Department of Music

The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music, together with the UVA Jewish Studies Program and the Virginia Film Festival, will host composer-trumpeter Frank London of the Klezmatics for a residency from November 6-10, 2011. Highlights of the residency will include a screening of the documentary film “On Holy Ground” about the Klezmatics, with London present, as part of the Virginia Film Festival on November 6th (tba), and London’s performance with the University of Virginia Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of Joel Rubin on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall.

The UVA Klezmer Ensemble focuses on the music of the klezmorim, originally the Jewish professional instrumentalists of Eastern Europe. Klezmer was brought to North America by immigrants around the turn of the last century. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place in America and beyond. Klezmer’s recent popularity has brought it far from its roots in medieval minstrelsy and Jewish ritual and into the sphere of mainstream culture. The ensemble is made up of both undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and other members of the greater Central Virginia community, and is dedicated to exploring klezmer and other Jewish musical traditions from the 18th to the 21st century. Each year, the ensemble hosts a cutting edge klezmer artist of international stature, who coaches the group for a week and performs with them.

Grammy-award winner Frank London (http://www.franklondon.com and http://www.myspace.com/franklondonmusic) is a member of the Klezmatics and Hasidic New Wave, leader of the Klezmer Brass Allstars, and has performed with a plethora of artists ranging from John Zorn to LL Cool J, Mel Tormé, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, the Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa.

He is featured on over 100 recordings. Besides his numerous CDs with the Klezmatics, including the Grammy-winning “Wonder Wheel,” and Hasidic New Wave, London’s own recordings include: “Invocations” (cantorial music); Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars’ “Di Shikere Kapelye” and the “Brotherhood of Brass”; “Nigunim” and “The Zmiros Project” (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); “The Shekhina Big Band”; “The Debt” (film and theater music); soundtracks to “The Shvitz” and Perl Gluck’s “The Divahn;” and the folk-opera “A Night in the Old Marketplace,” based on Y.L. Peretz’s classic Yiddish play of the same name. Other projects include “Davenen” for Pilobolus and the Klezmatics, Great Small Works’ “The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln” and Min Tanaka’s “Romance.” He composed music for Tony Kushner’s adaptation “A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds,” John Sayles’ “The Brother from Another Planet” and “Men with Guns,” Yvonne Rainer’s “Murder and Murder,” the Czech-American Marionette Theater’s “Golem,” and Tamar Rogoff’s “Ivye Project.”

London was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson’s “The Knee Plays,” has collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in Canada, the Crimea and the Catskills, and produced CDs for legendary Romani (Gypsy) vocalist Esma Redzepova and Algerian Pianist Maurice el Medioni. He has been featured on HBO’s “Sex and the City,” at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Now in its sixth year, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble has rapidly become a vital part of the musical community of Central and Northern Virginia. Besides performing in Old Cabell Hall, recent appearances have included the Jewish Studies conference “Jewish Renaissance and Renaissances” at UVA, the College of William and Mary, the University of Richmond’s Global Sounds Festival, the Gravity Lounge, the 214 Community Arts Center, WeArts Festival (McGuffey Arts Center), New Bridges (Harrisonburg), Congregation Beth Israel, Chabad of UVA, the Piedmont Council for the Arts’ annual Spring for the Arts benefit, the Charlottesville Festival of Cultures, and the Jewish Community Council (Lynchburg). Director Joel Rubin’s recent activities include a new CD with jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine (“Azoy Tsu Tsveyt,” Tzadik Records), teaching the Advanced Instrumental Workshop at Yiddish Summer Weimar 2011, and an upcoming New York performance honoring his thirty years as a pioneer of the klezmer revival.

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. Tickets can be purchased at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or by calling 434.924.3376