Calendar

BOND FUNDRAISER FOR
DETAINED IMMIGRANTS

Sunday August 19th

3pm – 5pm

693 32nd Street, Oakland

No cover; bring your checkbook! RSVP: wrenbird@riseup.net

We can help re-unite families! Now that West County
Detention Center in Richmnond is no longer housing detained immigrants for ICE, detainees have the opportunity to be
reunited with their families, but only upon paying a bond of thousands of dollars!

Co-sponsored by Interfaith Movement For Human Integrity, Jewish Voice For Peace &
Kehilla Community Synagogue; hosted by Wren Ganin-Pinto & Matthew Leber.

Music by the gonifs : Jeanette Lewicki &
Sheldon Brown.
Followed by: Quincinera- A Short Film about
family separation in California + Speakers, Silent
Auction of Incredible Drawings Joseph Patton and
Refreshments!

Contribute on-line today or bring a check or cash to the fundraiser.
More information about bonds and detention here.:

Donate Online here.
Make checks payable to: “Freedom For Immigrants”—
With “WCDF FUND” in the memo line. Mail your check to 1322
Webster St., Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612. OR BRING YOUR
CHECK WITH YOU!

KlezCalifornia Workshop! June 3, 2018

Sliding Scale! Singers, Instrumentalists, & Listeners Welcome.

Sunday, June 3 at Kehilla Community in Oakland,  3:45-6:45pm.  This is the first KlezCal workshop at Kehilla, where I co-led wonderful community klezmer bands last year, including the Women’s March klezmer band.  It’s a fantastic community & I’m sure this will be a very special gathering as we celebrate the release of the Ruth Rubin tracks at YIVO.
It’s also the first KlezCal workshop to include vocalists, & to take place in Oakland, in quite a while, so please come join us to show support for local Yiddish culture!

We’ll be working with newly-released tracks from the Ruth Rubin collection at YIVO NY.  We’ll learn by ear as well as from transcriptions, tracing the ecstatic spiritual DNA of klezmer dance music & Yiddish song.

This is truly exciting news: YIVO has begun putting the entire Ruth Rubin archive online.  More than 1500 Yiddish songs, nigunim, jokes, stories, & instrumental tracks, performed by native speakers, recorded by Ruth Rubin on a big old reel-to-reel tape recorder that was state-of-the-art tech when she started, in 1948.

RR was prescient in so many ways.  A single mother, working days as a secretary, studying folklore (because ethnomusicology wasn’t really a thing yet), Rubin was raised in a Yiddish-speaking household & recognised that the refugees pouring into NY from Europe were carrying a treasure that would soon be lost if someone didn’t do something soon.  She started lugging a tape recorder around to libraries, living rooms, old folks’ homes, & summer camps, gathering Yiddish singers together to spark each other’s memories. She typed meticulous catalogs & left duplicate collections to multiple archives.

Come celebrate with us!  Let’s start unpacking the  legacy that Ruth Rubin preserved for us, which YIVO’s wonderful music archivists have made newly available.  These recordings changed the way that I hear klezmer music & Yiddish song, & I am eager to share them with you.

A special thank you to KlezCalifornia, YIVO NY, the Center for Traditional Music & Dance, & gratitude to Jim Rebhan for tech support.

Being the Resistance! Feb 25, 2018

free! San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, Latino Meeting Room

1:30-4:30pm. (Our klezmer music set will be about 2:30pm.) With the wonderful fiddler Joshua Laurenzi, we’ll lead Yiddish songs about resistance, justice, & potatoes. Sing along! Lyrics provided.

The program includes music by Emma’s Revolution & updates from local activist groups (Black Lives Matter, Council on American-Islamic Relations,  Idle No More, Causa Justa, Jewish Voice For Peace, The Do No Harm Coalition & more).

Sponsored by the Arbeter Ring of Northern California, a branch of the mutual aid society for immigrant workers founded in 1900.

Space is limited. To reserve a spot: http://catalog.lehrhaus.org/course/2018/winter/H500-SFPL/

KlezCalifornia Nov 1-2

Palo Alto JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto

I’ll be singing in the festival song concert on Sunday, Nov 2, 2-3pm & leading the zingeray 3:14-4:45.

The concert features international klezmer stars Veretski Pass, plus singers Anthony Russell & Sharon Bernstein. The zingeray, in case you’ve never been to one, is like a party where people sit around & swap songs instead of jokes.

The whole weekend includes song, dance & instrumental workshops.

More info: http://www.klezcalifornia.org/

 

FRIDAYS UNDERGROUND about 3-7pm

24th St BART station

Underground at 24th & Mission, SF

I’ve gone back to my busking roots. If I get the good spot I’ll be singing & playing near the ticket agent’s booth; otherwise go around the corner & look for me near the elevator. What I love about busking is the state of mind I get into after a couple of hours singing anything I want while hundreds of people walk by. Some give a smile, some give a dollar, some turn up their iPods; some do all three. Lunatics stop to scream; little kids tug on their parents’ hands; tourists take pictures; a few people stop to listen. After a while my voice is raw, my feet are sore, & I just don’t care any more. That’s when it gets good.

JUNE 7, 2014 5pm

Klezmer at Porto Franco

Saturday, June 7, 5:00pm

953 Valencia (between 20th & 21st), SF

5-7pm

Klezmer music, Yiddish songs, snacks & drinks at PORTO FRANCO with Rob Reich (accordion, piano), Stu Brotman (bass), & David Chernyavsky (fiddle). It seems klezmer brunch gets later & later!  I’m excited to sing in this intimate room with a great trio. We’ll include some eclectic material with songs by Neutral Milk Hotel, Leonard Cohen, & others, along with Yiddish folksongs, klezmer dance music, & gritty urban romances.

They ask $20 at the door. Let me know if you would like to come as a guest.

JUNE 14, 2014 7pm

Free! The Zingeray, hosted by Anthony Russell, Gerry Tenney & me

Saturday, June 14, 7:00pm
JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut St. (between Vine & Rose), Berkeley

No charge.
More info: 415.789.7679, makeithappen.schusterman.org/idea/431

Unaccompanied Yiddish song is where it’s at. A zingeray (“zing-a-RYE,” Yiddish for “A Singing-Type Thing”) is “a social gathering to sing, share, listen and pass on Yiddish songs, in a casual, inclusive style and space.” A Persian rug, a circle of chairs, plenty of snacks, & Yiddish songs to share. Anthony (Mordechai Tsvi) Russell got a micro-grant from the Shusterman Philanthropic Network to make it happen.

 

December 9, 2013 6pm

Klezmer music, Yiddish songs, & deli food at Saul’s Delicatessan. I’ll be singing & playing accordion with Richard Saunder on bass. A relaxed evening of acoustic music. No cover. Vegan options.

1475 Shattuck Ave (at Vine) Berkeley, CA 94709 Ph: (510) 848-DELI (3354)

6-8pm

 

December 15, 2013 4pm

Klezmer music, Yiddish songs, & general revelry at Porto Franco Art Parlor with: Ben Goldberg – clarinet, David Chernyavsky – violin,   Rob Reich – accordion, Daniel Fabricant – bass.

This is a very small gallery space, so reservations are recommended. Email sergei@portofrancoart.com

953 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110
2nd floor, no elevator
4-6 pm
Doors at 3:30pm

 

February 2, 2014

I’ll be part of a “Live Yiddish Radio Show”  at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco. We’ll premiere a live radio serial, with klezmer music, jokes, & songs, in English & Yiddish (with English supertitles). Performers include me, Sheldon Brown, Gravity Goldberg, Aaron Kierbel, Rob Reich,  Anthony Russell, Richard Saunders, & Harvey Varga. I have been listening to tons of old radio programs on the Internet Archive & we are writing our own radio play as well as creating our own sound effects!

Note: This is an all-ages show for people who can read supertitles about medical marijuana, Yiddish whorehouses in Buenos Aires, & Accordionists Against the Death Penalty.

 

 

April 21, 2013 2pm

Klezmer Brunch will feature Michael Alpert this month! at Porto Franco Art Parlor with: Ben Goldberg – clarinet, David Chernyavsky – violin,   Rob Reich – accordion, Daniel Fabricant – bass. I’ll sing a few songs too — a couple of favorites from the Yiddish whorehouse,  & maybe some duets with Michael Alpert. He has an vast repertoire, so be prepared for some surprises.

953 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110
2nd floor, no elevator
2-4 pm
Doors at 1:30pm
Donations: $20+, all go to musicians
Food and drinks provided

May 9, 2013 7pm

at the Jewish Community Library.

“Ruth Rubin’s Reel-to-Reel Mashinke” will be a musical journey among 130 reel-to-reel tapes of Yiddish songs, rhymes, jokes, prayers & pushcart cries recorded by folklorist Ruth Rubin. Starting in 1947, she shlepped her state-of-the-art tape recorder to parties, libraries, old folks’ homes, summer camps & kitchens to capture the memories of the Eastern European immigrants who grew up in a Yiddish Europe. I spent last summer at YIVO NY helping to digitize the tapes, which meant listening in real time to some 836 Yiddish songs. Some have been released in books & records, some are well-known, some you’ve probably never heard before in your life. I’ll sing you as many as I can, sometimes with the accordion & sometimes without, & show you where to find more in the libraries & archives.

Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis St., San Francisco
FREE

April 28, 2013 6pm

Dance Party at Tannourine Lebanese Restaurant

With Sheldon Brown & Richard Saunders from the San Francisco Klezmer Experience (aka the Klez-X). Dancing led by Bruce Bierman. Bruce’s klezmer dancing combines the silly & the sublime & we will play klezmer tunes & Yiddish songs to fit. Bruce & his dance partner Gilberto have been working up a Yiddish tango & we encourage other  mavens & beginners to fill the dance floor.

Very good Lebanese food with great vegetarian/vegan alternatives. This is a small space, reservations recommended. Sponsored by KlezCalifornia.
120 West 25th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403
(650) 638-1960

February 17, 2013 6pm

Dance Party at Tannourine Lebanese Restaurant

With Ben Goldberg & Stu Brotman in a band we’re called The Mavens. Dancing led by Penina Ballen. Very good Lebanese food with great vegetarian/vegan alternatives. A small space, reservations recommended. Sponsored by KlezCalifornia.
120 West 25th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403
(650) 638-1960

February 24, 2013 2pm

Klezmer Brunch with the Porto Franco Klezmer All-Star Band: Ben Goldberg, Rob Reich, David Chernyafsky, Daniel Fabricant, Darren Johnston. Once again I get to sing with this great band. Brunch will be home-cooked vegan Russian food.
953 Valencia St (between 20th/21st), San Francisco
http://www.portofrancoart.com/klezmer-brunch

Winter 2012

Klezmer Brunch at Porto Franco Dec 23 2-4pm

A new klezmer brunch band! Ben Goldberg rarely plays klezmer clarinet & Anthony Russell is a new Yiddish singer in the Bay Area. I’ll sit in for a couple of songs. Brunch is vegan as ever.
David Chernyavsky – violin
Ben Goldberg – clarinet
Darren Johnston – trumpet
Rob Reich – accordion
Daniel Fabricant – bass
Anthony Russel, vocals
Jeanette Lewicki – vocals

953 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110
2nd floor, no elevator
2-4 pm, December 23.
Doors at 1:30pm
Door: $20
Vegan food and drinks provided

If you choose to come for free, please contact me: madamlewicki[at]yahoo[dot]com

Save the Date! the gonifs CD release party featuring Veretski Pass Jan 17 at the Starry Plough, Berkeley

Getting excited about this one. Check back here for more info & free downloads from the CD!

Hannuka Chanuka Khanike 2012

Saturday, Dec 1 2pm Klezmer music with Mike Perlmutter
We’ll be playing a short set to introduce the children’s dance recital of the Nutcracker Suite at Kathryn Roszak’s Dance On Center. Mostly klezmer, a little Greek, & our original interpretation of Tchaikowsky’s “Russian Dance.” Adults $8, Children free. At the Arpeggio Center, 2055 Center St. (near Shattuck), Berkeley.

Saturday, December 8, 2pm Klezmer music with Mike Perlmutter.
Klezmer in the latke tent at Saul’s Deli, 1475 Shattuck Ave (at Vine) Berkeley. Music is free! (but they’ll charge you for latkes.)

gonifs CD release party!

Jan 17, 2013 at the Starry Plough, Berkeley, with Veretski Pass. Our clarinetist, Peter Jaques, leaves for his Fulbright study in Greece next month, so come help us send him off with a great party. More details soon.

Summer 2012

The next $5 Klezmer Workshop will be Sunday, June 24, 1-3pm in North Oakland. We’ll focus on learning tunes by ear, & getting a groove when playing in a klezmer group. To sign up, contact me by phone or email: (415)672-7858 or madamlewicki at yahoo dot com.

Spring 2012

The gonifs CD is done! Listen here:

Teahouse Sher

more at:

http://www.portofrancorecords.com/albums-and-store/the-gonifs/

I’m teaching three workshops at KlezCalifornia’s Festival of Yiddish Culture: “Get Ready for Klezmer Dance Band” (modes, rhythms, & dance forms); “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” (songs from the Yiddish underworld); & “Russian Yiddish Folksongs from A to B” (the An-Ski & Beregovsky song collections). For more info:

http://www.klezcalifornia.org/events/2012-sf

2011

Klezmer Brunch with the gonifs at Porto Franco Records in San Francisco will take a break for the summer so we can work on the gonifs CD. Meanwhile we’re still eager to join your celebrations: weddings, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, parties, garage sales, memorials, free theatres, anything fun that you think might be enhanced by rocking klezmer music & wild Yiddish songs.

Sunday, February 27
12-2pm
Klezmer Brunch with the gonifs: Peter Jaques (clarinet), Daniel Fabricant (bass), Darren Johnston (trumpet). Porto Franco Art Parlor, 953 Valencia (near 21st), San Francisco
Sliding Scale: zero to infinity. Reservations recommended for this intimate space with home-cooked food. We’ll be playing our favorite tunes & songs about love, death, jail & potatoes.http://portofrancoart.com

Spring 2010

Sunday, May 9
12-3pm Palo Alto Jewish Culture Center: Russian-American Fair (WWII Victory Day + Mother’s Day): PA JCC Campus Town Square Free! Three hours of dance and music! I’ll be doing a set of klezmer music & Yiddish song with Peter Jaques (clarinet) & Daniel Fabrikant (bass). The bill includes Gaucho Gypsy Jazz, Nice Guy Trio, Balkan jams, Mark Growden’s solo performance. Free admission, all ages. http://www.paloaltojcc.org/index.php?src=events&srctype=detail&refno=169454&category=Special%20Events&submenu=Special_Events

Saturday, April 24
8PM
With Adrienne Cooper, Stu Brotman, & Sharon Bernstein in concert, sponsored by the International Association of Yiddish Clubs. At the Westin Hotel near San Francisco Airport, 1 Old Bayshore Rd. (Or there’s a free hotel shuttle from the airport.)
We will be singing songs about resistance, revolution, & potatoes. The first half of the program will be cantors Judy & Herschel Fox.

Thursday, May 20
At the new Freight & Salvage coffeehouse, with Sheldon Brown, Richard Saunders, Stephen Saxon. We’re sharing the bill with Kugelplex (featuring Jewlia Eisenberg) & the Red Hot Chachkes.

Winter 2009

Sunday & Monday, Dec. 6 & 7, 11am, Davies Symphony Hall:
A Holiday Special with the San Francisco Symphony
Celebrating the Winter Solstice, Chanuka, Divali, Christmas, & anything else you can think of! I’ll be representing with Sheldon Brown & Stephen Saxon of the Klez-X. Stephen has arranged some klezmer music for the symphony, including xylophone & kettledrum, so this should be pretty amusing.

Spring 2009

Thursday, May 7, 7:30 P.M. — FREE
The An-Ski Collection
A Musical Expedition
We will take a tour through the (mostly) Bessarabian songs collected by S. An-Ski (author of The Dybbuk) starting in 1908, when he travelled with an Edison phonograph in a horse-drawn wagon from shtetl to shtetl, persuading people to sing their Yiddish songs into the phonograh horn to record onto a wax cylinder. This program, like last year’s Yiddish Tango program at the library, will be accompanied by the zine Yiddish Song Illustrated.

Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco
(free parking in the building on Pierce between Ellis and Eddy)

Winter 2008

Friday, Dec 19, 12 noon, Zellerbach Auditorium
Saturday, Dec 20, 8pm, Zellerbach Auditorium
The Gonifs! Stu Brotman, Peter Jaques, Aaron Kierbel, Aaron Novik, Jeanette Lewicki
Figs and Pomegranates Festival With Teslim and Kitka!
http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2008/world_stage/pf.php
Amazing Turkish music & the astounding women’s voices of Kitka in a children’s show on Friday & an adult show on Saturday night. The gonifs are everybody’s favorite klezmer band, including mine. We hardly ever get to play together, because everybody’s in four or five different music projects. So you should really come to this one. There are a few comps for volunteers, just contact Jeanette.

Winter 2007

Thursday, December 13, 7:30 P.M. — FREE
Yiddish Tango: Songs My Grandma Never Taught Me
A Performance with Interjections (Possibly Educational)

Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco
(free parking in the building on Pierce between Ellis and Eddy)

This will be a kickass program of Yiddish tangos collected from YIVO Buenos Aires, from the Kulturkongres in New York City, from old ladies in their kitchens, & from tattered broadsides warning nice shtetl girls not to go to Argentina. (Not to mention the Jewish Library, where I first heard some of these songs in the old listening booth.) There will be lots of underworld songs about gangsters, whores & chocolate, & incredible photos by Rafi Goldchain, who dressed himself up as all his ancestors, male & female.

Co-sponsored by KlezCalifornia, Inc.
FREE FREE FREE, so show up early to get a good seat.

Summer 2007

Sunday, July 21: Berkeley/Richmond JCC

8pm, in the JCC auditorium, 1414 Walnut St. at Rose in Berkeley. I’ll be playing & singing with members of the Klez-X (Sheldon Brown on Bb clarinet, Richard Saunders on bass) & the lovely & talented Aaron Kierbel of the gonifs on drums. We’re first on a double bill with the Klezmer Playboys, founded by Glen Hartman of the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars. Admission is $10 members, $12 at the door; contact me if you need to slide down the scale.

This may be my last concert of the summer. If you really need to get your Yiddish on, come by the Prisoners’ Literature Project on a Tuesday night (2022 Blake at Shattuck in Berkeley) & I’ll sing you a Yiddish song while we send packages of free books to prisoners. 7:30-10pm. FREE!

Sunday, July 8: Stanford Jazz Festival, “Klezmer Meets Jazz.”

2:30pm in the Stanford Jazz Workshop hall, with everybody’s favorite Lesbian Jewish Juggler, Sara Felder, as MC; plus the Left Turn No Signal jazz band. This is a family show, so it’s only $5! Our klezmer band will be the usual gonifs: Peter Jaques (Bb clarinet), Aaron Novik (bass clarinet), Daniel Fabrikant (bass), Alan Hall (percussion). And me! Songs about love, revolution & potatoes.

Spring 2007

Sunday, May 27: Klezmer Brunch at Mama Toby’s Revolution Cafe

Peter Jaques (Bb clarinet), Aaron Novik (Bb, bass clarinet), Aaron Kierbel (drums), Richard Saunders (bass), Jeanette Lewicki (accordion, vocals). The full five-piece band.

Meanwhile, Jeanette’s OTHER klezmer band, the San Francisco Klezmer Experience, in in town. For more info:
http://www.klezx.com

Saturday: May 19 at the Makeout Room

8pm
Mission Creek Music Festival presents rocking klezmer music, soulful Yiddish song & “gypsy folk” with:
the gonifs (8pm)
& Karpov (9pm)
at the Makeout Room, 22nd St between Mission & Valencia. $6 gets you a chance to dance, make out, shmooze & kvell as the gonifs play some cool new material. When I first moved back from Brooklyn, the Makeout Room bartender girl told me, “It’s a klezmer explosion in the Mission!” And it is!

Sunday, May 20: Klezmer Brunch at Mama Toby’s Revolution Cafe

The Makeout Room (see above) is right across the street from Cafe Revolution, where Jeanette will play klezmer brunch on Sunday (12-3) with any musicians still left standing. This might end up as kind of a solo show actually, expanding the definition of “klezmer brunch” to include Edith Piaf, Woody Guthrie, Rosa Eskenazi & beer.

Sunday, April 15: Klezmer Brunch at Mama Toby’s Revolution Cafe

12 Noon til 3pm
3248 22nd St @ Bartlett
FREE! Donation strongly encouraged. Rocking klezmer & Yiddish songs about sex, jail & potatoes. Full band this week: Aaron Kierbel (drums), Peter Jaques on Bb clarinet, Richard Saunders of the Klez-X (bass), Aaron Novik (bass clarinet) & Jeanette Lewicki on accordion. Please note we are starting & ending EARLY (brunch in the Mission starts at noon).

http://www.myspace.com/revcafe2006

Sunday, March 4:

Purim Party!
A Traveling Jewish Theatre at the Club Verdi, Mariposa at 17th St., SF

Music by Peter Jaques (clarinet) & Dan Cantrell (accordion) with special guests Michael Alpert & Kitka! I begged my way in by promising to lead some Yiddish dances — which is silly since Michael Alpert is not only a world-renowned Yiddish singer/instrumentalist but one of the most beautiful dancers you will ever see. But, hey, it’s Purim! Everything’s supposed to be upside down, inside out & backwards! At least I’ll be in disguise, surrounded by beautiful boys in drag.
http://www.atjt.com

And if you can’t afford, that, come to the after-party:

Sunday, March 4: Klezmer Brunch at Mama Toby’s Revolution Cafe

12 noon-3pm
3248 22nd St @ Bartlett
FREE!
Yes, the Revolution will be klezmerized. With Aaron Kierbel (drums), Daniel Fabrikant (bass), Aaron Novik (clarinet), & Madam Lewicki on accordion & Yiddish vocals. Come show off your Purim drag!. http:www.myspace.com/revcafe2006

Thursday, March 8: at AMNESIA

9pm 853 Valencia St. (between 19th & 20th)
San Francisco
$7 Jimbo Trout’s solo CD release party! With an amazing lineup of solo acts: Tochio Hirano (singing Jimmie Rodgers), Scott Young, Kelly Stoltz, Jimbo, & me! I may sing some of my original songs in public for the first time ever. I’ve asked to go on early, so we can all have fun afterwards.

Saturday Feb 3 :

THE GONIFS with BRASS MENAZERI & live DJs spinning BALKAN BRASS GYPSY (Roma) tunes
at Kafana Balkana. This is a benefit for free circus shows for refugee children in Kosovo, teaching circus arts to kids & incorporating them into the shows.

at ART SF: 110 Capp St., 5th floor, San Francisco

Saturday, Feb. 3 8pm
with DJs Zarko & Zeljko
8pm-1am
$8-$15 sliding scale

Happy new year, everybody! I’m currently in San Francisco, playing klezmer again, teaching all those groovy Brooklyn tunes to the local klezmer EXPLOSION.
Exactly at midnight on New Year’s Eve I was lost in Petaluma with my favorite drummer, asking for directions from a total stranger who turned out to have a saxophone in one hand & a firecracker in the other. Bang! Squonk! Just keep right on straight ahead!

Fall 2006

Every Tuesday at Moto
with Jacob Shulman-Ment (fiddle) , Michael Winograd (clarinet) & guests
Tuesdays 9:30pm-12am

A new generation of Yiddish music in a wonderful cafe bar on the Williamsburg border. Take the J/M to Hewes Street & look for half a bicycle hanging over the doorway on Broadway at Hooper. 9:30 til about midnight. FREE.
http://www.cafe-moto.com

MAX & MINKA
A benefit for Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
Thursday November 16th
6pm reception, 7pm program
$125
As you may have heard, the 10th Annual Marshall Meyer Risk-Taker Awards are approaching. This year, JFREJ is honoring risk-takers Tony Kushner, Grace Paley and Transport Workers Local Union 100. Max & Minka will be entertaining at the gala reception.

Brotherhood Synagogue, 28 Gramercy Park South, on 20th Street between 3rd Avenue and Irving Square (the 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R to Union Square) http://www.jfrej.org/marshallmeyers.html

Yiddish Kulturkongres Benefit
Monday, Nov. 20
Lucille Lortell Theatre 7pm
$36

Jeanette Lewicki (accordion), Jake Shulman-Ment (fiddle) & Jeff Perlman (clarinet) will play as part of a program honouring stars of the Yiddish theatre, many of whom will be performing. The Lortell is a beautiful vintage theatre where Lotte Lenja performed in the Threepenny Opera. 121 Christopher Street (between Bleeker & Hudson). Reservations recommended: http://www.ticketcentral.com

LABOR LUNCH at YIVO
Sunday, Nov. 19
1pm
FREE!

Gala luncheon in honour of the Jewish Labor Bund (the people who helped bring you the eight-hour work day, the lunch break, & the weekend). Pearl Teitelbaum will be singing Yiddish labour songs & I will accompany her. Admission is FREE. RSVP to Miriam Dolin (212-294-6140 or mdolin@yivo.cjh.org by Nov. 6.

Angels & Accordions:
Green-Wood Cemetery Walking Tour with Guy Klucevsek
Saturday, Oct. 7 (rain date: Oct. 8)
12 noon & 3:30pm
FREE!

A multi-accordion dance installation in the Gothic setting of Brooklyn’s most beautiful graveyard. Once a year, the living are allowed to tour the crypts, visit rarely-opened tombs, & experience a site-specific piece by dance/theater/etcetera. The walking tour lasts about two hours & is part of Open House New York. This year there will be solo & ensemble performances by accordionist/composer Guy Klucevsek. Other accordionists include composer Bob Goldberg, Jeanette Lewicki, Carolyn Ryder Cooley, & Matthew Fass.

“Klucevsek is a trailblazing virtuoso. ” –The Wall Street Journal

“A rebel with an accordion…Klucevsek combines poker-faced wit and imagination with command of his instrument, forcing you to re-think the accordion’s limitations. ” –Downbeat

“Klucevsek is a musical Orient Express whose themes pass from Hungarian gypsy to Slovenian waltz to Middle Eastern wail without stopping at the borders. ” Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

FREE!

The Green-Wood Cemetery, main gate, 25th Street & Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn (closest train: R to 25th Street @ 4th Avenue) Reservations: 718.788.7850 or

http://www.ohny.org
http://www.guyklucevsek.com
http://www.dancetheatreetcetera.org

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird at Barbes
Saturday, Oct. 7, 8pm
Daniel Kahn is doing some of the best new Yiddish music around, & I’m thrilled to be included in this rare concert with his band The Painted Bird. We will be joined by another wonderful modern Yiddish composer, Michael Winograd (clarinet), as well as Dan Blacksberg (trombone), Nick Cudahy (bass), Brandon Seabrook (mandolin), & Richie Barshay on the drums.
Daniel & I spent a month this summer working with Alan Bern in Weimar, & after that a week with Winograd at Klezkanada, & I can tell you: these guys are wildly talented, with the stress on wild. This should be a very fun night, especially after the graveyard (see above).
http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com
http://www.danielkahn.com