Newsletter N°5

Contents

1 Klezmer gathering

2 THE WAXBAND PROJECT

3 Forgotten Love Songs

4 Dates to remember

Dear friends,

Spring has arrived and it is wonderful! I hope you are enjoying this miraculous season.

Much like what is happening in nature, my musical life is undergoing a melodious blossoming of energy, creativity and renewal as I work intensively on existing projects, as well as conceiving new, surprising and original projects.

1 Klezmer gathering (end of May)

First, I’d like to mention there are still some places left for the “Klezmer Rendez-Vous” workshop that I am organising at the end of May in Normandy. This year will be an amazing one, with 70 participants, 8 workshop leaders from 5 countries (including our headliners Frank London and Susha Lurje), 4 days of fun, concerts, workshops, a dance and other nice surprises. Here is the link for information and to sign up:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLniixwWacD90OLpukrVvtQFNIPb6Wdr/view?usp=sharing

2 The Waxband Project (July, Weimar)

I also have pleasure in announcing my new project “Waxband” after a request from the German festival “Yiddish Summer in Weimar”. I was asked to put a show together on my chosen subject: the klezmer audio archives of the early 20th century. I have therefore brought together my most loyal bandmates in this field: Jérôme Block (accordion), Laurent Clouet (clarinet) and Mihai Trestian (cimbalom). We have added Olivier Richaume who is a violinist, comedian, and inventor of improvised instruments, together with an original “Edison” phonograph from 1905. The phonograph is the equipment with which recordings were made on wax cylinders over 100 years ago. In our show (the world premiere will be on 29 July in Weimar), the phonograph is used as a time machine. We are going to perform the melodies and songs of the archives – we will record ourselves, in situ, on cylinders and then play the recording of this newly-created old sound! In short, a real adventure with a little-known repertoire and a daring mise en scène full of surprises and poetry. Come along if you can to witness this exceptional project in Weimar this summer. Here is the link:

https://yiddishsummer.eu/main/festival-week.html

3 Forgotten Love Songs

In early May, I am going to shut myself in a recording studio with two of my dear friends: Pierre-Alexis Lavergne and Moshe Beregovski. Pierre-Alexis (whom you probably know from the legendary French klezmer group “Glik”) is a surprising musician, a multi-instrumentalist, overflowing with knowledge, ideas and energy. And when I speak of M. Beregovski, I’m not talking of the man himself (who died in Kiev in 1961) but his book of ethnographic research: “Yidishe Folks-Lider”. From this book of 500 traditional and mostly unknown Yiddish songs, I have chosen 12 songs from the Love Song chapter and with the help of Pierre-Alexis, his instruments, his microphones and his machines, we’ll record something. We don’t exactly know what yet – it’s an experiment! But if it bears fruit, I will of course share them with you in the form of a little album or even a new show. We will see!

4 Dates to remember

30 May-2 June – Klezmer Rendez-Vous at “Tapis Vert” (Normandy, France)

8 June – klezmer dance with Beygale Orkestra (Port-Saint-Père, France)

15 June – “Fête de la musique”, Yiddish songs for beginners (L’Hélice Terrestre, near Angers, France) http://heliceterrestre.canalblog.com/

21 June – “Mini Beygale Orkstra” (la Chapelle sur Erdre, France)

29 July – Waxband: world premiere! (Weimar, Germany)

30 July – Waxband (Erfurt, Germany)

See you soon!

Love,

Amit