Re: Food for the Soul concludes

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Last night, Yiddish Soul, the final concert of our 2002 Yiddishkayt Festival 
took place at the Skirball Cultural Center's Cotsen Auditorium with approx. 500 
people in attendance.  We were treated to an extraordinary evening of Yiddish 
song and music by Adrienne Cooper, Frank London, Lorin Sklamberg, Marilyn 
Lerner, Dave Wall and local artists singer Cindy Paley, cantor and violinist 
Mike Stein (the "Yodeling Yid") and clarinetist and accordion player Isaac 
Sadigursky. The evening started and ended with a beautiful song I had never 
heard before, the words of which were (in Yiddish) "If I had strength, I would 
run through the streets, crying Peace, peace (sholem, sholem), " which I hope 
will be taken up by our community as an anthem for our time. The artists 
performed together, in various groupings and as soloists, providing highlights 
of the performances of the preceding week as well as new and wonderful 
material.  They had the audience eating out of their hands, clapping, singing 
and listening with rapt attention, the musicians' pleasure in the material and 
the fun they were having playing together readily and intoxicatingly apparent.  

Truly a fitting ending for a festival we called derkvikung far di neshume /Food 
for the Soul.

I am too exhausted right now to do more than point out that just because I 
haven't written extensive reports on wonderful performances like Frank London, 
Lorin Sklamberg and Marilyn Lerner's Zmiros, which played to an audience of 
~400 at a local temple, Dave Krakauer's Klezmer Madness playing to a rocking 
and enthusiastic younger crowd at the Knitting Factory or Marilyn Lerner and 
Dave Wall's exquisite song cycle which played to a sold-out cabaret crowd 
doesn't mean they weren't fabulous performances!

Shira Lerner
Yiddishkayt LA


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