Klezfest in Ukraine, 2002

[Center of Jewish education <center...>]

PRESS RELEASE

Mikhail Frenkel

"Klezfest in Ukraine-2002" will take place in Kiev on July 28 -
August 2

"Music was born by the spirit of prophets; it contains power able
to lift everyone up to the level of prophetic inspiration".

These words of a wise man - rabbi Nachman - are the best
description of the musical soul of the Jewish people.

For many ages, one of the brightest components of this soul has
been the art of klezmers - wedding musicians. Today, after decades
of oblivion, the klezmer art is coming back to life. For the third
year in a row, due to the efforts of a group of enthusiasts led by
Yana and Boris Yanover, a festival of klezmer music will take
place in Ukraine this year.

According to tradition, "Klezfest in Ukraine-2002" is not just a
meeting of the best performers, but it is first of all training
and exchange of creative experience. Around fifty participants in
the festival from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and
Kazakhstan will become diligent students of master classes taught
by famous performer of songs in Yiddish Adrianne Cooper (USA),
artistic director of the Broadway Jewish Theater "Folksbineh"
Zalmen Mlotek, and world leading traditional klezmer clarinetist
Merlin Shepherd (Great Britain). Stas Raiko, leader of the
"Kharkov Klezmer Band", which is popular both in Ukraine and
abroad, will for the first time take upon himself the role of a
teacher as well.

Guests of the festival will also be Eda Beregovskaya, daughter of
the world's greatest researcher of Jewish folk music Moshe
Beregovsky, and sound archivist from the Chicago department of
YIVO Cyril Robinson.

Sponsor general of the festival: the Fund for Development of
Jewish Communities in Russia and Ukraine (New York, USA), a
project of the American Jewish World's Service.

Sponsors: Public Affairs Section of Embassy  of USA in Ukraine,
the Jewish Agency "SOHNUT-UKRAINE", the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee, "Good News" International Charitable Fund.

Information support: newspapers "Jewish Observer" and "Einikait".

All events of "Klezfest" will take place in the "Dubek" boarding
house in Puscha-Voditsa, outside Kiev. And the final concert,
whose culminating point will be the unique "Ghetto Tango" program
of Adrianne Cooper and Zalmen Mlotek, will start at 7 p.m. on
August 1 at the "Slavutich" music hall.

No doubt, it will be a real festival of the Jewish folk music.
Everyone who would like to get additional information on "Klezfest
in Ukraine - 2002" can browse website http://jewukr.org/klezmer or
call the following numbers:

(044) 248-36-70, 248-36-34, 248-53-77.




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