Department of Music

Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz (Veretski Pass) Segelstein and Horowitz perform Poyln with Joel Rubin and the UVA Klezmer Ensemble at Old Cabell Hall Auditorium on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 8:00pm

Charlottesville, VA – The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music, together with the Miller Arts Scholars, will host violinist Cookie Segelstein and accordionist Joshua Horowitz from the Berkeley-based trio Veretski Pass in concert as guest artists with the UVA Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of Joel Rubin on Thursday, Dec. 6th, 2018 at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.

You may watch Veretski Pass and Joel Rubin in Concert, Erfurt, Germany, 2016 here.

The concert will feature music from the trio’s collaborative CD with Joel Rubin, Poyln: A Gilgul (Poland: A Metamorphosis). The CD received a five-star review in the influential world music magazine, Songlines. The duo of Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz (Berkeley, CA) offers a unique and exciting combination of virtuosic musicianship and raw energy that has excited concertgoers across the world. Playing in an unbound, energetic village style, this veteran duo plays a multicultural stew of music from historical Eastern Europe: Jewish instrumental klezmer tunes coexist together with folk melodies from Ukraine, the Carpathians, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and of the Tatars, Hutzuls, Ruthenians, and Ottoman Turks. Much of this rare music has been gleaned from field recordings gathered by the musicians themselves in over fourteen countries spanning over twenty years. With its colorful instrumentation, unique arrangements and repertoire, this influential duo carries on the ancient tradition of klezmer musicians, playing music of all kinds, but with a recognizably Yiddish sound.

Segelstein and Horowitz’s music has won numerous awards, among them the BBC’s Critics Circle award for best CD, the Belgian Gandalf Award for Best Concert, and the Viennese Fritz Spielmann Award. They have twice been chosen as ambassadors representing traditional Jewish Music of Eastern Europe for the German traveling exhibition, Klezmerwelten, and have headlined KlezFest, the Jewish Music Festival of SOAS, University of London. They have been featured internationally in concerts at prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and their CDs have repeatedly been on the ten-best recordings lists of journalists. Segelstein’s unique violin style was featured for the Jewish wedding scene on HBO’s Sex and the City, and Horowitz’s compositons provided the music for Jes Benstock’s award-winning film, The Holocaust Tourist, as well as for the German TV series, Berlin, Berlin. Together with Rubin, Veretski Pass recently recorded a CD of Jewish music of Belarus and Ukraine, which will be released on Golden Horn Records in January 2019.

Now in its thirteenth 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.

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.

Co-sponsored by the Miller Arts Scholars.

All events are subject to change.