AMHERST, Massachusetts (Press Release) — The seventh annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music will feature a headlining performance by David Krakauer’s Acoustic Klezmer Quartet that draws from and emphasizes the beauty of traditional klezmer dance tunes, ritual songs, and reflective melodies, all given the ineffable David Krakauer touch.
The four-day festival—July 12 to 15, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts—will also include performances by a diverse group of groundbreaking, innovative bands and performers: Heather Klein & Joshua Horowitz; Tsvey Brider, featuring Anthony Russell & Dmitri; David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness Reunion Concert, with special guest Socalled; Beyond the Pale; Sarah Aroeste and Anthony Russell; and the Socalled String Quartet.*
Yidstock kicks-off July 12 at 8 p.m. with the chamber music-like sounds of David Krakauer’s Acoustic Klezmer Quartet, featuring the world-renowned clarinetist, whose playing can be heard in recordings and performances by the Kronos Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Dresdner Philharmonie, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Klezmatics, and the works of composer Osvaldo Golijov, among dozens of others.
Sunday July 15 includes three concerts, including the closing performance featuring the Socallled String Quartet—a one-of-a-kind concert with Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled), the mad wizard of Yiddish hip-hop, on vocals backed by members of the Common Music Collective, playing newly commissioned transcriptions of classic Yiddish theater, folk, and art songs, some of which he discovered in the Yiddish Book Center’s archive of Yiddish sheet music from the early twentieth century. The program presents Socalled as he’s never been heard before—stripped-down and unplugged, forefronting his genius as a performer and arranger while enlivening a new Yiddish music for the twenty-first century by celebrating and dusting off forgotten masterpieces for a new audience of music lovers.
Talks and workshops during the festival include an exploration of Yiddish theater music with Hankus Netsky, founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and co-chair of the Contemporary Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory, on July 12 at 4 p.m.; a klezmer music dance class with world-renowned dance instructor Steve Weintraub on July 13 at 11 a.m.; and, on July 14 at 1 p.m., the multimedia presentation “A Journey to LadinoLand” with international Ladino singer-songwriter Sarah Aroeste, in which she uses sound clips, videos, and live music to demonstrate how Ladino culture is still evolving with unique linguistic interpretations, modern technologies, and contemporary musical arrangements.
The full Yidstock schedule and ticket information can be found at yiddishbook.center.org/yidstock.
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Preceding provided by the Yiddish Book Center
Preceding provided by the Yiddish Book Center