SAN MARCOS, California (Press Release)– The Palomar Symphony Orchestra and the Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble, directed by Ellen Weller, will team up to present “Klezmer! A Celebration of Jewish Music” at the Howard Brubeck Theatre at Palomar College at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 29, and again at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 30.
In the 40 years between 1880 and 1920, over 1.5 million Jews immigrated to New York City, bringing their language (Yiddish), their food (bagels, bialys and knishes), and their music. Embedded within the music is the history of a people driven from their roots in the Middle East, and persecuted and marginalized in Europe, all laced with resilience, pathos and humor. That sound continued to develop in the United States, and found new expression in the Yiddish-language theatres of Second Avenue and the halls of the Catskills resorts (where stand-up comedy was born).
“As a budding musician growing up in a Jewish household, many of my earliest memories included the sounds and rhythms of Jewish secular and religious music – heard in the synagogue, sung at holidays and danced to at Bar Mitzvahs and weddings,” says director Ellen Weller. “ I first heard the term ‘Klezmer’ after I started college. Shortly after I moved back to San Diego from New York in 1988, I began playing the piano for a local Humanistic Jewish congregation, and their marvelous singer, Deborah Davis. Thus began a 25-year musical and personal friendship that lead to my entering the UCSD Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology, where contrabass virtuoso Bertram Turetzky served as my dissertation advisor, and where I served as a teaching assistant to Robert Zelickman’s Klezmer class.”
A popular revival of the Jewish folk music of Eastern Europe and the songs of the Yiddish Theatre prompted Davis and Zelickman to form the Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble in 1991. They had been performing Jewish music throughout San Diego in various groups since 1985, and brought in two of the best of those musicians into SAKE – guitarist Jiri (George) Svoboda, and drummer Bob Weller. Together, they have performed concerts throughout California (partially funded by touring grants from the California Arts Council), as well as functioning within the Jewish community of Southern California by performing for weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvah and other life-cycle celebrations as a living connection to the rich musical heritage of the past. They have produced three recordings: 1991, Traditions and Transitions; 1998, For Our Mothers; 2007, Celebration.
The first half of this weekend’s program will feature the Second Aveune Klezmer Ensemble. The PSO opens the second half with John William’s Theme from Schindler’s List, a haunting melody that was performed in the movie by Itzhak Perlman. The story of German businessman Oskar Schindler tremendous personal risk in saving Polish Jews during the Holocaust is a compelling and beautiful example of the depth of human empathy. Also performed will be offerings from Gustav Mahler, Myron Fink, and Ellen Weller’s arrangement of Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn.
Discussions of klezmer will occur at 6:15 p.m., prior to the Saturday concert, and at 1:15 p.m.prior to the Sunday concert. Admission is $12 General, $10 Seniors and Staff, $8 StudentsFor tickets, visit www.palomarperforms.com, (760) 744-1150 x2453.
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