tune or two, and work through the decisions that need to be made in order for the transcription to be both as accurate as possible, yet reproducible from the written page. We will also look at some examples of innovative new ornament symbols used in transcribing Bulgarian music that may be helpful in transcribing slides and other subtleties in klezmer melodies.
Research Methods Series
Geared towards musicians but open to all, this Research Methods Series is designed to give you the skills to conduct research on the tunes, genres, contexts that interest you! Participants may attend one or both sessions.
Session One: You Can Do it Yourself!
With Lorin Sklamberg
YIVO Sound Archivist and Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg will show you how he goes about unearthing reference recordings, sheet music, and song lyrics utilizing online resources readily available to researchers.
Session Two: Introduction to Fieldwork
With Hankus Netsky
Hankus Netsky's research is focused on all aspects of Eastern European Jewish music, including klezmer, khozones, Yiddish Theatre, Yiddish folksong, Yiddish art song, and Hasidic music. In this session, Hankus will discuss the continuing need for ethnographic fieldwork and introduce you to fieldwork and interviewing skills.
Community-Led Early Morning Violin Warm-Up
This session is community-led.
In loving memory beloved violin teacher, Yaela Hertz, of blessed memory, who led this session tirelessly for so many years. We will gather each morning to warm up our fingers and ears. These morning exercises will help you to move through the day with greater ease and confidence. This session is community-led.
Nigun as a Spiritual Practice
With Zach Mayer
In this workshop, we will focus on learning traditional Hasidic nigunim that are said to bring about elevated states of consciousness. We will also learn some of Zach’s original nigunim, which draw from the tradition while adding something new. Participants will collectively lead these nigunim at the Friday night Tish. Though this is a vocal workshop, instrumentalists will benefit from it as well. All levels are welcome.
Yiddish Songs of Social Change
With Lorin Sklamberg
Join Klezmatics co-founder and YIVO Sound Archivist Lorin Sklamberg to learn and sing together song repertoire centred around the program to be performed by the Golden Thread Septet in their Canadian debut KlezKanada concert. Historical lider coming out of the struggle for women’s and workers’ rights, the tensions between religious and secular movements and issues of assimilation that are part of the ensemble’s performance will be augmented by inspiring material from Lorin’s ongoing work with pre-existing, contemporary, and original songs.Students will be provided with lyrics in Yiddish, transliteration, and English translation, as well as a musical transcriptions for reference purposes. Each song will be illustrated by vintage recordings drawn from the Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings and Lorin’s own collection.
Performing the Music of the Yiddish Theatre
With Joanne Borts and Hankus Netsky
All Levels
The singers and composers of the Yiddish theatre brought the personalities of the Jewish immigrant world to life - through song! In this hands-on workshop we'll listen to and discuss the art of Yiddish theatrical singing as perfected by its greatest twentieth century performers and introduce our students to some of its classic repertoire.
Serving Schmaltz-free Yiddish Songs
With Joanne Borts and Daniel Kahn
Intermediate to Advanced
This master class will provide singers with the opportunity to develop all elements of their performance in order to better serve the intention and impact of a song. Special attention will be paid to issues of diction, theatricality, arrangement, multi-lingual performance, translation, style- mixing, and getting at the meaning of a lyric. Participants are encouraged to bring at least one memorized Yiddish song. Self accompaniment and a capella performance are fine. If you need accompaniment, please bring a score or lead sheet.
Yiddish Choir: Singing in Harmony
With Sasha Lurje and Marilyn Lerner
All Levels
In keeping with the theatrical theme of this year’s Summer Retreat, this choir class will explore the brilliant joyful gems of Yiddish Theatre. Come experience the magic of choir, where we rely on each other to sing in harmony and celebrate the golden age of Yiddish Theatre.
Alternative Voice Techniques for Folk Singing (and More!)
With Sasha Lurje
All Levels
Returning to KlezKanada, Sasha Lurje is bringing back her popular voice technique class that combines learning more about vocal physics and getting your voice ready for a long day of singing easily and with joy. Find an easy way to belt like a Bulgarian, sob like a folk singer on a field recording, or sound like a Hasid at a simkhe. With simple steps, this class will help you reach your vocal goals easily. The class is open for both experienced singers and people searching for their voice.
Yiddish Tune-Up: Pronunciation and Other Language Repairs for Singers
Asya Vaisman Schulman
All Levels
If you love to sing in Yiddish but are having some trouble with the language, bring your songs to this class! We will workshop your pronunciation, help with tricky translations, and learn how to sing in different dialects. You can also bring any original songs you're working on, and we'll make sure your grammar is just right.
Lomir zikh tsezingen (Let's Burst Into Song): Hasidic Women's Vocal Repertoire
Asya Vaisman Schulman
All Levels
Few people outside of the Hasidic communities of Williamsburg and Boro Park are familiar with the Yiddish musical creativity that takes place among the women in these locales. Come learn beautiful Yiddish songs created and/or sung by Hasidic women and girls over the past 40 years, collected by Asya Vaisman Schulman during several years of fieldwork.
Lomir ale zingen: A Yiddish Sing Along
With Ira Temple and guests
All Levels
Lomir zingen a yidish lid! What could be better than sharing Yiddish songs with friends? Together we will sing old favourites and soon-to-be new favourites. All voices welcome, encouraged, and accepted. Come make a joyful Yiddish noise.
Lid-Arbeter Varshtat / Song-Worker Workshop
With Daniel Kahn
Are you a singer, writer, composer, translator, adapter, mixer, collector, tinkerer, maker, faker, taker, or breaker of Yiddish songs? Join a progressive, polyglot, transnational, amalgamated, workshop of contemporary songwork. Tune up your new song, retune an old song, put a tune to a poem or some words to a tune. We'll be taking apart songs, fixing what's wrong, patching them up, and getting them to sing better than ever. Lid-arbeter fun ale lender, fareynikt zikh!*
*Song-workers of the world, unite! (Proficiency in Yiddish not required — but it couldn't hurt.)
Nigun as a Spiritual Practice
With Zach Mayer
In this workshop, we will focus on learning traditional Hasidic nigunim that are said to bring about elevated states of consciousness. We will also learn some of Zach’s original nigunim, which draw from the tradition while adding something new. Participants will collectively lead these nigunim at the Friday night Tish. Though this is a vocal workshop, instrumentalists will benefit from it as well. All levels are welcome.
Take My Hand: Yiddish Dance Repertoire
With Avia Moore, Asya Vaisman Schulman, and Michael Alpert
All Levels
Balancing individual expression and community togetherness, traditional Yiddish dance is as beautiful as it is fun. With plenty of room for variation, these are dances that everyone can enjoy together. Join Avia for a Yiddish dance class that will have you shining on the dance floor at night! Our focus will be on learning repertoire, with time takes for steps, style, and context. This workshop will cover bulgars, freylekhs, horas, shers, khosidls, and more! Avia Moore will be joined by guest teachers, Asya Vaisman Schulman and Michael Alpert over the course of the week. A workshop for new dancers, experienced dancers, and even those that think they are not dancers. This is also great class for klezmer musicians – better understanding the dances is a step towards becoming a great dance band leader.
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Heart: Intention in Yiddish Dance
With Michael Alpert and Avia Moore
Intermediate/Advanced
What makes our dances and our dancing Yiddish? In this workshop we will focus on dancing with kavone (intention), an important Yiddish cultural quality. We’ll devote close attention to posture, attitude, and the stylistic details that grow from them, thinking about the flexion of our knees and wrists, the way we place our feet and lift our heels, and the energy of our elbows and leading arms. As the Polish klezmer musician Ben Bazyler used to say to Michael: “Me tantst mitn gantsn kerper, un me tantst az got zol dikh zeyn!” (You dance with your whole body, and so that the heavens notice you!).
This is an intermediate to advanced class. While all are welcome to attend, we will not be teaching basic repertoire. If you are new to Yiddish dance but want to attend this workshop we recommend that you take it in conjunction with the AM2 Yiddish Dance Repertoire workshop.
Tantshoyz: Borsht Belt Ball
Have you ever danced such a dance? Step into a borsht belt ballroom for our 2024 Yiddish tantshoyz. Freylekhs, bulgars, shers.... and is that a cha cha we hear? From the bandstand, led by Jordan Hirsch, you'll be serenaded by dance hits from the borsht belt era, klezmer favourites, and special guest performances. Dancing will be led by Avia Moore, Michael Alpert, and Asya Vaisman Schulman. Wear your best retro attire (think 40s, 50s, 60s), channel your favourite root vegetable, or dance in your most comfortable jeans. Dressing up is encouraged (but not required); just wear something comfortable to dance in.
Conversational Yiddish For Beginners
Asya Vaisman Schulman
With this Yiddish crash course for beginners, you will leave class every day able to have a new short conversation with your classmates entirely in Yiddish. Learn how to introduce yourself, talk about what you do each day of the week, count various items, and sing some simple Yiddish songs. The class will also introduce students to reading and writing in the alef-beys. This dynamic and engaging class is for absolute beginners and will be taught using materials from the instructor's award-winning textbook, In eynem. This course is taught cumulatively, with each day's lesson building on the previous day.
Yiddish Shmues
Anna Fishman Gonshor
This session is an opportunity for us to meet and have a friendly discussion in Yiddish about a topic that is relevant and of interest to people for whom Yiddish language, literature, and culture are important. Join Anna Fishman Gonshor and other intermediate to advanced Yiddish speakers for a chance to use your language skills and hopefully discover ideas and stories that are new to all of us. See you then.
Yiddish Tune-Up: Pronunciation and Other Language Repairs for Singers
Asya Vaisman Schulman
If you love to sing in Yiddish but are having some trouble with the language, bring your songs to this class! We will workshop your pronunciation, help with tricky translations, and learn how to sing in different dialects. You can also bring any original songs you're working on, and we'll make sure your grammar is just right.
Hert ir mikh fun hinten? Di londener yidishe bine un der kamf kegn shund
Mit Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion in Yiddish.
Di londoner yidishe bine hot geshpilt far entuzyastishe oylems in fulgepakte zaln. Zi iz geveyn gevaldik populer ober hekhst kontroversyal. Di rede vet batrakhtn di firung funem oylem, di argumentn kegn shund, un di bitere kritik mitsad a rey inteligentn un rabonim.
הערט איר מיך פֿון הינטן? די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע און דער קאַמף קעגן שונד.
די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע האָט געשפּילט פֿאַר ענטוזיאַסטישע עולמס אין פֿולגעפּאַקטע זאַלן. זי איז געװען גװאַלדיק פּאָפּולער אָבער העכסט קאָנטראָװערסיאַל. די רעדער װעט באַטראַכטן די פֿירונג פֿונעם עולם, די אַרגומענטן קעגן שונד און די ביטערע קריטיק מיצד אַ רײ אינטעליגענטן און רבנים.
די פֿאַרשײדנאַרטיקײַט פֿון די שאַפֿונגען פֿון קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי
Anna Fishman Gonshor
This series will be held in Yiddish.
די שרײַבערין קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי, איז גוט באַקאַנט געװאָרן אין װאַרשע אין די 1920-ער יאָרן. אינגיכן איז זי געװאָרןן גוט באַקאַננט אין ליטעראַרישע קרײַזן אַון בײַם פֿאָלק, סײַ אין אײראָפּע און אמעריקע, נישט נאָר װי אַ פּאָעט, נאָר אױך װי אַ ייִדישע לערערין, אן אַקטיװיסטקע, אַ זשורנאַליסט, אַ ליטעראַרישער קריטקער, אַ שרײַבער פֿון קורצע דערצײלינגען און נאָך..... זי איז געװאָרן אײנע פֿון די בעסטע באַקאַנטע ייִדישע שרײַבער פֿונעם לעצטן יאָרהונדערט.
מיר װעלן זיך באַקענען מיט בײַשפּילן פֿון אירע פֿאַרשײדענע שאַפֿונגען. די טעקסטן װעלן זײַן אין ייִדיש און עטלעכע אױך אין ענגליש (װי עס איז מעגלעך) אַלע טעקסטן װעלן האָבן אַ גלאָסאַר װען אַן ענגגלישער טעקסט אַיז ניטאָ.
A Four-Generation Klezmer Journey: the Levitt Legacy
With Dave Levitt and Hankus Netsky
Dr. Hankus Netsky, a 4th generation klezmer musician, will sit down with another 4th generation klezmer musician, Dave Levitt. They will chronicle the experiences and accomplishments of the Levitt (also Levinsky and Levinn) family, starting with great-grandfather Max Levinsky in Kiev and taking us to current times with trombonist Dave Levitt. Notable family collaborations over the last 100 years reads like a who’s who of the klezmer world: Tarras, Brandwein, Rumshinsky, Abe Schwartz, The Epstein Bros, Howie Leess, Pete Sokolow, and more.
The Music of the Yiddish Theatre
Hankus Netsky
The music of the Yiddish theatre offers a front-row perspective on Jewish life in both Jewish Eastern Europe and early 20th century Jewish America. In this lecture series, we'll trace its history and introduce the leading personalities who animated this enduring idiom from its earliest origins through its pre-World-War ll heyday.
Québec in Yiddish, Yiddish in Québec
Sebastian Schulman
The history of Ashkenazi Jews and their francophone Québécois neighbours has often been depicted as one of inherent antagonism, distrust, and antisemitism. Yet from their seemingly downtrodden vernaculars–their joual and zhargon–to secular cultures imbued with religious tradition and to their sonically similar folk musics, Québec's Yiddish and French speakers have far more in common than might be expected. In this course, we'll explore the contours of this complicated relationship from a new angle integrating scholarship, literature, music, and other cultural texts. Bienvenue et brukhim-haboim! Come to one session or come to them all!
Day One: Sur un seul pied: A Short History of Yiddish Culture in Québec
Day Two: A shtikl eyrope? Depictions of Québec and francophone Quebeckers in Yiddish Literature
Day Three: Minutn fun bitokhn: Moments of Cultural Rapprochement Between Yiddish and French in Contemporary Québec
Master of the Genre: Kadye Molodowki’s Poetry for Children
Anna Fishman Gonshor
Kadye Molodowski is one of the best known Yiddish women writers of the last century. In recent years she has received much attention from younger scholars, translators, actors and musicians. In this session we will read some of the prize-winning poetry that made her beloved by children of many generations and in many lands. This session will be in English but the texts will be provided in Yiddish and English for those who may want to venture into reading them in the original.
Jewpanese Project
With Carmel Tanaka
Carmel views the world through a Jewpanese (Jewish and Japanese) lens. Join this presentation to learn about the oral history project taking Carmel all around the globe to collect stories of Jewpanese people, and partake in a genealogical dive into your own lived experiences and ways in which you can celebrate your own intersecting identities. Carmel runs the Jewpanese Project, and a regular Jewpanese community Zoom call. She just really loves sushi and matzo balls!
“Queering” Jewish Spaces & “Jewifying” Queer Spaces
With Carmel Tanaka
Carmel spent the early days of the pandemic interviewing elders in the Jewish Queer and Trans community in British Columbia. Join this presentation to learn about 100 years of Jewish LGBTQ2SIA+ history in BC, and partake in an exploration of ways you can “queer” Jewish spaces and “Jewify” queer spaces. Carmel is the Founder and Executive Director of JQT Vancouver, which is the first charity of its kind in Canada!
Cross Cultural Mahjong
With Carmel Tanaka
Carmel has been obsessed with the game Mahjong her whole life. Join this presentation to learn about the history and social and cultural importance of Mahjong to both Asian and Jewish communities, and partake in a playful activity where you become a Mahjong tile. Carmel is the Founder of the Cross Cultural Walking Tours and a regular character at Mahjong socials in Vancouver’s Chinatown. She also plays double Jewish “mahj” once a week for the extra challenge!
History of Roman Jewish Cuisine
With Leah Koenig
The first Jews arrived in Rome in the 2nd century BCE, and a Jewish community has existed in the Eternal City ever since. Over the centuries, Rome's Jewish community has been shaped by hardship and determination to become a resilient, deeply knit entity with a uniquely beguiling cuisine. Join Leah Koenig, author of Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen for an engaging, photo-filled session about the history of Rome's Jews and the thriving, 17,000-strong community of Jews who call Rome home today. (Note: there will be no hands-on cooking during this session, but folks who want to join the cooking classes later in the week should consider attending for historical context.)
When Yiddish Met American Pop Culture: Artists Translating Between Worlds (and Creating New Ones)
With Rokhl Kafrissen
Ever since Yiddish speaking Jews began arriving in North America, their popular culture has reflected its encounter with America. But that influence goes both ways. Yiddish words, concepts, and especially music, are found all over mainstream American (and even world) culture. The global afterlife of the Yiddish song Dona, Dona is a great example of this phenomenon. This session will look at some of the many fun, funny, and surprising expressions of that intercultural dynamic, and the technologies, networks, and historical contingencies which made them possible.
Everyday Ashkenazi Magic
With Rokhl Kafrissen
When we think of Jewish magic, our imagination often goes to the demon bowls of the ancient Jewish world, or the elite, esoteric heights of kabole. But in this talk, Rokhl Kafrissen will explore what she calls “Everyday Ashkenazi Magic,” the complex set of beliefs, superstitions, healing practices, folk rituals, and anti-demonic technologies which animated everyday life in Jewish Eastern Europe.
The World of Yiddish Theatre
With Debra Caplan
Discover the fascinating history of the Yiddish stage, from its origins to the present day. Each of the four sessions will consider a different moment in Yiddish theatre history, moving chronologically over the course of the week. Topics include: Purim shpiln, Avrom Golfaden (the “Father of Yiddish Theatre”) Yiddish theatre in 20th century America, Jacob Gordin, Molly Picon, the Vilna Troupe, and contemporary Yiddish theatre today. Each session will feature an opportunity to engage directly with a scene from a Yiddish play related to the session topic. Participants are welcome to join any or all sessions.
Who's Wearing the Trousers? Women in London Yiddish Music-hall Songs
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion.
The songs sung in London's Yiddish music halls at the turn of the Twentieth Century are full of stories about husbands and wives and courting couples. They were sung by male and female actors, with a speciality of cross-dressing. In these songs, women often appear to have a degree of independence and autonomy. Yet, underneath the humour, there is a status quo being powerfully upheld.
Can You Hear Me at the Back? The London Yiddish Stage and the Fight Against Shund
With Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion.
London's Yiddish popular theatre played to packed, enthusiastic audiences. It was hugely popular but highly controversial. This talk will examine the behaviour of the audience, the arguments against shund and the bitter criticism by a range of intellectuals and religious leaders.
Hert ir mikh fun hinten? Di londener yidishe bine un der kamf kegn shund
Mit Vivi Lachs
This session is a talk and discussion in Yiddish.
Di londoner yidishe bine hot geshpilt far entuzyastishe oylems in fulgepakte zaln. Zi iz geveyn gevaldik populer ober hekhst kontroversyal. Di rede vet batrakhtn di firung funem oylem, di argumentn kegn shund, un di bitere kritik mitsad a rey inteligentn un rabonim.
הערט איר מיך פֿון הינטן? די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע און דער קאַמף קעגן שונד.
די לאָנדאָנער ייִדישע בינע האָט געשפּילט פֿאַר ענטוזיאַסטישע עולמס אין פֿולגעפּאַקטע זאַלן. זי איז געװען גװאַלדיק פּאָפּולער אָבער העכסט קאָנטראָװערסיאַל. די רעדער װעט באַטראַכטן די פֿירונג פֿונעם עולם, די אַרגומענטן קעגן שונד און די ביטערע קריטיק מיצד אַ רײ אינטעליגענטן און רבנים.
Shtumer Shabes Artist Discussion
With Rokhl Kafrissen
In this session, playwright Rokhl Kafrissen will present a few short excerpts from her most recent play, Shtumer Shabes/Silent Sabbath, and discuss the inspiration for the play and the role of folklore in the creative process.
Panel: Yiddish and Jewish Theatre Today
Moderated by Debra Caplan
The past decade has witnessed an explosion of contemporary Yiddish theatre: from new plays like Mikhl Yashinsky’s Di psure loyt Khayim, to highly successful Yiddish adaptations (Fiddler afn dakh), to new work in dialogue with Yiddish material, like Paula Vogel’s Indecent. At the same time, plays *about* Jews have been an increasingly major fixture in English-language theatre (Prayer for the French Republic, The Ally, Leopoldstadt, etc.) What might the future of Yiddish and Jewish theatre hold?
Join moderator Debra Caplan and a panel of Yiddish theatre artists for a wide-ranging conversation about the dynamics of Yiddish and Jewish theatre in the contemporary theatre scene.
Yiddish Shmues
Anna Fishman Gonshor
This session is an opportunity for us to meet and have a friendly discussion in Yiddish about a topic that is relevant and of interest to people for whom Yiddish language, literature, and culture are important. Join Anna Fishman Gonshor and other intermediate to advanced Yiddish speakers for a chance to use your language skills and hopefully discover ideas and stories that are new to all of us. See you then.
Community Conversations
with Rabbi Miriam Margles
KlezKanada brings together a beautifully diverse group of people - diverse in ages and stages of life, political commitments, backgrounds and experiences, religious and cultural practices, gender identities and sexual orientations and more. We come together connected by our love of Yiddish culture and music. This year, coming together and feeling a sense of belonging with one another may be more challenging as we bring with us the diverse ways we have been connected to and impacted by the war in Israel and Gaza and its reverberations in North America. We may each be coming in with heightened sensitivities, more reactivity, less agility or trust and with difficult emotions very close to the surface. We will be offering a series of facilitated Community Conversations during KlezKanada as a space for support for all that we are each holding, a space for honesty and care, resilient listening and deepening mutual understanding. These sessions will not be contexts for political debate or seeking to convince others to come to one’s own points of view. A clear communication agreement will guide and support our ability to speak and listen respectfully, caringly, and bravely. Sessions will include instruction to deepen skills in resilient listening, emotional awareness and clear structures for equitable sharing.The first session will gather input from the community, exploring what it is that we each would find valuable, connecting, and supportive. This first session will help shape the content and approach of subsequent conversations however participants to do not have to attend all of the sessions or consecutive sessions.
Research Methods Series
Geared towards musicians but open to all, this Research Methods series is designed to give you the skills to conduct research on the tunes, genres, contexts that interest you! Participants may attend one or both sessions.
Session One: You Can Do it Yourself!
With Lorin Sklamberg
YIVO Sound Archivist and Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg will show you how he goes about unearthing reference recordings, sheet music, and song lyrics utilizing online resources readily available to researchers.
Session Two: Introduction to Fieldwork
With Hankus Netsky
Hankus Netsky's research is focused on all aspects of Eastern European Jewish music, including klezmer, khozones, Yiddish Theatre, Yiddish folksong, Yiddish art song, and Hasidic music. In this session, Hankus will discuss the continuing need for ethnographic fieldwork and introduce you to fieldwork and interviewing skills.
Alef - Beys - Shabes: An Introduction to Rituals, Prayers, and Songs
With Cantor Becky Khitrik
This class provides an overview of liturgy, melodies, rituals, and customs from Shabes and holiday candle lighting to havdole. We will dive deep into the origins of popular tunes, study the history and composition of the Siddur (prayer book), and discuss what modern/cultural/humanistic Judaism looks like today. This is an introductory course geared towards those who identify as secular, religious, non-Jewish, and anywhere in between. Whether you are brand new to Jewish settings, consider yourself Jewish but were never taught the words to the common prayers, or are curious to learn more about the rituals you grew up with, this workshop offers a supportive, welcoming, and pluralistic introduction to Shabes, the Jewish day of rest.
Making Dreams Happen: Dora Wasserman and the Yiddish Theatre
With Aron Gonshor
A tour of the history of Montreal's Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, with musical interludes highlighting the timeless songs from its staged musicals. Founded by Dora Wasserman, the DWYT is one of North America’s oldest Yiddish theatre companies. Since 1958, the DWYT has dramatized the Jewish experience and worked to sustain a legacy of Yiddish theatre at home in Montreal and on tour.
The Theatre of Jenny Romaine
With Jenny Romaine
Jenny Romaine, director, designer, puppeteer, and co-artistic director of the OBIE winning Great Small Works visual theatre collective, has spent several decades creating new Yiddish performance that privileges dance, sculpture, text, and music as equal partners in composition. She specializes in keeping theatre at the heart of social life and making sense of big themes and ideas. Jenny draws on Yiddish/Pan Jewish primary source materials to create art that explores diaspora consciousness.
In this session, Jenny will share past projects and speak about making Yiddish rooted work that reaches for answers to deep questions. Come for this pep talk if you are interested in making ensemble work in real time, through a solid commitment to aesthetics. This session is open to all participants. It is also the first session of the coaching program.
Critical Yiddishland
With Avia Moore
Critical Yiddishland is an ongoing discussion series in which we identity “landmarks” on the map of Yiddishland and consider theoretical lenses through which we can consider contemporary Yiddishkayt. This year, we will be thinking about the term "Yiddishland" itself, which is often used to describe the network of people, projects, and events that make up the contemporary Yiddish cultural scene. In this session, we will read and discuss texts that reveal several distinct but interconnected categories of use, including Yiddishland as nation, Yiddishland as lost homeland, and Yiddishland as cultural space. Jeffrey Shandler argues that the idea of Yiddishland is an exercise in imagination because it requires resisting dominant narratives. Paying attention to cultural imaginaries, we will bring a critical lens to the term in both historical and contemporary usage, analyzing its relationship to nation, borders, and networks, and seeking a definition that holds space for difference while activating networks of solidarity and support.
Beser in the Original: A Workshop in Literary Translation
Sebastian Schulman
Intermediate
How do great works of literature written in one language become masterpieces in another? Through a series of creative writing exercises and close readings, in this workshop we will learn how translators combine deep cultural expertise, sensitive reading skills, and versatility in writing to create new literary works in English. We’ll look into the differences in translating prose, poetry, and drama, and take time to workshop students’ own works-in-progress. While the focus will be on translating Yiddish literature into English, the techniques we’ll learn will be applicable for those working from any language. The only requirements are an aptitude for writing in English and at least intermediate knowledge of any foreign language.
Using Ashkenazi Folklore for New Dramatic Work
With Rokhl Kafrissen
One of the most famous Yiddish plays of all time, S. An-ski’s The Dybbuk, grew directly out of An-ski’s famous ethnographic expedition, which set out to collect the folklore, superstitions, and material culture of Ukraine’s shtetlekh. What else might our folkloric treasures inspire? In this workshop, we will read and discuss a variety of short folklore primary sources and then use those sources to spark our imagination through in-class writing exercises.
Lid-Arbeter Varshtat / Song-Worker Workshop
With Daniel Kahn
Are you a singer, writer, composer, translator, adapter, mixer, collector, tinkerer, maker, faker, taker, or breaker of Yiddish songs? Join a progressive, polyglot, transnational, amalgamated, workshop of contemporary songwork. Tune up your new song, retune an old song, put a tune to a poem or some words to a tune. We'll be taking apart songs, fixing what's wrong, patching them up, and getting them to sing better than ever. Lid-arbeter fun ale lender, fareynikt zikh!*
*Song-workers of the world, unite! (Proficiency in Yiddish not required — but it couldn't hurt.)
Cook Up a Soup
With Benny Ferdman
All Levels
A mixed media visual and performative arts workshop with Benny Ferdman. In this open-ended arts workshop we will take inspiration from Yiddish poetry and folktales and the wild wonders all around us. To unify our efforts we will focus on a poem by Aaron Lutzky (1892 -1957) titled דער טאָפ זידט - The Pot is Boiling. While written in the interwar years, Lutzky’s comedic social allegory seems particularly relevant to the ”boiling pot of soup" we are all swirling around in at this moment. Participants will work in two or three dimensions creating art that tells a story or makes a statement, employing techniques of puppetry, cantastoria style painting, costuming, and more.
Photographing the Visible and the Invisible
With Lloyd Wolf
All Levels, but see pre-requisite
This four session workshop will provide a hands-on experiential opportunity to improve one’s photography of performers and performances. Examples of strategies and techniques for making pictures in the field will be presented and discussed. An emphasis will be made on how to effectively convey the energies and personality of musicians in photographic form; translating sound into sight, music into light, and making the invisible visible.The first day will be an introduction to a range of ideas and techniques. Participants will undertake their own assignments photographing performers outside of the photo workshop and share the results with the the rest of the group in helpful individual and collective critiques.
Prerequisite: Any type of camera you have is fine (including cell phones), but you should be already fully comfortable with how to operate it properly. The workshop is designed for those who have some prior experience with photography and wish to improve their skills, portfolio, and aesthetic enrichment.
Atelier KlezKanada: Yiddish Building Workshop!
With Daniel Toretsky
All Levels
Welcome to KlezKanada’s first hands-on architecture class! This class is part of our 2024 visual arts program and is open to everyone, with or without design experience. Together we’ll explore what it means to make Yiddish, Jewish, diasporic, mobile, site specific, hybridized, whimsical, and (hopefully) fabulous built structures for our current time. We will draw inspiration from the rich history of ephemeral Jewish spatial rituals, pre-war painted shuls, maps of destroyed shtetls, the natural and built features of KlezKanada’s new home, and our imaginations of a brighter future. With paper, pens, cardboard, glue guns, and a love of playful experimentation, we will construct visions of fantastical buildings to probe and fulfill the functional and spiritual needs of Yiddish society and beyond!
Cooking Workshops: Roman Jewish Cuisine
With Leah Koenig
All Levels
Leah Koenig's newest cookbook, Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen, celebrates Rome’s Jewish community, the oldest in Europe. The city’s Jewish residents have endured many hardships, including 300 years of persecution inside the Roman Jewish Ghetto. Out of this strife grew resilience, a deeply knit community, and a uniquely beguiling cuisine. Join Leah for an introduction to the history of Roman Jewish cuisine, plus three hands-on cooking workshops featuring recipes from Portico.
History of Roman Jewish Cuisine
The first Jews arrived in Rome in the 2nd century BCE, and a Jewish community has existed in the Eternal City ever since. Over the centuries, Rome's Jewish community has been shaped by hardship and determination to become a resilient, deeply knit entity with a uniquely beguiling cuisine. Join Leah Koenig, author of Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen for an engaging, photo-filled session about the history of Rome's Jews and the thriving, 17,000-strong community of Jews who call Rome home today. (Note: there will be no hands-on cooking during this session, but folks who want to join the cooking classes later in the week should consider attending for historical context.)
Classics of the Roman Jewish Table
In this hands-on cooking class, we will prepare two iconic (and one modern!) savory dishes from Rome's Jewish kitchen: Roasted Tomato Halves (pomodori a mezzo), Spinach with Raisins and Pine Nuts, and Spaghetti Carbonara with Zucchini. We will talk about how certain dishes became classics overtime, and how today's Roman Jews are playing around with tradition in the kitchen. Dishes cooked in this class will include nuts, eggs, gluten, and dairy.
Artichokes: A Roman Jewish Love Affair
There is perhaps no greater love affair on earth than the flame that burns between Roman Jews and artichokes. This class will delve into the history of Roman Jews' connection with the Mediterranean thistle, share some fun anecdotes (like the fight Leah watched transpire between two elders in the Roman Jewish ghetto over the proper way to trim an artichoke), and talk about all the ways artichokes are incorporated into Roman Jewish cuisine. The class will also work together to prepare an Artichoke Frittata (Frittata di Carciofi) and Fried Artichoke Hearts. Dishes cooked in this class will include eggs and dairy.
La Dolce Vita: Roman Jewish Sweets
This hands-on cooking class will explore the sweet world of Roman Jewish desserts. It will cover the Sephardi influence on Rome's dessert table (thanks to the Sephardi Jews who fled to Rome in the wake of the Inquisition), and share the story of Rome's famous 200-year-old kosher bakery. The class will then work together to create two delicious Roman Jewish desserts: Sweet Citrus Ring Cookies (ciambellette), and Dried Fruit and Nut Bar Cookies (pizza ebraica). Dishes cooked in this class will include nuts, eggs, and gluten.
Please note that the hands-on cooking workshops are limited to 20 participants.
Camp Vildkraft (Ages 5-12)
With Shari Davis, Benny Ferdman, and Cesario Lavery
Welcome to Camp Vildkraft, an interdisciplinary, intergenerational program run by the folks from Camp Wildcraft Art and Nature Camp. Artist/educators Benny Ferdman and Shari Davis adapt their beloved, Los Angeles-based summer day camp into an exuberant, Yiddish-infused art and nature Vildkraft filled with art making, nature hikes, outdoor play, dance, music and afternoon swim time at the lake.
Mornings will begin with an opening camp circle and lead into art-making and nature hikes on the trails around camp. During AM 2 kids will work on a big mixed-media art project. During the afternoon, guest faculty will join Camp Vildkraft to teach Yiddish song, dance, and music. During PM2 we head to the lakeside!
Camp Vildkraft Guides: Middle School and High School kids are invited to join this teen leadership program to help guide our younger Vildkraft Campers. We’ll identify your unique skills and interests and give you opportunities to design and lead camp activities in the arts, nature exploration, music, games and more!
We are still working on the details of the 2024 Camp Vildkraft program and will share them here as soon as they are confirmed.
Kleynkunst Teen Program
Ozzy Irving Gold-Shapiro
In this year’s teen program, join Ozzy Irving Gold-Shapiro in exploring Kleynkunst – literally “small art” in Yiddish. While our primary goal will be getting to know each other, we will have fun developing a variety of short acts using historic Yiddish materials, collected oral histories, and our own life experiences. Through conversation, writing, and movement, we will ask: what is the art of small stories? What is the power of telling a story collectively? And just what does it mean to be a teenager in Yiddishland?
Opening Night Concert: Klezmer Kitchen Party
Isaac Beaudet Lefebvre, Zafer Mamilli, Eden Glasman, and Thierry Clouette
Our opening night party of the 2024 Summer Retreat will feature an iconic tradition of the Canadian folk scene – a kitchen party! Cherished by many cultural traditions across Canada, the kitchen party conjures a welcoming scene of good company, good cheer, and good tunes.The Klezmer Kitchen Party brings Jewish culture to the table, featuring Quebec-based musicians Isaac Beaudet Lefebvre, Zafer Mamilli, Eden Glasman, and Thierry Clouette, joined by special guest Daniel Kahn. Raise a glass with them as they swap tunes from the klezmer and Quebecois fiddle repertoire and share new translations of Yiddish and French songs. We are thrilled to partner with Festival Trad Montreal, which showcases the vibrant musical traditions of Quebec. The Klezmer Kitchen Party will include several brand-new tunes from Quebecois composers as part of Le Composium 2024, the opening night of Festival Trad Montreal (August 29).
Golden Thread Septet: Yiddish Songs of Social Change
With Lorin Sklamberg, Sasha Lurje, Craig Judelman Cookie Segelstein, Abigale Reisman, Kirsten Lamb, and Raffi Boden
**A Canadian Premiere!**
Golden Thread Septet presents Yiddish Songs of Social Change, a program that explores the nature and dynamics of social change in the 20th century, featuring new arrangements by Craig Judelman. Covering a wide array of topics including shifting opportunities for women, the struggle for workers' rights, tensions between religious and secular movements, assimilation and relationship with the outside world, this program gives context and voice to the myriad changes and social struggles faced by Ashkenazi communities of the last century. The ensemble itself reflects this evolving identity as it straddles the line between old time fiddle kapelye and contemporary art ensemble.
Featuring an all-star ensemble made up of beloved Yiddish vocalists Lorin Sklamberg and Sasha Lurje, plus five leading string players from the klezmer scene, Craig Judelman, Cookie Segelstein, Abigale Reisman, Kirsten Lamb, and Raffi Boden, this project blends techniques and soundscapes from klezmer music, Yiddish theatre, folk song, cantorial repertoire, and classical music in a program that is equal parts story-telling, chamber music and klezmer concert.
Originally commissioned by the Milken Center for Music of the American Jewish Experience at UCLA.
Concert: Vu nemt men a bisele glik – A Night of Yiddish Theatre Music
Highlighting our 2024 disciplinary focus, our Thursday night concert will spotlight music from the Yiddish theatre. From beloved canonical numbers to newly-composed future favourites, performers will showcase how wonderfully broad the Yiddish theatre can be!
Featuring:
Vivi Lachs, who will perform a number of London Yiddish songs from the old East End ranging from a feisty political ballad to a cheeky music-hall romp. Be prepared to join in.
Joanne Borts, who will perform songs from her wide and diverse repertoire, including classics, new works, and out-of-the-box surprises!
Mikhl Yashinsky, who will perform excerpts from his new Yiddish musical Sude fun di zibn zindikers — Feast of the Seven Sinners, with music by Mamaliga. This tragicomic, entirely original klezmer musical in Yiddish, sheds garish light upon the dark underground of 19th-century Vilna — and the dark chambers of the heart.
And more special guests!
Tantshoyz: Borsht Belt Ball
Have you ever danced such a dance? Step into a borsht belt ballroom for our 2024 Yiddish tantshoyz. Freylekhs, bulgars, shers.... and is that a cha cha we hear? From the bandstand, led by Jordan Hirsch, you'll be serenaded by dance hits from the borsht belt era, klezmer favourites, and special guest performances. Dancing will be led by Avia Moore, Michael Alpert, and Asya Vaisman Schulman. Wear your best retro attire (think 40s, 50s, 60s), channel your favourite root vegetable, or dance in your most comfortable jeans. Dressing up is encouraged (but not required); just wear something comfortable to dance in.
Scholarship Showcase
Hosted by Zoë Aqua
For over 20 years, the Azrieli Scholarship Program at KlezKanada has brought together young artists and scholars to study Yiddish culture and Jewish music at KlezKanada’s Summer Retreat. Every year, the group includes instrumentalists and vocalists, scholars, dancers, theatre-makers, visual artists, and more. In fact, participants in the scholarship program often do many (or all!) of those things! In this interdisciplinary Scholarship Showcase, we invite you to meet some of the 2024 Azrieli Scholarship Program recipients.
Concert: The Broken Pieces
With Marilyn Lerner and Yoshie Fruchter
The Pieces Broken is a new collaboration, an emerging conversation between two friends, the Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner (Ugly Beauties) and New York based guitarist Yoshie Fruchter (Sandcatchers). Combining the minimalist chamber jazz sensibility inspired by recordings like the seminal Bill Evans/Hall duo and Jewish compositional tropes from their klezmer backgrounds, The Pieces Broken offers a truly original and unparalleled musical voice.
Concert: Inspirations
With Lauren Brody, Margot Leverett, and Cookie Segelstein
Join us for a concert highlighting three incredible performers and teachers: Lauren Brody, Margot Leverett, and Cookie Segelstein.
Throughout the revitalization of klezmer music, each of these inspirational women have generously shared their creativity, research, and passion with audiences and students around the world. Lauren will share some of her virtuosic compositions that bring together her love of Balkan and klezmer music. Margot plans to scope out all the amazing talent at KlezKanada and put together something you have never heard before. Playing music from an upcoming recording, Cookie will share fiddle music from Ukraine and Poland, along with original compositions.
Participant Concert
An annual extravaganza, the KlezKanada Participant Concert is a moment to celebrate all that we have learned and experienced throughout the week.
Kabaret
After the evening concerts, here’s your chance to show off the new material you’ve been working on. The Kabaret is also a great place for new members of the KlezKanada community to perform, see, and be seen. From the eccentric to the beautiful, we welcome the gamut of performance possibilities. Hosted by Noah Mitchel and a rotating crew of special guest co-hosts.
!דער מעת-לעת נס
The Mes-Les Nes! (A Performance Mixer)
Our Thursday evening late-night event will be a performance mixer! This is a great opportunity to meet and create in new constellations. In Yiddish, a “mes-les” is a 24 hour period of time and a “nes” is a miracle.
All those who want to participate will have the opportunity to put their name into a hat. We will draw names to form performance groups of 4-5 people. All disciplines welcome! Groups will have 24 hours to prepare a performance piece for Thursday night, be it music, theatre, poetry, or something else entirely. What will you create?
Why only 24 hours? Whether your group works for 24 hours, thirty-six minutes, or somewhere in-between, the short time is meant as a useful creative constraint. Remember, miracles can be messy!
How to Participate:
From Tuesday evening until Wednesday dinner there will be boxes where you can submit your name. These will be located at the info desk and Kabaret bar. We will post these groups at the Wednesday night cabaret, were we can help you find your new performance ensemble. We will also post this list of names at the info desk on Thursday morning. Each group will be given a prompt to serve as a jumping off point.
Singing Table // Shabes Tish
Led by Cantor Becky Khitrik and Zach Mayer
On Friday night, after the Shabes meal, we gather in the glow of the shabes candles to sing nigunim together. Often described as feeling otherworldly, the Friday night tish is a spiritual highlight of KlezKanada's Summer Retreat.
Alef - Beys - Shabes: An Introduction to Rituals, Prayers, and Songs
With Cantor Becky Khitrik
This class provides an overview of liturgy, melodies, rituals, and customs from Shabes and holiday candle lighting to havdole. We will dive deep into the origins of popular tunes, study the history and composition of the Siddur (prayer book), and discuss what modern/cultural/humanistic Judaism looks like today. This is an introductory course geared towards those who identify as secular, religious, non-Jewish, and anywhere in between. Whether you are brand new to Jewish settings, consider yourself Jewish but were never taught the words to the common prayers, or are curious to learn more about the rituals you grew up with, this workshop offers a supportive, welcoming, and pluralistic introduction to Shabes, the Jewish day of rest.
The Backwards March
We meet by the lake with instruments and voices to welcome in the shabes queen.
Introduced to the festival by theatre-maker Jenny Romaine in 2001, the Backwards March is based on a shabes ritual from a Romanian village. At the 2001 edition of KlezKanada's Summer Retreat, Jenny Romaine led a workshop on Jewish processional walking. As part of the workshop, folklorist Itzik Gottesman shared the tradition of a backwards procession which he had collected in an interview with Arye-Leibush Laish, a Yiddish writer and singer. Laish described how, in the 1920-30s, all the Jewish members of his village of Stănișești, Romania, would gather by the river on Friday evening. Facing the sunset, they would play a melody to usher in the shabes and proceed backwards into the village so as not to turn their back on shabes, or the Shabes Queen. When they reached the shul, they would put down their instruments and begin the shabes prayers. The Backwards March, as it has come to be known, has since become a beloved and integral part of the Summer Retreat each year.
Learn more about the Backwards March here: https://klezkanada.org/backwards-march/
Singing Table // Shabes Tish
Led by Cantor Becky Khitrik and Zach Mayer
On Friday night, after the Shabes meal, we gather in the glow of the shabes candles to sing nigunim together. Often described as feeling otherworldly, the Friday night tish is a spiritual highlight of KlezKanada's Summer Retreat.
Nigun as a Spiritual Practice
With Zach Mayer
In this workshop, we will focus on learning traditional Hasidic nigunim that are said to bring about elevated states of consciousness. We will also learn some of Zach’s original nigunim, which draw from the tradition while adding something new. Participants will collectively lead these nigunim at the Friday night Tish. Though this is a vocal workshop, instrumentalists will benefit from it as well. All levels are welcome.
Pre-Retreat Online Work Exchange Orientation
August 4. For participants of our Work Exchange Program. Zoom links can be found on the password-protected participant page.
Pre-Retreat Online Scholarship Orientation
August 4. For recipients of the Azrieli Scholarship Program. Zoom links can be found on the password-protected participant page.
Pre-Retreat Online Meet and Greet
For all participants, whether new or returning. We know that it can be overwhelming to arrive at the Retreat, especially for new participants. Join us to meet other Summer Retreat participants as well as some of our staff.
Opening Night Welcome and Orientation
For many, KlezKanada is a yearly tradition. For others, it is a new experience. Whether you are here for the first time, or an experienced KlezKanada participant, we invite you to join us at our orientation. This is an opportunity to meet faculty, staff, and the program coordinators, as well as to learn about featured programs and workshops, and more about the camp site. Not sure what class or level is right for you? Want a recommendation on what workshop to attend? Curious where the lake is? We'll do our best to point you in the right direction.
Opening Night Work Exchange Orientation
Before the community orientation, there will be an orientation for participants of our Work Exchange Program.
Pre-Retreat Online Scholarship Orientation
Before the community orientation, there will be an orientation For recipients of the Azrieli Scholarship Program.
Lomir ale zingen: A Yiddish Sing Along
With a rotation faculty
Lomir zingen a yidish lid! What could be better than sharing Yiddish songs with friends? Together we will sing old favourites and soon-to-be new favourites. All voices welcome, encouraged, and accepted. Come make a joyful Yiddish noise.
The 16th KlezKanada LOYF TSUNOYF!! 5k Loyf (Run) // 2.5k Shpatsir (Walk)
With Joanne Borts
For early risers and die-hard stay-up-all-nighters! A fundraiser for KlezKanada with an emphasis on the FUN! KlezKanada at Dawn! Runners! Walkers! Musicians! Sponsors! Volunteers! We'll meet for a little eye-opening coffee, a brief warm-up, and then we’ll loyf around Dos Bisele Glik! If you're not into exercise (but love the fresh morning air...) then your band can make music along the course to inspire the Loyf-ers! The more the merrier! There's something for everyone, and all the proceeds go to benefit KlezKanada!! Awards in many categories, plus swag for participants and generous donors! Catch up with Joanne Borts and her merry band of volunteers and register early!
Sunday 6:30-7:30am
Meet at the Bon Appétit Tent
Lunchtime Kumzits (Meet up)
Our lunchtime kumzits series offers informal opportunities to connect with other participants and explore shared areas of interest. Look for the signs and gather around the designated dining tables to join in the discussion (see topics below).
Everyday: דאָ רעדט מען נאָר ייִדיש
Join other Yiddish speakers for lunch and/or dinner at our Yidish tish. Yiddish speakers of all levels are welcome. Note: there will be a designated Yidish tish both in the Eszal AND in the Bon Appétit Tent.
Wednesday: Montreal Locals!
Are you local to the Montreal area? This is an open discussion about what events and resources would be useful to you as Jewish artists and cultural workers. Convened by the Montreal Jewish Arts Collaborative, a project of the Museum of Jewish Montreal, KlezKanada, and the Segal Centre.
Thursday: Disabled Community
A kumzits for disabled particiapnts to find and meet each other. We will have an open-ended sharing and discussion, including around our experiences being disabled in festival spaces. Convened by freygl gertsovski.
Friday: Fostering a Local Scene through Community Jams and Workshops
An open discussion about the art of community klezmer jam sessions and workshops. Convened by Judy Barlas and Howard Ungar, from DC Klezmer Workshop.
Sunday: West Coast Networks
Meet other participants from the West Coast of the US and Canada to share and learn about Yiddish cultural events, resources, and networks in your area. Convened by Maia Brown and Jess Goldman.
Mindfulness Meditation
with Rabbi Miriam Margles, Senior Core Faculty at Institute for Jewish Spirituality
In the face of the current challenges in our world and the challenges of simply being human, this series in mindfulness meditation will offer instruction and practice to support your capacity to access grounding and stability, openness and compassionate presence. We will learn concrete ways to notice and meet our moment to moment experience with less judgment, reactivity, or habit, and with more spacious warmth, ease, and joy.The more we can grow these capacities toward ourselves, the more agility, courage, compassion, and presence we will have in our relationships with others. No experience with meditation is necessary. Sessions will build on one another but you are welcome to attend individual sessions. Miriam will be offering trauma-informed instructions, giving you clear options for working with each day’s practice with greater safety and agency.
Community Conversations
with Rabbi Miriam Margles
KlezKanada brings together a beautifully diverse group of people - diverse in ages and stages of life, political commitments, backgrounds and experiences, religious and cultural practices, gender identities and sexual orientations and more. We come together connected by our love of Yiddish culture and music.This year, coming together and feeling a sense of belonging with one another may be more challenging as we bring with us the diverse ways we have been connected to and impacted by the war in Israel and Gaza and its reverberations in North America. We may each be coming in with heightened sensitivities, more reactivity, less agility or trust and with difficult emotions very close to the surface.
We will be offering a series of facilitated Community Conversations during KlezKanada as a space for support for all that we are each holding, a space for honesty and care, resilient listening and deepening mutual understanding. These sessions will not be contexts for political debate or seeking to convince others to come to one’s own points of view. A clear communication agreement will guide and support our ability to speak and listen respectfully, caringly, and bravely. Sessions will include instruction to deepen skills in resilient listening, emotional awareness and clear structures for equitable sharing. The first session will gather input from the community, exploring what it is that we each would find valuable, connecting, and supportive. This first session will help shape the content and approach of subsequent conversations.
Group Photographs!
We take a group photograph of the scholarship recipients, work exchange program participants, faculty. We also try to take a group photo of EVERYONE at the Summer Retreat! Look in your brochure and stay tuned to announcements for the timing of these photos.
Weekdays
All are welcome.
7:30 AM Morning Services
Participant led, minyan permitting.
7:30 PM Weekday Mayrev Services
Participant led, minyan permitting.
For those that need to say kaddish: Weekday minyan attendance can vary greatly. If you will need to say kaddish during the Retreat, please contact our Services Coordinator (who will be introduced at the orientation) when you arrive at camp and they will help ensure that there is a minyan to meet your needs.
Shabes
Friday
7:00-7:30 PM Self-led Candle Lighting
7:15 PM Communal Shabes and Mayrev services
Participant-led service, coordinated by our Services Coordinator.
Saturday
9:30 AM Combined Communal Services
Participant-led service, coordinated by our Services Coordinator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers here!
Community Guidelines
Read our Community Guidelines and Conduct Policy
COVID-19 Safety
Learn about COVID-19 safety at our In-Person Retreat