Search

The Students

Efim Chorny discusses the different things students are various klezmer festivals are looking for and how he tailors his teaching to their needs and desires.

Yiddishland

Christian Dawid - Berlin-based, world-renowned klezmer clarinet player - discusses the term "Yiddishland" and explains how it has become a reality.

Jewish Moldovan Gypsy music

Klezmer musician Assaf Talmudi talks about dicovering a great but unknown musician who was part of Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) collaboration in Moldova.

"Rumania, Rumania"

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, performs Aaron Lebedeff's classic "Rumania, Rumania" and explains the Yiddish lyrics.

Peter Sokolow Remembers Humorously Bad Gigs

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, recalls one of his worst, and most humorous, gigs at a landsmanschaft event.

Connecting with Jewish folk music

musician Assaf Talmudi explains that he started playing Klezmer music because it felt unauthentic to play folk music from other cultures.

Peter Sokolow

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on December 5, 2013 in Brooklyn, New York.

2013-12-05

My Father's Piano

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, talks about his beloved Steinway piano, left to him by his father.

"My Grandparents Would Speak in Fluent Yiddish When They Didn't Want Us to Understand"

Merlin Shepherd, klezmer musician and instructor, recalls an incident in which his grandfather started yelling at another driver in Yiddish in order to keep him from understanding.

Ilya Shneyveys

Ilya Shneyveys, multifaceted musician and member of the psychedelic Klezmer band Forshpil, was interviewed (remotely) by Nina Pick on March 15th, 2021 in Brooklyn, New York.

2021-03-15

What’s a Club Date?: Peter Sokolow Explains

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, remembers his first professional gigs playing in Country Clubs for weddings and other simkhes.

"Can you teach me how to sound more Jewish?"

Christian Dawid - Berlin-based, world-renowned klezmer clarinet player - explains that people ask him, a non-Jew, to help them sound "more Jewish."

The Plum Tree: Old Music, New Lyrics

Elizabeth Schwartz, singer, introduces and performs The Plum Tree, a traditional klezmer melody she composed English lyrics for in honor of historian Itzik Schwartz and his wife Tzila.

Activism and Jewish Music for Francophones

Henri Oppenheim, klezmer musician based in Montreal, discusses why he identifies as an activist. He reflects on his work with Jewish music, and the process of making it for Francophone listeners.

Reflecting on a Secular Jewish Upbringing

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, talks about his secular upbringing in Crown Heights and his mother's unique political philosophy.

He Spoke My Parents' Dialect

Israel Bartal - Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew University - shares the story of getting a letter from a klezmer musician from Galicia who spoke his parents' dialect.

The Roughness of Yiddish

Christian Dawid - Berlin-based, world-renowned klezmer clarinet player - explains that he likes Yiddish for its "roughness" and the ways in which it can be both beautiful and obscene.

Yiddish as a Post-Vernacular Language

Frank London - founding member of the Klezmatics and Frank London's All-Star Klezmer Brass Ensemble - discusses Yiddish as a "post-vernacular" living language, based on Jeffrey Shandler's writings.

Working with Dave Tarras

Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, talks about some of the famous Jewish musicians he played with, including Dave Tarras and the Epstein Brothers.

Interest in Jewish Culture

Sarah Bunin Benor - professor of Jewish studies and linguistics - describes the evolution of her interest in Yiddish beginning with her teenage interest in klezmer and continuing at Columbia University and the Yiddish Book Center.