4/1 NYC Nashi Traditsii 2001 - save the date!

[Carol Freeman <tsipra...>]

 Center for Traditional Music and Dance
in collaboration with the Nashi Traditsii Organizing Committee presents

NASHI TRADITSII ?Our Traditions?
Music for the Jewish Wedding
celebrating old-world klezmer musician German Goldenshteyn

SUNDAY APRIL 1, 2001
Workshops 12:30 - 3:30
Concerts and Dance Party 4:00
Shorefront YM-YWHA, 3300 Coney Island Ave., Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

On Sunday, April 1, 2001 beginning at 4:00pm, the Center for Traditional
Music and Dance, in collaboration with the Nashi Traditsii Organizing
Committee, presents Nashi Traditsii, a celebration of Music for the
Jewish wedding, honoring traditional klezmer musician German
Goldenshteyn. The event will take place at the Shorefront YM-YWHA, 3300
Coney Island Avenue, in the heart of Brooklyn?s Brighton Beach Russian
Jewish community. The program begins at 12:30 with three FREE workshops
on different aspects of the Jewish Wedding: the Traditional Jewish
Wedding Banquet at 12:30, Klezmer Music and Dance at 1:30, and Wedding
Vocal Traditions at 2:30. At 4:00 there will be a gala performance and
dance party. Designed to recapture the spirit of an old world Jewish
wedding, this festivity will spotlight Di Molever Kompanye, a
traditional klezmer ensemble featuring Mr. Goldenshteyn. Ensemble Tereza
and Ensemble Shashmaqam will also perform wedding music and dance of the
Mountain Jewish (Caucasian) and Bukharan (Central Asian) Jewish
communities. All performers will play music for audience participatory
dancing, and delicious kosher food will be on sale. Tickets to the
concert are $10 ($5 Seniors & Students) and may be purchased by calling
(212) 528-1201 (English) or (718) 646-1444 (Russian), or at the
Shorefront YM-YWHA, Monday - Friday 9am - 9pm, Sunday 9am - 5pm.


PRESS CONTACT:  Carol Freeman
tsipra (at) earthlink(dot)net
_________________________________________________________________

Background

In recent years audiences around the world have rediscovered and
enthusiastically embraced the spirited music of the East European Jewish
wedding/klezmer musician. While in the United States  klezmer revival
musicians working with a forgotten musical form were forced to search
through archival recordings in order to form their repertoires, in parts
of the former Soviet Union, most notably, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova,
the age-old tradition of the klezmer instrumentalist continued to
thrive.

German Goldenshteyn

Master klezmer clarinetist German Goldenshteyn emigrated to New York
from Mogilev Podolskii, Ukraine, in 1994. Prior to his departure for the
United States, he worked playing Jewish and non-Jewish weddings on both
sides of the Moldova-Ukraine border, as he had done for most of his
adult life. Mr. Goldenshteyn is exceptional not only for his
understanding of the tradition, but also for his extraordinary
repertoire, which includes rare pre-war Jewish melodies from Ukraine and
Moldova, as well as variants of the better known dance tunes recorded on
78 RPM disks in the early years of the twentieth century. Mr.
Goldenshteyn?s voluminous repertoire of over 700 melodies is
meticulously documented in a hand compiled notebook, soon to be
published by the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, that he carried
with him from his native land.

Other Performers

Di Molever Kompanye (The Klezmer Band from Mogilev), featuring German
Goldenshteyn, is a unique ensemble of European and American born
musicians who have come together to perform Old World Jewish wedding
(klezmer) music of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border region, as conveyed by
Mr. Goldenshteyn. The Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the
Nashi Traditsii Organizing Committee are honored to have special guest
artist, accordionist Aleksandr Keller, performing with this ensemble on
this special occasion. Mr. Keller, who emigrated from Mogilev Podolskii
to the United States in 1999, is now based in Columbus, Ohio. He was a
member of the same wedding ensemble as Mr. Goldenshteyn from the 1950?s
through the 1980?s, with both musicians playing at Jewish, Moldovan, and
Ukrainian celebrations throughout the region. This performance at Nashi
Traditsii 2001 marks their first musical reunion on American soil. Di
Molever Kompanye also includes a third member of the Mogilev Podolskii
wedding ensemble, accordionist and singer Hersh Rikelman. Born in Otaci
(Otek in Yiddish), the same town as Mr. Goldenshteyn, he too is now a
Brooklyn resident. Mr. Rikelman has an extensive repertoire of Yiddish,
Moldovan, Ukrainian, and Russian traditional and popular songs.
Completing the ensemble are a number of prominent performers from the
contemporary American klezmer music community.

Wedding musical traditions of the Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan and
Dagestan, with their infectious rhythm and soulful improvisation, will
be performed by Ensemble Tereza, whose singer, Tereza Elizarova, and
other members of the ensemble, represent the fourth and fifth
generations of a renowned family of wedding musicians from the Mountain
Jewish community.

Costumed in robes of vividly colored velvet and silk, the virtuoso
performers of the acclaimed Ensemble Shashmaqam will present the
extraordinary vocal, dance, and musical traditions of the Central Asian
Bukharan Jewish wedding.

In keeping with the theme of the Jewish wedding, all performers will be
playing music for audience participatory dancing. In addition, delicious
kosher Bukharan Jewish food will be available for purchase.
_____________________________________________________________

Afternoon Workshops

Nashi Traditsii  begins at 12:30 with three FREE workshops on various
aspects of the Jewish Wedding. ?Walnuts, Honey, and Tea Roses,? at
12:30, will be a lecture demonstration on the Traditional Jewish Wedding
Banquet with master Ukrainian Jewish cook Mina Goldenshteyn. At 1:30
festival participants can get a first hand look at the life and music of
traditional klezmer musicians and learn to dance to their music in ?Play
Me A Tune With Heart and With Feeling.? This Klezmer Music and Dance
workshop, led by Michael Alpert, features musicians German Goldenshteyn
and Hersh Rikelman and dancers Mikhail Shenderov and Yefim Aptekar.
?Badkhones and Khazones,? a program on vocal traditions for the Jewish
wedding performed by Avrum Itskhok Moskowitz and badkhon extraordinaire
Toyvye Birnbaum, will be at 2:30. With this workshop, participants will
have the rare opportunity to hear one of the last great exponents of the
centuries-old badkhn or wedding jester tradition. Using a combination of
cleverly devised and often hilarious sung and spoken improvisation, the
badkhn, said to be the forerunner of the modern day stand-up comedian,
was single-handedly responsible for taking the bride and groom, their
families, and all of the wedding guests, through the full range of
emotions experienced at a Jewish wedding. Using a mix of Yiddish,
Hebrew, and English, Mr. Birnbaum will treat listeners to a special
exhibition of this vanishing art form.
____________________________________________________________

Nashi Traditsii

Nashi Traditsii (Our Traditions) highlights and affirms the cultural
life of the nearly half million Jews from the former Soviet Union who
now make their home in New York City, by presenting outstanding artists
from this significant immigrant community. This year?s program is the
fourth annual Nashi Traditsii event.


Project

Nashi Traditsii is a Community Cultural Initiative in Jewish communities
from the former Soviet Union now living in New York City. Through its
Community Cultural Initiatives, the Center for Traditional Music and
Dance identifies the traditional performing arts of a community and
nurtures the expression and continuation of these art forms. The Nashi
Traditsii Initiative celebrates the broad range of Jewish traditions
among recent immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic
countries, Moldova, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

































---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+