Purim Maariv, Megilah and Music

Please join us for our annual Purim Simchah at the Old Broadway Synagogue, Monday, March 6th at 6:25pm. We will daven Maariv followed by the Megillah and a Purim party! $10 suggested contribution.

Here is more about the performers:

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Ira Khonen Temple (piano, accordion) is a multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and embedded cultural organizer. Recent credits include accordionist for Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and music director of Indecent at the Weston Playhouse, Great Small Works’ Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, and the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee Purimshpil. Ira was a founder of the radical-traditional Yiddish music group Tsibele.

KLEZMER NIGHT on OL' BROADWAY

 

The Old Broadway Synagogue, Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York present:

TURN UP THE HEAT with KLEZMER!

Jake Shulman-Ment (violin), Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) & Raffi Boden (cello)
Saturday, February 11, 8pm
at the Old Broadway Synagogue
(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)
Suggested donation: $10

Join us for the new klezmer music series at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 8pm on Saturday night, February 11, 2022. We'll be featuring three of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading performers - Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer), Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) & Raffi Boden (cello). Join the trio for a night of rediscovered melodies, newly-composed Jewish melodies, Hasidic spirituals and rollicking dance tunes. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.

Please stay after the concert for nosh and an opportunity to meet others!

Biographies of performers:

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) is at the helm of a new generation of Klezmer and Yiddish music performers. He tours and records internationally in addition to being a widely sought-out teacher of the klezmer fiddle tradition at festivals around the globe. He collected, studied, performed, and documented traditional music in Romania as a Fulbright scholar, and has lived and traveled in Hungary and Greece, learning traditional violin styles. In 2018 he received the prestigious NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts. He was a featured subject of Csaba Bereczki’s full-length documentary film Soul Exodus, and appears on HBO’s Succession, Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, and a host of other film and theater productions. Jake’s debut solo album, A Redele (A Wheel) (Oriente Musik, 2012) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. His new group, Midwood, released its first album, Out of the Narrows, (Chant Records) in May 2018.

Raffi Boden (cello) is an innovative cellist and educator and a current graduate student at The Juilliard School. A member of the award-winning contemporary klezmer ensemble Mamaliga, Raffi was the winner of the 2018 Oberlin Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with both the Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Ensemble. In 2016, he spent a month teaching and studying the El Sistema method in Venezuela, and he has performed internationally in France, Venezuela, and around the U.S. Raffi holds a B.M. in Cello Performance and a B.A. in French Language from the Oberlin College & Conservatory.

Jewish Music New and Old with the Trio Fadolin

Please join us for a special Melave Malka concert of Jewish music, new and old with the Trio Fadolin. The concert will take place at 8:00pm on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at the Old Broadway Synagogue. $10 contribution requested.

Here is more about this unique musical group from their website:

Trio Fadolín is a new ensemble with a unique sonority — featuring Sabina Torosjan on violin, Valeriya Sholokhova on cello, and Ljova, performing on the fadolín – a new instrument that encompasses the range of the violin, viola, and most of the cello, finding its footing in an acoustic chamber music setting for the first time. We formed during the COVID-19 pandemic — our first performances were in the summer of 2021, on a makeshift stage at the Javits Convention Center mass vaccination site, operated by the US Army and sponsored by Sing for Hope. Since that time, we have made appearances at Bargemusic, Barbès, Symphony Space, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We continue to perform outreach events for Sing For Hope’s stage at the new Moynihan Train Terminal at Penn Station, where we frequently perform with special guests. As our opportunities to play together grew, our repertoire evolved steadily — it now includes works by Ukrainian composers Vasily Barvinsky, Mykola Kolessa, and Miroslav Skoryk, Spanish-American composer Andrea Casarrubios, folk music from Denmark, Sweden and Romania, in addition to original works by our fadolínist, Ljova. All three of us are graduates of The Juilliard School.

Our focus is multifaceted — on the one hand, we are exploring the unique sonority of the acoustic fadolín (six-string violin, with low C and F strings) within a trio context, using it — for the first time in history — as an integral instrument in an acoustic chamber music setting.

On the other hand, we also share a deep personal connection — all three of us grew up in the former Soviet Union and arrived in New York as teens. Sabina was born in Estonia of Armenian-Jewish heritage; Valeriya was born in Ukraine of Ukrainian, Jewish, and Russian heritage; Ljova was born in Moscow, Russia, of Ukrainian-Jewish, German-Jewish, Polish and Romanian heritage. We share a common bond of immigration, Eastern European literature, humor, animation and music.

We are here to tell the complicated story, to tell the stories of immigrant composers, to collaborate with immigrant artists, to showcase places where cultures intersect.

MUSICIAN BIOS:

SABINA TOROSJAN, originally from Tartu, Estonia has been an active freelance performer since graduating from The Juilliard School having studied with Sally Thomas and Lewis Kaplan. She plays regularly with Ensemble Mise-En and RAM whose focus is in contemporary music from around the world. She has recorded with iconic folk singer Pete Seeger, Jennifer Hudson, composer and guitarist Terry Champlin, as well as appearing on SNL.

Sabina enjoyed being the violinist for the Off Broadway production of “Fiddler On The Roof in Yiddish” for its entire run ending in 2020. She also loves spending time with her two kids.

LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and writer Irena Ginzburg, in 1990. He divides his time between composing for the concert stage, contemporary dance & film, leading his own ensemble LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND, performing with and composing for TRIO FADOLÍN, as well as a busy career as a violist, fadolínist & musical arranger. Among recent projects are commissions from the City of London Sinfonia, The Louisville Orchestra, a new work for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, a string quartet for Brooklyn Rider, a clarinet quintet for Art of Élan, and works for The Knights, Sybarite5 and A Far Cry, as well arrangements for the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, tenor Javier Camarena, conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alondra de la Parra, songwriters Ricky Martin, Natalia Lafourcade and Carlos Vives, composer/guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla and Osvaldo Golijov. Ljova frequently collaborates with choreographers Aszure Barton, Damian Woetzel, Christopher Wheeldon, Katarzyna Skarpetowska (with Parsons Dance)

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, cellist VALERIYA SHOLOKHOVA is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, where she was a full scholarship student of Bonnie Hampton and David Geber. Valeriya is a laureate of several international competitions and has participated in a number of summer music festivals, such as The Perlman Music Program, Kronberg Academy, Spoleto Festival USA, Orchestra of the Americas, and Thy Music Festival, where she served as principal cellist. An in-demand freelancer, Valeriya is currently the principal cellist with Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Mimesis Ensemble, and New York Metamorphoses. In her free time, she enjoys travel, languages, and photography.

KLEZMER NIGHT ON OL' BROADWAY, DECEMBER 10, 2022

KLEZMER NIGHT ON OL' BROADWAY

with Bob Cohen, Jake Shulman-Ment & Pete Rushefsky 

Saturday, December 10, 8pm

at the Old Broadway Synagogue

(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)

Suggested donation: $10

Join us for the new klezmer music series at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 8pm on Saturday night, December 10, 2022. 

We'll be featuring three of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading performers - Bob Cohen (violin) Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) and Jake Shulman-Ment (violin). For decades, an important milestone for aspiring young klezmorim has been to make a pilgrimage to see Bob Cohen of the ensemble Di Naye Kapelye in Budapest. Or even better, to accompany Cohen on a tour of Transylvanian villages in search of the last Roma musicians who played with Jewish bands before WWII. Two such pilgrim over the years have been violin virtuoso Jake Shulman-Ment, now recognized as one of the contemporary klezmer scene’s finest fiddlers, and tsimbl (cimbalom/hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky. Join the trio for a night of rediscovered melodies, Hasidic spirtuals and rollicking dance tunes. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.

Biograpies of performers:

Bob Cohen (violin) was born in New York in 1956 to a Hungarian mother and Moldavian father. In the late 1980s, he commenced his research on Hungary’s Jewish musical heritage, including songs, dances, and musical instruments. In 1993, he founded the influential Budapest-based ensemble Di Naye Kapelye (The New Band) with accordionist Christina Crowder and bassist Géza Pénzes. The musicians present klezmer music in the style in which it was originally performed in Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century. Their 2008 release Traktorist ranked high on Songline World Music Magazine’s “Top of the World” list of best new albums. Cohen served as a consultant, speaker and featured artist at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. He is currently touring as part of the Brothers Nazroff ensemble, which recently released their first album on Smithsonian Folkways; the band is featured in the 2016 documentary by Hungarian filmmaker Csaba Bereczki entitled “Soul Exodus.”

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) is at the helm of a new generation of Klezmer and Yiddish music performers. He tours and records internationally in addition to being a widely sought-out teacher of the klezmer fiddle tradition at festivals around the globe. He collected, studied, performed, and documented traditional music in Romania as a Fulbright scholar, and has lived and traveled in Hungary and Greece, learning traditional violin styles. In 2018 he received the prestigious NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts. He was a featured subject of Csaba Bereczki’s full-length documentary film Soul Exodus, and appears on HBO’s Succession, Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, and a host of other film and theater productions. Jake’s debut solo album, A Redele (A Wheel) (Oriente Musik, 2012) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. His new group, Midwood, released its first album, Out of the Narrows, (Chant Records) in May 2018.

The Klezmographers: Klezmer Music from Around the World, 8:00pm November 19, 2022

THE KLEZMOGRAPHERS: Klezmer Music from Around the World

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) & Eleonore Biezunski (violin)

Please join us for our second klezmer melaveh malkah concert!

Saturday, November 19, 8pm  at the Old Broadway Synagogue

(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)

Suggested donation: $10

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl, banjo) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Eléonore Biezunski is an award-winning Parisian singer/violinist now living in NYC. An avid collector of Yiddish music, she co-founded and is a member of Ephemeral Birds, Yerushe, Lyubtshe, Shpilkes, Shtetl Stompers and Klezmographers and has collaborated with a large number of well-known Jewish performers here and abroad. Her recordings include Yerushe (IEMJ, 2016) and Zol zayn (2014). She won a Bubbe Awards in 2021 for her song "Tshemodan" in the category Best New Yiddish Song. As YIVO’s Associate Sound Archivist, Eléonore is the Project Coordinator for the Ruth Rubin Legacy online exhibition (ruthrubin.yivo.org). She is also a member of the Klezmer Institute's KMDMP and Klezmer Archive Project. She has a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and has published several academic articles about Yiddish music and Yiddish theater. She is a recipient of a NYSCA Folk Arts Apprenticeship. She appears in several documentary films about Yiddish culture and music.