Klezmer Ensemble Class in NYC

[Warschauer <Warschauer...>]

 For everyone in the NYC area, I will be teaching an ongoing Klezmer Ensemble
Class in Manhattan, sponsored by the Workmen's Circle.  The press release is
attached below.  Please feel free to contact me or Ori Weisberg if you have
questions.  Hope to see you there!  
Jeff Warschauer  
--------------------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact:  Ori Weisberg
212-889-6800 ext. 220

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED MUSICIAN TO LEAD WORKSHOPS IN KLEZMER MUSIC

 NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 1998 - The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring is pleased
to announce a new program initiative: Klezmer Workshops with Jeff
Warschauer.  The program will offer a forum for the exploration of a
vibrant facet of Jewish culture and a dynamic form of music.

 The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring has been an important proponent of
the Yiddish Language and Eastern European Jewish culture for nearly a
century.  For the past thirty years, the organization has sponsored
Summer Festivals of Yiddish Music.  These festivals have played an
important role in preserving and promoting klezmer music in the New York
area.  Over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest
in this genre.  Now, local musicians will have the opportunity to
explore this music in an organized setting with an experienced performer
and scholar. (See biographical information attached)

 "This is a unique and unprecedented opportunity for musicians of all
ages and backgrounds," said Zalmen Mlotek, an international authority
and conductor of Yiddish music who serves as Musical Director of the
summer festivals and of the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre.  "With all of
the interest generated by the klezmer revival over the past twenty
years, this is the first time, to my knowledge, that there will be an
organized klezmer course offered in New York City.  Jeff Warschauer's
knowledge of the music and his background as a performer, as well as his
experience and reputation as an instructor, make him an invaluable
resource to musicians who have an interest in klezmer and Yiddish
music."
 
 Klezmer music originated in Eastern Europe where Jewish musicians
performed at events such as weddings.  Through the years, klezmer
musicians have drawn musical ideas both from within the Jewish community
and from the cultures around them.  

 The workshops, organized in two six-week sessions, are open to players
of any musical instrument who have at least an intermediate level of
ability playing and reading music.  Participants will work in an
ensemble to acquire familiarity with the forms and melodies of the broad
klezmer repertoire.  

The winter session will begin Monday, January 4 and will run weekly
through February 8.  The spring session will begin Monday, March 8 and
run weekly through April 12.  Both sessions may be taken consecutively. 
All classes will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Workmen's
Circle/Arbeter Ring building located at 45 East 33rd Street (between
Park and Madison) in Manhattan.  Prices per session are $150 for
Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring members or $180 for Non-members.

 For registration and information call (212) 889-6800 ext. 220. 


JEFF WARSCHAUER: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Jeff Warschauer is known internationally as one of the foremost
exponents of the klezmer mandolin, as an innovator in the development of
an authentic klezmer guitar style, and as an expressive Yiddish singer. 
He has played and taught throughout North America, Eastern and Western
Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  He is a member of the Klezmer
Conservatory Band and plays in a duo with violinist Deborah Strauss. 
Jeff has performed with the Bolshoi Ballet, and has been composer, music
director and featured instrumentalist for numerous theatrical
productions, recordings and film soundtracks.  He appears with Itzhak
Perlman in both the Emmy award winning film documentary and the CD
entitled In the Fiddler's House.  Jeff's solo CD, The Singing Waltz:
Klezmer Guitar and Mandolin, has received widespread critical acclaim. 
A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Jeff has taught for
ten years at the KlezKamp Yiddish Folk Arts Program.  In 1995, Jeff
lectured on the history of klezmer music at the Oxford Institute for
Yiddish Studies in England.