Shirim Shines

[Asissel <Asissel...>]

I never claimed to be a music critic but I have heard enough klezmer to 
acknowledge and thank Shirim for a terrific show at Brock University in St. 
Catharines, Ontario yesterday.  Shirim was accompanied by The Niagara 
Symphony.  "A Klezmer Party with Shirim!" was an appropriate title for this 
pops concert which was very poorly advertised on the US side of the border.  
It certainly deserved better.  I doubt if there were a dozen people in the 
audience who had ever been to a klezmer concert before.  Amusing to overhear 
one woman at intermission say, "I wish I were Jewish, they have such 
wonderful music."  This was certainly not Boston....or Buffalo for that 
matter.  

Well, the stoic, predominantly senior, Anglo-Canadian crowd seemed to enjoy 
what must have been something brand new and exotic.  Not sure they "got" the 
klezmerised theme from "Psycho" though.  I never heard the Dobriden (#5 in 
the new Beregovski book) played on trombone and tuba, wow.  The Sam Musiker 
medley arranged by Mike McLaughlin was well worth the price of admission.  
The poor conductor looked a bit anxious as he waited impatiently to cue chord 
changes for the orchestra during the first clarinet doina of the show.  Now 
if Shirim could only have persuaded the orchestra not to open with a medley 
from "Fiddler," it would have been a perfect afternoon.  Maybe that was their 
plan.  

Ari, you must have had quite a wedding with Shirim supplying the energy.

Alan Sisselman
Buffalo, NY

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