Department of Music

Klezmer workshop with Daniel Kahn and Jake Shulman-Ment

Sunday, April 19, 2015, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm, Old Cabell Hall 107

Free and open to the public

Daniel Kahn is a singer-songwriter who works at the seams of Yiddish, German and English in a klezmer-influenced multilingual translation project. He is originally from Detroit and has been based in Berlin since 2005. Originally trained in theater and writing, Daniel won major awards in theater and poetry at the University of Michigan and is currently also involved in a number of theatrical and musical projects in Germany, especially at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. The Painted Bird is an eclectic mix of punk cabaret, radical Yiddish song, Gothic American folk and Klezmer Danse Macabre – Verfremdungsklezmer (“alienation klezmer”). The Painted Bird has released four albums to date, of which “Lost Causes” was awarded the prestigious German Record Critics’ Prize. Kahn’s songs address political issues and Jewish social movements such as the Bund while accompanied with klezmer, punk and folk melodies. Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird have travelled around the globe to play for fans and comrades at rock clubs, theatres, festivals and shtetls.

Violinist Jake Shulman-Ment is among the leaders of a new emerging generation of klezmer and Eastern European folk music performers. Jake displays a remarkable versatility as violinist, composer, improvisor, arranger, bandleader, and producer, while consistently remaining true to his deep roots in traditional Jewish music. He is also well-versed in traditional styles from Transylvania and the Republic of Moldova. Besides leading his own group and being a member of the Painted Bird, Jake is a part of the acclaimed An-Sky Ensemble of the New York Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

"When it's comes to wicked freaky Klezmer music, the Americans were always way ahead.  Daniel Kahn, born in Detroit, living in Berlin, belongs to this caste of Yiddish music agitators. An absolute must for lovers of unusual, intelligent, challenging, exciting folk music and a blast at every instant." -Klaus Halama, Sound & Image

"Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird are to Klezmer what the Pogues were to Folk: shtetl music spiked with a proper shot of Punk. . . Polyglot, Paneuropean Punkfolk. Kahn writes great crooked songs between Leonard Cohen and Mordechai Gebirtig, between Nick Cave and Hirsch Glik. With a light hand, he translates and adapts old songs, making them his own."  -Die Zeit
 

The residency is a collaboration between the McIntire Department of Music, Jewish Studies Program,  James Dunton Gift (Jazz Program), Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Center for German Studies, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of Drama, Creative Writing Program.

Click here for the full residency schedule.

Co-sponsored by:

Jewish Studies Program

Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

Center for German Studies

Department of German Languages and Literatures

Drama Department

Creative Writing Program

James Dunton Gift (Jazz Performance Program)