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First Berkshires Jewish Music Fest, Jun 17-28, 2009

From Cookie Segelstein: Josh Horowitz and I will be teaching at the following festival on the last weekend, on Friday June 26, and Sunday June 28.:

Berkshire Music School Presents The Berkshire¹s First Jewish Music Festival June 17 - 28

The Jewish Music Festival, developed by BMS faculty member, musician & scholar Paul Green, includes lectures, coachings and concerts. This inaugural event will be held from June 17 through June 28 at the BMS Edgar B. Taft Recial Hall, 30 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield Massachusetts.

Lectures involving Klezmer, classical, jazz and pop music combined with Bernstein and Gershwin will be offered Wednesdays and Thursdays June 17, 18, 24, 25 from 10 am to 11 am. Advance tickets for all four lectures are $40. Individual tickets at the door are $12. The lectures, paired with a June 20 Faculty Concert, are $50.

Paul Green also leads a series of Klezmer coachings by professionals in clarinet, violin and keyboard on Fridays and Sundays June 19, 21, 26, 28. from10 am ­ 12 noon and 2 pm ­ 4 pm. This series is open to mid-level to advanced players, not necessarily experienced in Klezmer playing. Basic improvisation skills are helpful. The fee of $200, includes four coaching sessions, with a minimum enrollment of six students.

A concert by Jewish Music Festival faculty will be presented Saturday, June 20, at 7:30 pm. Admission is $15.

A concert: by Festival students will take place Sunday, June 28, at 3 pm. The event is open to the public, with a donation at the door.

Paul Green was in grammar school music class when he picked up a clarinet. Accomplished at age 13, he was recommended to Leonard Bernstein by Stanley Drucker, the First Clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. He graduated from Yale with a BA in Theory and Composition in 1970 and continued his studies at Juilliard, receiving an MS degree in performance. He graduated cum laude in from Brooklyn Law School in 1978 and eventually joined the faculty there.

Paul Green is the founder and Artistic Director of the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival in Delray Beach, and in 2003 he was appointed to the 25th Anniversary Leadership Council of Chamber Music America. In 1997, he concertized in the Middle East as an Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, and has participated in international festivals of contemporary music throughout the world.

Berkshire Music School is pleased to have Paul Green as a clarinet instructor. A permanent move to the Berkshires is being planned. Presently, Green is a member of the faculties of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and Florida International University in Miami, where he teaches clarinet performance and chamber music. He is the founder and Director of Klezmer East, an ensemble in residence at Florida Atlantic University, a founding member of the Florida Woodwind Quintet, also in residence at Florida Atlantic University, and a member of the Nodus Ensemble, a contemporary music group in residence at Florida International University. He is also the Principal Clarinetist of the Miami City Ballet Orchestra, the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra.

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This project has been supported by a grant from the Wassermann-Streit Y¹DIYAH Memorial Fund administered by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. The aim of the Y'DIYAH Fund (Y'DIYAH, Hebrew for "learning") is to enhance public understanding of diverse aspects of traditional Judaism by supporting a broad variety of non-doctrinaire projects and programs—exercising its motto, "The Greatest Good is Knowledge, the Greatest Evil is Ignorance."

School Info:
Berkshire Music School & Edgar B. Taft Recital Hall
30 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Tel: (413) 442-1411; Fax: (413) 442-4471
www.berkshiremusicschool.org

Mission Statement:
The mission of the Berkshire Music School is to provide quality education in music and musical opportunities to people in the greater Berkshire community regardless of race, religion, ethnic origin, disability, age, or ability to pay.

We are an independent, nonprofit organization. Full tuition covers only 55 percent of actual expenses. The rest comes from the community: local corporations and small businesses, board members, alumni, parents of students, and our students themselves, who raise scholarship money for others in the annual Music Marathon.