September 3, 2005
Welcome to KlezKanada 2005 - the 10th Anniversary Edition
Each year we try to do a weblog at KlezKanada. Last year, there was no internet access at all. So, the weblog was loaded after KlezKanada ended. This year, access existed on many days, but when it did, it was so poor, and the newsletter took up so much time, that I again decided to wait until later. I am hoping that this also means that KlezKanada participants can add comments as we go.
So, the 10th anniversary KlezKanada weblog officially launches tomorrow night, Sunday, as musicians and instructors arrive (as we did two weeks ago) at Camp Bnai Brith, about an hour north of Montreal in Canada's beautiful Laurentian Mountains.
Posted by adavidow at 4:29 PM | Comments (0)
September 4, 2005
Arrival at KlezKanada
It takes about 6.5 hours of driving from my house to Camp Bnai Brith (CBB) where KlezKanada is held every year. It breaks up this way: From Boston, I take 93 into New Hampshire, and just before Concord I catch the very beginning of the very scenic highway 89. This highway is notable not just for going through stunning mountains and valleys in mid-New Hampshire, then eventually, climbing north past Burlington in Vermont to the Canadian border. There are a reasonable set of pleasant rest stops along the way for picnics or restroom stops.
Continue reading "Arrival at KlezKanada"
Posted by adavidow at 9:40 PM | Comments (1)
A song for KlezKanada by Renah Wolzinger
Klez Kanada
music and lyrics by Renah Wolzinger (ASCAP)
copyright © RenZone Music 2005
Klezmer is the music we all come for
Klezmer is our tie to history
Freilachs and Bulgars we,ll play forever
The best teachers are on staff for you and me
We come from far away to play together
To pass down this special Klezmer legacy
In the mountains of Quebec we will gather
At Klez Kanada my favorite place to be (I'm back)
Continue reading "A song for KlezKanada by Renah Wolzinger"
Posted by adavidow at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)
September 5, 2005
זײַט באגריסט
זײַט באגריסט קלעזמרים און קלעזפרײַנד מיט דעם קורס “ײִדיש 101“.
It is important that KlezKanada convey not only how to play klezmer and Yiddish music, but that it also imbue participants with some sense of Yiddish culture. This year's experiment was to set up an afternoon-long set of three sessions, "Klezmer 101", beginning with an hour-long Yiddish language session. Those with at least some Yiddish listened to Peysakh Fishman talk in simple Yiddish about the language and about Ashkenazic culture. I have tried to capture a few fragments of the talk.
[While Peysakh was giving his talk, Kolya Borodulin was handing out several introductions to Yiddish letters out in front of the dining hall. One handout was especially memorable, "a bisl yiddish for klezmorim"]
| Shvell | Threshhold |
"If you don't understand everything, stop me immediately and I will explain." Peysakh lines his article out, at first slowly in Yiddish, then English, back and forth to clarify and to convey ideas.
Continue reading "זײַט באגריסט"
Posted by adavidow at 8:47 PM | Comments (1)
Intro to Ashekenazic Civilization continues: 1000 Years in 40 minutes
Now that we had some sense of Yiddish, it was time to talk culture. Zev Feldman and Michael Alpert got up to speak, in English, about the history of Jews, primarily in Poland. Zev gave the main lecture, with Michael following to embellish. Again, these are notes taken as I listened, with as little embellishment as possible. Ari
So, how many people think that Poland was a good place for Jews? Vociferous response: "when?"
Continue reading "Intro to Ashekenazic Civilization continues: 1000 Years in 40 minutes"
Posted by adavidow at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)
Yiddish 101: Thoughts and Theory in Yiddish Music
Finally, it is Alan Bern's turn. Sadly, most of the scholarship students—the folks for whom these talks were especially being held—were long gone. This wasn't there sense of why there were here, I guess. They thought "music". We alte kakers were thinking "culture and history." And we're older than we were 30 years ago.
Memory is how we construct our sense of selves! Thank you Michael and Zev.
This is our 10th anniversary here. When the first KlezKanada started, there was KlezKamp, and that was about it. Now there are camps all over the world, from Paris to St. Petersburg to Los Angeles.
Continue reading "Yiddish 101: Thoughts and Theory in Yiddish Music"
Posted by adavidow at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)
And it was morning and it was evening the first day. And it was good.
After breakfast I found Yakov and got the Computer room opened up. The planning was that Emily Socolov would lead the Visual Arts folks in the big part of the room, with the computer tables pushed to the side, and I would do the newsletter in the office in the back. I set up my printer and laptop on a table and made myself comfortable. Still no internet access, but so it goes. It occurred to me that I might have to recreate the KlezKanada newsletter logo and layout. I was still installing Hebrew and English fonts onto the laptop from the CDs I brought from home. But, really, newsletter layout for 8.5x11 pages is not so complicated. I tend to use three columns, so that I can more easily keep things asymetrical and interesting. But, of course, it will be a four page newsletter, Roberta and I think, and can easily be manipulated as needed. Before lunch I lock up the computer room and leave.
Continue reading "And it was morning and it was evening the first day. And it was good."
Posted by adavidow at 9:42 PM | Comments (1)
September 6, 2005
Life in Bonim
From the newsletter, by Renah and Keith Wolzinger
It's August 22, 2005, and the families of Bonim return once again, arriving by plane and by car, loaded with luggage, instruments, and of course snacks for the kids. Klez Kanada has become an annual reunion of families that come from across the U.S. For the past 6 years, the children have grown from toddlers to tweens and teens, and many have even become scholarship recipients. Technology being a big part of our kids lives, they keep in touch by email and instant messaging.
Continue reading "Life in Bonim"
Posted by adavidow at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
"Gitl Purishkevitsh"—Stories of Draft Resistance from many times and places
From the newsletter: A new piece of musical theatre based on a monologue by Sholem Aleichem, and created by Jenny Levison and Josh Waletzky is coming to life. Since the piece is about a mother getting her son out of the tzar's army, Jenny and Josh have been gathering oral histories of other draft resistors. Here is a first installment of those stories.
Continue reading ""Gitl Purishkevitsh"—Stories of Draft Resistance from many times and places"
Posted by adavidow at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
KlezKanada en español
from the newsletter: by Sergio Smilovich
primer reporte,
Estoy sentado enfrente de Ari davidov,
Me invita a escribir sobre klezkanada en castellano
sentado estoy en klezkabaret, lugar donde se improvisa especialmente durante la noche,
sirve de lugar de conferencias, teatro lugar de reunion, y es la noche, la noche cuando los sonidos klezmaticos salen a la luz de la luna,
la luz del tiempo
Continue reading "KlezKanada en español"
Posted by adavidow at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Papercut
From the Newsletter: Evelyn Maizels: Papercut inspired by Genesis 1:19—click on the papercut to see the entire image
וַיִּצֶר יהוה אֱלֹהִים מִן–הָאֲדָמָה כָּל–חַיַת הַשָּדֶה וְאֵת כָּל–עוֹף הַשָּמַיִם...
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every foul of the air.
Posted by adavidow at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
A newsletter is born! Issue 1
So, it was finally morning. Roberta and I meet after breakfast to figure out how to design and typeset a newsletter in two hours. I'm not sure how long it will take the office to reproduce it, but I'm figuring about an hour. Lunch is at noon. It is now nine. We go for a relatively large type face. A lot of the attendees are older. We don't want them to need magnifying glasses to read the newsletter. Roberta argues for a bit more leading than I might have given, but she is right.
I have no Yiddish text for this issue. It cannot be that a newsletter at KlezKanada fails to include Yiddish, so I mangle a bit of text that Peysakh has translated for me out of the daily calendar. I don't have room for the calendar, and don't have time to type in all the Yiddish. This will have to suffice. Then i remember the handout I typeset for Kolya the day before: A little Yiddish for Klezmorim. Ah. All is well.
The office copies, collates and staples 100 copies of the newsletter and we hand it out at lunch. All go within seconds. All day people will ask me for additional copies.
Here is a PDF of the August 23 KlezKanada newsletter as it was handed out (with a few minor corrections).
One of the goals of the newsletter is to present Yiddish typeset correctly (e.g., when it is translated, you will see that the Yiddish appears on the left hand side of the page: no dueling languages for this newsletter), and to present a cacophony of fonts and styles. It is embarrassing, of course, to return to the 500 fonts/page of early desktop publishers, but I want people to see Yiddish that looks interesting and evocative and especially, readable and exciting. So, there will be some cacophony to come. For today, not so much, but stay tuned.
Posted by adavidow at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Tuesday, in brief
Tuesday has been such a busy day. It was still chilly out. I had noticed yesterday, as well, that I tended to want to change to a long-sleeve shirt and jeans early, and I wasn't hearing as much jamming all around the campground. I am hoping that this is the weather, rather than some fundamental change in the way people interact at the camp.
Continue reading "Tuesday, in brief"
Posted by adavidow at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
East meets West
Okay, there will be an article from the newsletter, tomorrow, in Yiddish and more general, but here are my notes from this astounding concert. The way it worked was that Michael Alpert, mostly, and Adrienne Cooper, some, provided some introductions. And at first the musicians introduced themselves and talked about how they came to the music and how much they love it. And then the Russians and Ukrainians got impatient with all of the talk and started preceding their individual segments with "I won't go into how I got into this music. Here is a song...."
Continue reading "East meets West"
Posted by adavidow at 11:24 PM | Comments (2)
In velt iz alts git (a new song by Yevgeniya Lopatnik)
The following song was the finale at last night's "East Meets West" concert. It was written by Yevgeniya Lopatnik, and the song sheet was distributed to the audience.
In velt iz alts git!
text & music: Yevgeniya Lopatnik (Kharkov, Ukraine)
Continue reading "In velt iz alts git (a new song by Yevgeniya Lopatnik)"
Posted by adavidow at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)
קלעזקאַנאַדע װערט גרעסער
from Wednesday's newsletter
מיזרח טרעפֿט זיך מיט מעריבֿ—אַזױ האָט מען אָנגערופֿן די נײַע פּראָגראַם אין קלעזקאַנאַדע, װאָס האָט געבראַכט 12 יונגע, שײנע, און שעפֿערישע מוזיקאַנטן און זינגערס פֿון פֿאַרשידענע לענדער פֿונעם געװעזענעם ראַטן–פֿאַרבאַנד און געגעבן זײ די מעגלעכקײט צו אַנטפּלעקן פֿאַרן מערבֿדיקן עולם אַן אוצר פֿון טאַלאַנטן פֿון מזרח. במשך פֿון צװײ שעה האָט מען געזען און געהערט, צום גרעסטן טײל, נײַע לידער און ניגונים װאָס די טאַלאַנטירטע כּלי–זמרים האָבן אַלײן געשאַפֿן און פּרעכטיק געשפּילט און געזונגען אױף דער בינע פֿון קלעזקאַנאַדע.
דער פֿאָרזיצער פֿון סײנט פּעטערבורגער ייִדישן צענטער, אַליק פֿרענקעל האָט באַמערקט אין זײן װענדונג צו קלעזקאַנאַדע עולם אַז אין דער נױענטסטער צוקונפֿט װעלן די באַגריפֿן “מזרח” און מעריבֿ” פֿאַרשװוּנדן און נאָר אײן באַגריף—ייִדישע קולטור און קלעזמער מוזיק װעלן בלײַבן און פֿאַרײניקן אונדז אַלעמען. פֿון זײַן מױל אין גאָטס אױער.
Posted by adavidow at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
September 7, 2005
Coming Events (from the newsletter)
קלעזקאַנאַדע װערט גרעסער | Coming Up! |
Continue reading "Coming Events (from the newsletter)"
Posted by adavidow at 1:28 PM | Comments (0)
טאַנץ–קלאַס
ג’עסיקע בלום
הײַנט
בין איך געװען
אין אַ
טאַנץ–קלאַס
פֿון זאבֿ
פֿעלדמאַן
און סטיװ װײַנטרױב.
Continue reading "טאַנץ–קלאַס" Posted by adavidow at 1:43 PM
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A new piece of musical theatre based on a monologue by Sholem Aleichem, and created by Jenny Levison and Josh Waletzky is coming to life. Since the piece is about a mother getting her son out of the tzar's army, Jenny and Josh have been gathering oral histories of other draft resistors. Yesterday we printed one story. Here are more. Posted by adavidow at 1:47 PM
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KlezKanada participant Dr. Sheldon Hershkop, drawn by his son, Netanel Hershkop Posted by adavidow at 1:59 PM
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by Keith and Renah Wolzinger KlezKanada is a great place to make life long friends who have a lot in common—especially musically. That is the case with Renah Wolzinger and Stuart Warshauer. Renah and Stu met several years ago, hanging out at the airport in Montreal, waiting for the camp bus. They played together many times at the Klez Cabaret, and became great friends. Stu mailed tunes from Florida, and Renah assembled the band—members of the South Coast Simcha Band, which she directs. When Stu arrived in California, it was a mini KlezKanada reunion. We rehearsed the next day, and started recording in the evening. Stuart and Renah collaborated on the arrangements, and a CD project was born—Klezmer Coast to Coast, featuring Stuart on violin, and Renah on clarinet. It was a wonderful project, which has turned into a great CD of tunes enjoyed by audiences of all ages. It was a great experience and we look forward to sharing our music with everyone as we prepare for our next joint project. Posted by adavidow at 2:02 PM
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Here is the Wednesday newsletter, in PDF format. At some point during the day, I ran into Jenny Levison. "The newsletter needs personal ads," she suggested. It seemed perfectly obvious. We could see ourselves facilitating the natural matchmaking that was happening around us. A fundraiser was born! So, as we handed out the newsletters at lunch, after Joanne Borts announced her "loyf tsunoyf" run on Friday morning (a fundraiser for the camp scholarship fund) I decided that I was not to be outdone. I declared that henceforth, personal ads would be available in the newsletter, for a $5 contribution to the KlezKanada Scholarship fund. I already have the first ads. I can't wait to see how many I get by deadline (breakfast tomorrow).
Posted by adavidow at 2:54 PM
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"Gitl Purishkevitsh"—Stories of Draft Resistance from many times and places, part 2
Dr. Sheldon Hershkop
Klezmer Coast to Coast
One evening at dinner, Stuart mentioned that he wished he could make a recording of his violin. Luckily, Renah owns RenZone Studios in Southern California, a Digital Recording Studio, and teaches Recording Engineering at Golden West College. She suggested that Stuart fly out to California and record in her studio.Escape from Camp Bnai Brith
I woke up bright and early and was ready to roll by 6:30 or so (well, maybe 6:45) for the dash down to Montreal airport to pick up my wife. As I drove to the gate, it occurred to me that staff did not show up until 7am. And, indeed, I sat in the car listening to CBC until about 7, when the office person arrived and I was able to scoot through the gate. It didn't really matter. I was a bit late to pick her up, but we made good time and were back to pick up a late breakfast. It was so nice to have Judy in camp with me. She got a few minutes on her laptop (the computer I am using to produce the newsletter) to work on her lecture for the following day, and then she went off to tsimbl class and I sat down to jam out the 2nd newsletter. With all the Hebrew and despite last night's work, I was still a bit later to the office, and the newsletter arrived only at the end of lunch. By now I was getting lots of requests for yesterday's newsletter as well, so I resolved that the Thursday newsletter would print 120 copies instead of our modest 100.