"A CONCERT IN YIDDISH AND ENGLISH" Toronto 11/19/00

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

MYRNA LEVINE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS


A CONCERT IN YIDDISH AND ENGLISH


(Part Of Toronto's celebration of 1000th Year Of Yiddish)


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2000 8 P.M.


GEORGE WESTON RECITAL HALL
(formerly known as Ford Centre For The Performing Arts)
5040 Yonge Street
Toronto, Canada

Presenting

The Toronto debut of

CROSSING THE SHADOWS
(ARIBER DI SHOTNS)

A CONCERT OF NEW YIDDISH SONGS

Words and music by JOSHUA WALETZKY

Featuring

Joshua Waletzky

With Deborah Strauss
And Jeff Warschauer


AND


Dora Award-winner

THERESA TOVA

Featuring her new Jazzy CD,

TELLING STORIES

With Daniel Barnes,
Mark Eisenman, Artie Roth,
Martin van de Ven, Steve Greenman,
Perry White, and Guest Vocalist David Wall



ABOUT THE FIRST PROGRAM


CROSSING THE SHADOWS (ARIBER DI SHOTNS) marks a new milestone in the
current revitalization of klezmer/Yiddish music.  It is the first
program of all original Yiddish songs and melodies written and
performed by American-born artists in over 25 years. The magnificent
music reflects the composer's thorough grounding in the musical
language of Yiddish, achieving a seamless fusion of old forms with new
content.  With this song cycle, Joshua Waletzky continues to renew
the tradition in which he grew up and has made lifelong contributions
as composer, performer, teacher -- and filmmaker.
Josh is joined by colleagues Jeff Warschauer and Deborah Strauss in a
contemporary performance style that brings together Yiddish song and
instrumental traditions.  The texts spring from both deeply personal
and communal concerns, ranging from love songs and lullaby to mixed
feelings over the re-emergence of Jewish music in Europe and anguish
over the peace prospects in Israel.  The moods are celebrative,
contemplative, timely, timeless.



Artist Biographies:

Josh Waletzky (composer, lead voice, piano) brings a unique, lifelong
experience as a singer, teacher and composer of Jewish music.  He is a
Yiddish vocal stylist, who grew up performing and accompanying in the
secular Yiddishist traditions of song -- folk, theater, art, and choral.
He has taught Yiddish songs in many settings for over thirty years,
working with children and adults, amateurs and professionals, including
many singers who were first discovering Yiddish music in the 1970's and
'80s.  Learning Yiddish melodies first from his father, Sholom, he
studied piano, theory and composition as a high school student at the
Juilliard Preparatory Division.  Several of his compositions were first
recorded on "Vaserl", a record of new Yiddish songs in the 1977.  They
have also been performed and recorded by many others, including Chava
Alberstein, through the years all over the world.  He sang with the
Yugntruf Ensemble, co-composing a Yiddish operetta with Zalmen Mlotek.
A highly acclaimed Harvard- and NYU Film School-educated documentary
film director, his films reflect his love of Yiddish life and music.
He composed original scores for his several films, including his
Yiddish-language thesis film, "Dos mazl".  His now-classic film on
pre-war Jewish Poland, "Image Before my Eyes", makes extensive and
groundbreaking use of field recordings of klezmer and vocal music.
Mr. Waletzky's film on Jewish resistance, "Partisans of Vilna", also
makes critical use of Yiddish music.  He was artistic director,
co-producer, an arranger and vocalist-pianist on the CD of the same
name, which became the first Yiddish record to receive a Grammy
nomination (1991).   Josh was an original member of the pioneering
klezmer revival band "Kapelye", and can be heard on their first
recording, "Future and Past" (vocals, piano).  He was inspired by
his work on the Emmy award-winning PBS film "Itzhak Perlman: In The
Fiddler's House" (1995) to return to Yiddish composing.   Crossing
The Shadows will be available on CD in January.

Deborah Strauss (violin) is considered one of the finest
practitioners of traditional Jewish violin style today.  She is a
member of the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble and performs with Kurt
Bjorling as a violin/tsimbl duo.  In addition, Ms. Strauss has worked
with Brave Old World, Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper, and with the
Klezmer Conservatory Band.  In 1994 and 1995, she appeared as a
soloist at the Festival of Jewish Culture in Cracow, Poland, and in
1996 performed and led workshops at the Amsterdam International
Yiddish Festival.  Ms. Strauss is featured in the Emmy award-winning
film, "Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler's House" and appears on
Kapelye's latest CD, On the Air: Old-Time Jewish American Radio.
She teaches privately and at many Yiddish culture workshops,
including KlezKamp, Buffalo on the Roof and KlezKanada.  Ms. Strauss
holds a B.M. in violin performance from Rutgers University, and
studied ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago.

Jeff Warschauer (guitar, mandolin) is one of the world's foremost
exponents of the klezmer mandolin, an innovator in developing an
authentic klezmer guitar style, and an expressive Yiddish singer.  He
has played and taught throughout the United States, Western Europe,
Poland, the Czech Republic, the former Soviet Union, Australia and New
Zealand.  A member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, he also joins
Dutch Yiddish singer Shura Lipovsky, and New York pianist Zalmen Mlotek
as a duo or trio.  He has also performed with the Bolshoi Ballet, and
been composer, music director and/or featured instrumentalist for
numerous theatrical productions, recordings and film tracks.  His group,
the Jeff Warschauer Klezmer Ensemble, has performed in the U.S. and at
European festivals. He appears, both on-stage and in the pit, with the
musical Shlemiel the First, and in both the film and the CD Itzhak
Perlman: In the Fiddler's House.  In 1986 he won the Amalgamated Bank
Prize for Yiddish Studies at Oxford University's Summer Programme, and
in 1995 returned to lecture on the history of klezmer music at the
Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies.  His klezmer mandolin and solo
guitar work won him a 1990 Massachusetts Artist Fellowship.  Mr.
Warschauer's solo CD, The Singing Waltz: Klezmer Guitar and Mandolin,
has received widespread critical acclaim.


ABOUT THE SECOND PROGRAM:

Theresa Tova
Award winning actor, singer, writer and producer, Ms. Tova has enjoyed
a successful and varied career.... and as the Toronto Star  proclaimed
"Theresa Tova  is an artist Canadians should celebrate."
Internationally, Ms. Tova is perhaps best known for her
Gemini-nominated role as the griping news editor, Marge on the award
winning television series ENG. On stage, Ms. Tova has been nominated as
best supporting actress in The Diary of Anne Frank and best actress for
the award-winning musical Still the Night, which she  also wrote,
co-produced and starred in.  Still the Night enjoyed a highly
successful eight-city Canadian tour.  Winner of four Dora Awards
including best new play, best production and best music,  Ms. Tova's
Still the Night was also honoured with a nomination for the
prestigious 1999 Governor General's Award for excellence in literature.
Last year, Ms. Tova performed for the President of the United State
when she starred as Emma Goldman in the national American tour of the
Broadway musical Ragtime, and this season is starring in both Fiddler
on the Roof and Patience in the 2000 Stratford Festival season. And
if that isn't enough, this torchy Yiddish diva has also made her mark
packing houses in Washington D.C., Montreal, Windsor and Toronto with
her sold-out concerts entitled from Belz to Broadway. Ms. Tova is
pleased to announce the release of her Yiddish  jazz CD entitled
Telling Stories.


Theresa Tova's Band ( do these guys cook?) You betcha!

Daniel Barnes
Drummer DANIEL BARNES appears on jazz pianist Joe Sealey's CD The
Africville Suite, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band's CD, Tzircus, Theresa
Tova's release Telling Stories, Ethiopian singing Star Aster Aweke's
Live in London CD, plus a host of other recordings in many styles.
Barnes is also heard on several motion picture soundtracks and has toured 
internationally with Aster Aweke and Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnet.

Mark Eisenman
Pianist MARK EISENMAN, winner of Jazz Report's 1999 Pianist of the Year,
has played with the likes of Rob McConnell, Guido Basso, Art Farmer,
Barney Kessel, and Nat Adderley, and toured extensively with various
groups. He has recorded and performed with such diverse vocalists as
Carol Welsman and Shirley Eikhard, and made his debut recording as a
leader with The Chant. Besides private teaching, he conducts jazz
workshops at York University, and teaches at The Jazz Camp and
Hamilton's Mohawk College.

Artie Roth
Bassist ARTIE ROTH has appeared on over a dozen CD recordings and on
numerous national and international tours. As well as performing with
Theresa Tova since 1995, his tenure with The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band
(1994-97) and klezmer/jazz guitarist Brian Katz (1997-present) have
closely acquainted him with Jewish music. He also appears on Ms. Tova's
CD, Telling Stories.

Martin van de Ven
Clarinetist MARTIN VAN DE VEN has recorded and toured with The Flying
Bulgar Klezmer Band, the Alten Yildiz Orkerstar and others. He
currently performs with guitarist Brian Katz, Chutzpah! klezmer band
and Ring Cycle modern jazz orchestra. He performs and teaches klezmer
workshops in The Netherlands and Switzerland.

Steve Greenman
STEVEN GREENMAN is one of the few practitioners of traditional East
European Jewish klezmer violin. He co-founded the Kevrisa ensemble,
dedicated to preserving and reconstructing Eastern European klezmer
music. With the ensemble Harmonia, which he also co-founded, he
performs Hungarian Nota, Romanian Gypsy and Slovak music. He has
performed internationally with the likes of Budowitz, the Klezmatics,
the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, and Kapelye; taught klezmer violin at
Living Tradition's KlezKamp and KlezKanada, and has appeared regularly
at Ashkenaz! As a classical violinist, he has performed his own
arrangements of East European Gypsy violin music with the Cleveland
Pops Orchestra; and has been a member of various symphony orchestras.
Greenman co-produced Khevrisa-European Klezmer Music (Smithsonian
Folkways label), and appears on recordings with Budowitz, the Flying
Bulgar Klezmer Band and Alicia Svigals.

Perry White
Perry White started playing in his hometown of Vancouver with Hugh
Fraser's Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation. Since moving to
Toronto in 1982, he has appeared with such greats as Rob McConnell
and the Boss Brass, Dave Young, Freddie Stone, Holly Cole, Dave
McMurdo Jazz Orchestra, Victor Bateman, Al Henderson Quintet, Shuffle
Demons, and John Alcorn. Although he plays mainly tenor saxophone, he
was recently named Jazz Report Magazine's Baritone Saxophonist of the
Year for the fourth time.

David Wall
Singer DAVID WALL has performed and toured as lead singer with the
Bourbon Tabernacle Choir; and performed and recorded with Big Sugar,
The Barenaked Ladies, Lorraine Segato and Ken Whiteley. Venturing into
Jewish, he has toured as lead singer of the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band
and Winnipeg's Both Ends of the Earth, and written Yiddish songs, some
for his work with jazz pianist Marilyn Lerner. Winner of this year's
Toronto Arts Council Protege Award for composition, he has scored and
written music for films, and penned the 1998 No. 1 Canadian
rock/alternative song The Scene for Big Sugar.



TICKETS: $40, $33, $25
AT TICKETMASTER (416) 870-8000
GROUP RATES AVAILABLE

To contact Myrna Levine, please email her at: levine (at) istar(dot)ca



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