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40 Years in Yiddishland: The Yiddish Book Center celebrates the Klezmer Conservatory Band: Q & A

Featuring: Hankus Netsky

The Yiddish Book Center's fortieth anniversary in 2020 also marks the fortieth anniversary of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (KCB), an internationally renowned Yiddish and klezmer music ensemble. Two of the major players in the flourishing international Yiddish cultural resurgence, the KCB and the Center have been celebrating together throughout the histories of both organizations, beginning with the band’s appearance at the Center’s milestone events in Amherst as early as 1981 and continuing more recently with their performances as perennial headliners at the Center’s Yidstock Festival of New Yiddish Music. This special, ninety-minute retrospective from the Yiddish Book Center celebrates the history of the KCB.

The broadcast, hosted by Kenneth Turan, film critic for the LA Times and NPR, features KCB founder and director and former Center vice-president for education, Dr. Hankus Netsky, in conversation with Aaron Lansky, the Center’s founder and president. It includes a historical overview of the band’s history along with exciting video concert footage from over the years, and features tribute greetings from well-known KCB collaborators, including Itzhak Perlman and Joel Grey.

This event is co-sponsored by KlezKanada, Golden Land Concerts & Connections, Yiddish New York, Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the American Society for Jewish Music, Boston Workers Circle, New England Conservatory, Jewish Arts Collaborative, and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

The program is made possible in part with the generous support of Peter D. Mark in loving memory of his parents Enid and Eugene L. Mark.