4/1 NYC reminder NASHI TRADITSII

[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
Concert 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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