Department of Music

Klezmer Residency 2019

Charlottesville, VA – The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music, together with the co-sponsorship of the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Brody Jewish Center, and the Front Porch, will host a residency with violinist Deborah Strauss and multi-instrumentalist Cantor Jeff Warschauer from New York from April 7-11, 2019. Over the course of five days, the Strauss/Warschauer Duo will present a workshop on traditional Yiddish song, instrumental music and dance, hold a colloquium, visit classes, and rehearse with the UVA Klezmer Ensemble. The visit will culminate in a participatory dance performance accompanied by the Strauss/Warschauer Duo and the UVA Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of Associate Professor and Director of Music Performance, Joel Rubin, on Thursday, April. 11th, 2019 at 8pm in the Hunter Smith Band Building on UVA’s Arts Grounds.

The event will feature traditional instrumental dance music, with folk dancing led by Deborah Strauss, alongside songs. For over twenty-five years, Deborah Strauss (violin, accordion, vocals, dance) and Cantor Jeff Warschauer (guitar, mandolin, vocals) have been at the forefront of the international klezmer and Yiddish music scene. They were both long-time members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, one of the premiere groups of the klezmer revival, and have performed with legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman on film and in concert. As the Strauss/Warschauer Duo, they have performed to overwhelming acclaim in such diverse venues as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Great Britain’s Fiddles on Fire, the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow, Poland, and the Art of Yiddish in Los Angeles together with the late actor and singer Theodore Bikel.

Jeff Warschauer is Cantor at the Jewish Center in Princeton, New Jersey, and Founding Artistic Director and Senior Artistic Advisor of the KlezKanada Institute for Yiddish/Jewish Culture and the Arts. He is on the faculty of Columbia University in New York, and is a graduate of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Deborah Strauss is also an award-winning children’s educator and a highly regarded Yiddish dancer and dance leader. She has performed with the Grammy-winning Klezmatics and appears in the film, Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem.

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 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.

The Hunter Smith Band Building is located on Arts Grounds at UVA, next to the Culbreth Parking Garage (map).

Residency schedule:

Sunday, April 7, 2019, 11 am – 2 pm, The Front Porch in Downtown Charlottesville:

Workshop with Deborah Strauss, “Zingendik! Tantsndik! Shpilndik!” (Sing! Dance! Play!)

Free and open to the public

Whether you are an experienced klezmer player or Yiddish singer, or new to the style, this hands-on workshop will offer you a feast of Eastern European Yiddish instrumental and vocal music. Taught in a lively, integrated approach—a marriage of instruments, singing and movement—we will explore new ways to express klezmer music’s full potential, both as a group and as individuals. Open to all instrumentalists, singers and dancers. All ages, levels and backgrounds welcome.

Part of a week-long residency at the McIntire Department of Music at UVA, co-sponsored by the UVA Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Brody Jewish Center, and the Front Porch.

The Front Porch is located at 221 Water Street East, in beautiful historic downtown Charlottesville and is accessible on the Free Downtown Trolley (EXIT 2nd St. NE).

By car:

From 64 East: take VA-20 exit, EXIT 121 towards Charlottesville/Scottsville. Turn right on Monticello Ave/VA-20, continue to follow Monticello Ave for approximately 1.24 miles. Take a right onto 2nd St. SE then a right onto Water St. E, our blue building will be on the left.

From 64 West: Take the VA-631/5th St. exit, Exit 120 towards Charlottesville. Turn left onto 5th St. and continue to follow for approximately 2.13 miles. Turn right onto Water St. E, our building will be on the left.

Hourly parking available in the Water St. Parking Garage.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 12:30 pm, Claude Moore Nursing Education Building, room G120

Jewish Studies and Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Colloquium with Deborah Strauss and Cantor Jeff Warschauer, “The Resurgence of Jewish Life and Culture in Poland”  Free and open to the public.

Thousands gather in the former Jewish quarters of Kraków and Warsaw to hear klezmer music. Students from many countries meet in Warsaw for four weeks of intensive Yiddish language study. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw attracts throngs of visitors, and young Polish Jews are reconnecting with their roots. Are these more than curiosities? Or are they, in fact, signs of an expanding Jewish presence in today’s Poland?

Deborah Strauss and Cantor Jeff Warschauer have performed, taught and traveled extensively in Poland since the early 1990s. Join them for a candid look into a remarkable phenomenon.
The Claude Moore Nursing Education Building is located at 225 Jeanette Lancaster Way, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Thursday, April 11, 2019, 8:00 pm, the Hunter Smith Band Building on UVA’s Arts Grounds:

UVA Klezmer Ensemble Spring 2019 Concert

Klezmer dance evening with the Strauss/Warschauer Duo and the UVA Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of Associate Professor and Director of Music Performance, Joel Rubin.

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.

The Hunter Smith Band Building is located on Arts Grounds at UVA, next to the Culbreth Parking Garage (map).

Links:

Strauss/Warschauer Duo at the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival 2014

Strauss/Warschauer Duo, “To the Wedding”