New SU Klezmer Ensemble to perform March 26

Thursday, March 2, 2006, By News Staff

New SU Klezmer Ensemble to perform March 26March 02, 2006Jaime Winne Alvarezjlwinne@syr.edu

The newly formed Syracuse University Klezmer Ensemble (SUKE) will perform “From Shtetl to Metropolis: An Evening of Klezmer Music and Yiddish Song” March 26 at the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. under the direction of Joel Rubin, Rothman Family Visiting Lecturer in Judaic Studies, who is considered by many to be the world’s leading performer of klezmer music.

The concert is free to the public; parking is available in Irving Garage.

Klezmer, originally the ritual and celebratory music of the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe, was brought to North America by immigrants around the turn of the last century. In New York City, a modern klezmer tradition flourished until it declined at mid-century. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place in America and beyond.

The concert will focus on repertoire from New York City of the 1910s and 1920s, as well as 19th-century Eastern Europe, and will additionally feature songs from the Yiddish folk tradition in Eastern Europe and from American Yiddish theater and vaudeville.

Rubin has been an internationally acclaimed performer of klezmer and hasidic music for the past 25 years. As a clarinetist, Rubin studied with Kalmen Opperman, as well as with international soloist Richard Stoltzman. He has performed in concert throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and has held master classes and workshops at the Clarinet Summit, the New England Conservatory of Music, Indiana University and Yale University and for the Israeli and Berlin ministries of education.

SUKE is co-sponsored by the Setnor School of Music and the Judaic Studies Program andDepartment of Fine Arts in The College of Arts and Sciences. This concert is madepossible with the additional support of a UEncounter Grant and co-sponsorship byHillel at SU. For more information, visit: http://www.rubin-ottens.com or http://jsp.syr.edu.