UVA Klezmer Ensemble
The McIntire Department of Music presents the UVA Klezmer Ensemble directed by Joel Rubin on Thursday, November 20th at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall.
This concert focuses on repertoire from Joel Rubin’s acclaimed recordings “Beregovski’s Wedding” and “Midnight Prayer”. Both draw their inspiration from the collections of Russian and Soviet folklorists and ethnomusicologists in Ukraine and Belarus (1880s–1930s), which were based on field recordings, early commercial recordings, transcriptions and manuscripts. At the center of the collecting activities was early ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovski (1892–1961), who administered the largest archive of traditional East European Jewish music in the world based in Kiev, Ukraine. Archive materials were based on his fieldwork in Ukraine and Belarus from 1927 to 1948, as well as music collected by his Russian-Jewish predecessors, in particular the participants in the so-called An-ski Expeditions from 1911 to 1914. The program brings together two diverse, yet partially overlapping repertoires: the instrumental music of the klezmorim – the professional Jewish instrumentalists who graced every traditional Jewish wedding in East Europe from the 16th century onwards – and the mystical nigunim (religious melodies of spiritual elevation) of the hasidic movement, which at the height of its popularity claimed more than half of East European Jewry among its followers. Many of the great klezmorim of the past were themselves hasidim. The singing and playing of nigunim occupies a unique position in hasidic life. In particular pure melody is seen as being capable of establishing a direct connection to the divine, without the interference of text.
Now in its ninth year, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble has become a vital part of the musical community of Central and Northern Virginia. Performing in Old Cabell Hall as well as at conferences and festivals in Central and Northern Virginia. The ensemble is made up of both undergraduate and graduate students from across grounds, faculty, alumni and other members of the greater Central Virginia community, and is dedicated to exploring klezmer and other Jewish and eastern European musical traditions from the 18th to the 21st century. The group is committed to ethnic, racial, cultural and religious diversity. Current and recent members have backgrounds from the US, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Iran, and India, with religious backgrounds ranging from Jewish to Christian, Hindu and Muslim.
Joel Rubin was a 2013-14 recipient of the Mead Endowment, a program whose mission is to promote the University’s unique tradition of faculty involvement with students by identifying outstanding teachers and encouraging them to take part in that tradition. The Mead funding enabled the UVA Klezmer Ensemble to record a CD documenting its work at culmination of spring 2014 semester, “Let’s Dance”, which was released in August 2014 (http://uvaklezmerensemble.bandcamp.com/track/lets-dance). In 2014 Rubin was a featured performer at the International Festival of Sacred Music in Fribourg, Switzerland (to be broadcast on Swiss Public Radio) and the KlezCalifornia festival.
Tickets for the Klezmer Ensemble performance are $10 for adults 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.
