« So-Called hosts 'Slivovitz and Soul', NYC, Feb 17 | Main | Klezmerquerque 2005, Albuquerque, NM, Feb 18-20 »

First International Klezmer Fest, Moscow, Russia, Feb 17-20

The first international klezmer event in Moscow will take place February 17th-20th.

The idea of this event came from the Jewish ensemble "Dona" (Moscow) and their producer Anatoly Pinsky, so the seminar has also become known as "Dona-Fest". The festival will bring together more then 60 musicians from the former USSA and Europe. The gala concert of the First International Festival of Jewish music in Moscow will consist of completely new material which will be prepared during the 3 days of seminar. It will take place at the Jewish Theatre Shalom.

The leading teachers of the event are Merlin Shepherd (world known klezmer musician, who has developed a unique method of teaching klezmer instrumentalists by ear) and Polina Shepherd (leading Jewish choir composer in the former USSR who bases her vocal teaching on instrumental ornamentation and Jewish modes).

Amongst the organisers and teachers there will be representatives of the "old" Yiddish tradition (Arkady Gendler, Ukraine) and of the newest generation of Russian and ex-Russian klezmorim (Mark Kovnatsky, Germany; Alina Ivakh, Kazan; Alexey Rozov, Evgenya Slavina, Moscow).

Now in Moscow ­ Celebration of Yiddishkeit!

More info (in Russian only): www.dona-dona.ru

Comments

MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA News, Larisa Kukushkina) - The Shalom Theater hosted a gala concert of the first Moscow international festival-seminar of Jewish music DONA FEST-2005.

The leading Jewish bands from Russia and the CIS countries, as well as European stars, clarinetist Merlin Shepherd, composer and singer Polina Achkinazi-Shepherd and violinist Mark Kovnatsky, took part in the festival.

European Klezmer stars and Russian and CIS leading Jewish bands, Askenazim, Dona, Klezmasters, Arkady Gendler, Alina Ivakh, Psoi Korolenko, Olga Grinshtein and many others took part in the gala concert. The book "The Yiddishkait Music" book was presented at the concert.

The East European Jewish wedding music, Klezmer, was forgotten for a long time. It comes back to Russia today.

"Such festivals accompanied by educational seminars letting music teachers share their experience were already held in Russia and the CIS. Now it is time to implement this project in Moscow," said Anatoly Pinsky, chairman of the DONA FEST-2005 organizing committee.

http://archive.wn.com/radiorussia/

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)