Klezmer Ensemble
The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music presents the UVA Klezmer Ensemble with special guest artist, Paul Brody on Thursday, April 19th at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall. Directed by Joel Rubin, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble focuses on the music of the klezmorim, the Jewish professional instrumentalists of eastern Europe, as well as related Jewish and other East European traditions from the 18th century to the present, including Yiddish song.
Tonight’s performance will feature Paul Brody, an American trumpeter, composer, sound installation artist, and writer based in Berlin, Germany. Brody leads his klezmer-jazz band, Sadawi and performs with a number of other groups, including the Other Europeans, the Semer Ensemble, and Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird. He has collaborated with artists as diverse as John Zorn, Kent Nagano, Shirley Bassey, Ran Blake, the Klezmatics, and Barry White.
John Zorn has written: “Paul Brody is a remarkable trumpet player, composer, arranger based in Berlin... He brought together some of the best players from both the U.S. and Germany to create a new Jewish supergroup. The music combines exciting arrangements, catchy tunes, and compelling solos into another classic of the new Jewish Renaissance... Brody is forging a new Jewish jazz for the 21st Century."
Now ending its twelth year, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble has become a vital part of the musical community of Central and Northern Virginia, performing each semester in Old Cabell Hall as well as at conferences and festivals throughout the region. The ensemble is currently made up of undergraduates, grad students, and other members of the greater Central Virginia community. The group is committed to ethnic, racial, cultural and religious diversity. Current and recent members have backgrounds from the US, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Iran, Bangladesh, and India, with religious backgrounds ranging from Jewish to Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist.
In 2016, Joel Rubin was a featured performer and teacher at the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow, Poland, and at Yiddish Summer Weimar, and toured with the Berkeley-based trio, Veretski Pass to Germany and Austria. The group will be recording its second collaborative CD in August, 2018.
Tickets for the Klezmer Ensemble performance are $10 for adults, $9 for UVA faculty and staff, and $5 for students. Tickets for University of Virginia students are free if reserved in advance at the Arts Box Office www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu. Tickets are available in advance or at the door.
Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVA's historic lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda (map). Parking is available in the Central Grounds parking garage on Emmet Street, in the C1 parking lot off McCormick Rd, and in the parking lots at the UVA Corner. Handicap parking is available in the small parking lot adjacent to Bryan Hall.
All programs are subject to change.
Co-sponsored by the James Dunton Gift (Jazz Program), the UVA Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Center for German Studies, the Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Drama Department, the Creative Writing Program, the Anthropology Department, the Linguistics Program, and the Miller Arts Scholars.
Links:
Paul Brody's Sadawi in Warsaw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d24-8TKGZuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTYaSLf0TZ8