Ashkenaz Festival

On Feb 12, 2012…

Jan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:46:46 +0000

Beat winter with Ashkenaz and Annex Shul
and celebrate Tu B’shvat at “Winter Bloom”, featuring

Eastern melodies, Western grooves

Sunday, February 12 at 8:00 PM

LOT Lounge, 100 Ossington Ave (north of Queen)

Tickets $20 at the door.

*CASH BAR + TU B’SHVAT TREATS*

Dynamic jazz fusion ensemble Zebrina- which is made up of some of Toronto’s leading jazz and world music players – will play selections from their acclaimed debut CD, Trail of the Hunter-Gatherers, released at the 2010 Ashkenaz Festival. They will also perform new compositions from keyboardist/bandleader Jon Feldman. Zebrina’s debut demo made the “best of 2009″ special by JAYMZ BEE On-Air Host, JAZZ.FM91.

Click here to watch Zebrina’s performance at the 2010 festival.

Ori Dakari Quartet

Jan — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:32:56 +0000

Ashkenaz is pleased to present, in partnership with the Canada Israel Cultural Foundation, the Canadian debut of Israeli jazz guitarist Ori Dakari.

Ori Dakari Quartet (Israel/NY)

Thursday January 26, 8pm
Trane Studio
964 Bathurst St (south of Dupont), Toronto

Note: Tickets are no longer available online but can be purchased at the door at 8pm.

Trane Studio offers a full dinner menu; click here for details

Israeli guitarist Ori Dakari is an exciting new arrival on the international world-jazz scene. With his debut CD release “Entrances” (2009) on John Zorn’s prestigious Tzadik Records label, Ori Dakari has fashioned a compelling sound all his own. Lyrical and powerful, his unique compositions are rooted as much in contemporary jazz sounds as in Israeli, Yemenite, East European, and North African music. Surrounded by an impressive cast of some of NY’s top young jazz heavies, Dakari and his quartet create exciting improvisations and intense rhythmic drive. The band has already lit up the international jazz circuit with festival and club performances in Israel, US, Russia, Serbia and Thailand; don’t miss their Canadian debut at Toronto’s Trane Studio.

Ori Dakari’s international travel sponsored by Consulate General of Israel

Lemon Bucket Orkestra

Jan — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:19:07 +0000

The exciting new event space at the Lower Ossington Theatre Lounge will play host to Toronto’s only Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk-Super-Band, the Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Come down to Queen and Ossington for Ashkenaz’s kick-off show of the season.

DATE: Saturday, November 19
PLACE: LOT Lounge, 100 Ossington Ave (street-level space, just north of Queen)
TIME: Doors at 10 p.m., show at 10:30 p.m.

The Lemon Bucket Orkestra grew out of a conversation between a Breton accordionist and a Ukrainian fiddler in a Vietnamese restaurant on Yonge Street. Mark Marczyk had just spent two years in Ukraine playing with the urban folk band Ludy Dobri while Tangi Ropars had returned to his place of birth after a lifetime of Celtic folk. Their original quartet, Worldly Savages, has since swelled into a fourteen-piece band whose explosive take on Ukrainian, ex-Yugoslavian, Romani and other traditional songs and their desire to play anywhere and everywhere has lit up the urban folk scene in the streets and clubs of Toronto.

Check out a clip from the band’s recent tour in Montreal here.

For more info on the artists go to www.lemonbucketorkestra.com

JEWISH PEOPLE, YIDDISH NATION: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland

Jan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:21:44 +0000

The official launch of the new book by Professor Kalman Weiser

Featuring a special musical performance by Marilyn Lerner and David Wall

Tuesday, October 18 2011 @ 7:30pm

The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street W, Toronto

Tickets $10 at the door

For more information call 416-979-9901 or check out our Facebook event here.

Linguist, folklorist, journalist, and politician Noah Prylucki (1882–1941) was a champion of Yiddishism, a movement that promoted secular Yiddish culture as the basis for Jewish collective identity in the twentieth century. Prylucki’s dramatic path – from russified Zionist raised in a Ukrainian shtetl, to Diaspora nationalist parliamentarian in metropolitan Warsaw, to professor of Yiddish the University of Vilnius in Soviet Lithuania – uniquely reflects the dilemmas and competing options facing the Jews of this era as life in Eastern Europe underwent radical transformation. Using hitherto unexplored archival sources, memoirs, interviews, and materials from the vibrant interwar Jewish and Polish presses, Professor Kalman Weiser investigates the rise and fall of Yiddishism and of Prylucki’s political party, the Folkists, in the post-World War One era. Jewish People, Yiddish Nation reveals the life of a remarkable individual and the fortunes of a major cultural movement that has long been obscured. Professor Weiser will discuss his research, present selected passages from the book and participate in a Q and A.

Illustrating the continuing relevance of the Yiddishist movement, two of Toronto’s leading interpreters of Yiddish song, Marilyn Lerner and David Wall, will present new musical settings of Yiddish folksong texts collected by Prylucki himself.

Ashkenaz’s Annual Yiddish Summer concert

Jan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:41:14 +0000

Sunday August 21, 2011, 7:30pm

Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue, 100 Elder St (between Sheppard and Finch, parking off Wilmington)

Ashkenaz is thrilled to announce that this year’s Annual Summer Yiddish Concert will feature the Canadian debut of Serendipity4, a veritable supergroup including the legendary star of song, stage and screen Theodore Bikel, along with renowned Dutch Yiddish singer Shura Lipovsky, virtuoso Bosnian accordionist Merima Kljuco and acclaimed conductor and pianist Tamara Brooks. This quartet of highly celebrated musicians highlight the diversity and commonality of different cultures, performing songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino and Bosnian styles.

This highly-anticipated show will take place on Sunday August 21, 7.30pm at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue and is co-presented with the Committee For Yiddish and in collaboration with Montreal’s KlezKanada Festival.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Groups of 20+, $20.

Students $15. Children under 13 free. For bookings call 416 979 9901 or purchase online before Friday, August 19 at 5 pm. (Tickets will still be available to purchase at the door for $30.)

Theodore Bikel is a world-renowned stage and screen actor as well as one of the world’s most beloved singers of folk music; he is especially known for his vast knowledge of international songs. For the past fifty years, Bikel has appeared in concerts, plays, films, and on television throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, as well as in Australia, Israel, and New Zealand. He is also an accomplished translator of song lyrics and has recorded over twenty albums.

Tamara Brooks is a conductor and pianist whose career has spanned more than thirty-five years. She has conducted ensembles in the United States and in twenty countries throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. A champion of contemporary music, Brooks has commissioned and conducted many new works. She has recorded for Musical Heritage, Arabesque, Centaur, Neuma, Music & Arts, and RCA, and made a Grammy-nominated recording of the music of Vincent Persichetti. Brooks is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

Merima Kljuco is one of the world’s finest classical accordionists. She performs as a soloist with numerous ensembles including the Philharmonische Orchester Bremen and the Holland Symphonia. She has worked internationally with renowned artists and ensembles, including MusikFabrik, David Krakauer, Gelberklang, and Joaquim Sabate. Kljuco is also a well known performer of klezmer and Balkan music; she studied accordion at the Srednja Muzika Kola in Sarajevo and the Rotterdam Conservatory, and completed a specialization in contemporary music at the Hochschule fur die Kunste Bremen.

Shura Lipovsky is one of the best-known singers of Yiddish/Jewish songs in Europe. She specializes in Judaic mysticism and dance, and she teaches master classes for singers and in Yiddish repertoire. Lipovsky facilitates workshops in Hasidic dance, songs, and stories in institutions around the world including the Oxford Summer University in England, Medem in Paris, and the Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center Elat Chayim in upstate New York. She has performed and taught in Canada, Europe, Russia, Sweden and the United States.

The Adventures of Mazel and Schlimazel

Jan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:18:03 +0000

The Toronto Fringe Festival and the Ashkenaz Foundation co-present

WHEN LUCK COMES KNOCKING:

THE ADVENTURES OF MAZEL AND SCHLIMAZEL

A One-man Show for Children, Adapted from a Yiddish Folk Tale

As part of the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, Lorie Wolf is pleased to present “The Adventures of Mazel and Schlimazel,” a musical adaptation of a children’s folk tale by Nobel-prize winning Yiddish author, Isaac Bashevis Singer. “Mazel and Schlimazel” premiered at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto over Labour Day weekend 2010 to a packed house and will open at the Toronto Fringe Festival July 8th, 2011 at the Palmerston Library Theatre.

Mazel and Schlimazel are the spirits of good luck and bad luck. In an attempt to see who has more influence over the fate of man, they strike a wager; Mazel will spend a year bringing luck to the life of young Tam, a poor but plucky peasant lad. Schlimazel will have but a moment at year’s end to undo Mazel’s hard work. Tam, meanwhile, during his ascent into fortune, falls in love with
the king’s daughter, and will do anything to prove his worth to her.

Wolf set out to adapt “Mazel and Schlimazel” for children’s theatre because she wanted to share the quirkiness and playfulness inherent in the Yiddish language with a younger audience. Geoff Kolomayz (www.geoffkolomayz.info), a Fringe veteran, stars in this beautiful one-man
show. In this technically challenging role, Kolomayz has to convincingly play multiple characters for an audience of children while simultaneously paying attention to the timing of live musicians.

The performance is accompanied by a live Klezmer band, with original compositions by Lorie Wolf. Rich with humour, suspense and memorable characters, including the requisite beautiful princess, it is a perfect introduction to Yiddish literature and culture for both young and old, and should not be missed.

The Adventures of Mazel and Schlimazel
Adapted by Lorie Wolf
Directed by Lorie Wolf and Geoff Kolomayz
Starring: Geoff Kolomayz
Stage Manager: Emily Hoffstetter
Opens July 8th and runs to July 17th
Palmerston Library Theatre
560 Palmerston Avenue
Toronto ON M6G 2P7
Performances:
Friday, July 8th, 2:45pm-3:45pm
Sunday, July 10th, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Monday, July 11th, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Tuesday, July 12th, 7:30pm-8:30pm
Wednesday, July 13th, 1:00pm-2:00pm
Thursday, July 14th, 11:00am-12:00pm
Friday, July 15th, 4:30pm-5:30pm
Sunday, July 17th 12:00-1:00pm
Media members: Please note there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Ticket Prices:
Children (12 and under): $5.00
Adults: $10.00
Ticket Sales:
Online: www.fringetoronto.com
By phone: (416) 966-1062
In person: 34 Lennox Ave. (parking behind Honest Ed’s)
July 6th-17th, 12:00 pm-8:00 pm
Ashkenaz Website: www.ashkenazfestival.com

Ashkenaz @ TJFF May 8-15

eric — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:22:33 +0000

Springtime in Toronto can mean only one thing: the Jewish Film Festival is upon us! Taking place May 7-15, Ashkenaz is thrilled once again to partner with the TJFF in the presentation of two films at this year’s festival:

SHOLEM ALEICHEM: LAUGHING IN THE DARKNESS
CANADIAN PREMIERE · USA 2011, 95 MIN
DIRECTOR: JOSEPH DORMAN (in attendance, May 12 screening) Filmmaker Joseph Dorman (Arguing the World) has made an epic documentary on the great Sholem Aleichem, the iconic Yiddish writer whose stories became the basis of the legendary musical Fiddler on the Roof. Through intelligent and inventive use of narration, readings of his works, archival photos and film clips, the film brings to life the world in which Sholem Aleichem lived and observed, a traditional Jewish world on the cusp of modernity. It transports the viewer from Solomon Rabinowitz’s birth in 1859 to a fairly well-to-do family, through to his years of financial difficulties and his emergence as a giant of Yiddish literature. Also features interviews with contemporary leaders of the Yiddish cultural world, as well as Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter.
Thursday May 12 · 5:15 PM · Bloor Cinema
Sunday May 15 · 3:00 PM · Cineplex Odeon Sheppard Centre Cinemas

SONG OF THE LODZ GHETTO · CANADA 2010, 120 MIN
DIRECTOR: DAVID KAUFMAN (in attendance) Klezmer supergroup Brave Old World’s haunting musical program of songs from the Lodz Ghetto provides the framework for David Kaufman’s definitive new documentary about the Lodz Ghetto, once the second largest ghetto in Poland. Combining chilling narrative, evocative music, and unforgettable photographs, this is the first major film to feature extensive interviews with survivors of the Holocaust from Lodz. Focusing on the lives of two historical figures central to the Lodz Ghetto story – the beloved and popular street-singer Yankele Herszkowicz, and the despotic, Nazi-appointed Jewish leader of the ghetto Chaim Rumkowski – the documentary also explores in detail daily life in the Lodz Ghetto and the uplifting role that music and culture played for ghetto dwellers who faced the constant presence of terror and death.
Sunday May 8 • 3:00 PM Cineplex Odeon Sheppard Centre Cinemas

All TJFF tickets are available by calling 416-599-8433 or visiting www.tjff.com for online orders or info on in-person purchase locations/hours

Ashkenaz Summer Kickoff

eric — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:32:13 +0000

THURSDAY JUNE 16, 9pm • REVIVAL BAR (783 College St)

YIDDISH PRINCESS (Brooklyn, USA) and
THE BARONS OF TANG (Melbourne, Australia)
$15 in advance, $20 at the door
Students: $12 in advance (please contact Janis Seftel at janis@ashkenazfestival.com to purchase a student ticket), $15 at the door

Buy Tickets

Ashkenaz kicks off the summer with an eardrum-rattling double bill featuring two electrifying bands from opposite ends of the earth. Brooklyn’s Yiddish Princess wowed audiences at the 2010 Ashkenaz Festival with its bizarre and compelling re-take on Yiddish music set as 1980′s-style power pop. Combining the soaring vocals of Sarah Gordon with the irreverent arrangements of klez-synth madman Michael Winograd, the group is completed by a double guitar onslaught and arena rock drum/bass rhythm section that rocks out without leaving the shlock out.

Making their Toronto debut, Australia’s The Barons of Tang blend tango, zydeco, jazz and rockabilly with East European gypsy and klezmer influences. Performed with crushing intensity and an unabashed punk attitude, the 7-piece group’s self-described brand of “gypsy deathcore” music is unlike anything heard before in these parts.

Co-presented with UJA Committee For Yiddish

Ashkenaz @ Toronto Jazz Festival, June 29

eric — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:28:14 +0000

We are very excited to partner for the first time with the Toronto Jazz Festival in presenting another returning favourite from our last Festival. Since their Ashkenaz-commissioned, world premiere performance at Harbourfront Centre last summer, Montreal’s LES BATARDS DE BOUCHE has continued developing its unique and virtuosic repertoire of Jewish- and Quebecois-influenced harmonica music. Featuring the full range of Harmonica family instruments (diatonic, chromatic, chord and bass), the group elicits a delightful range of sounds and moods from its quirky instrumentation, and will release its debut CD back where it all began in Toronto in a free outdoor performance on Wednesday June 29, 5:30pm at Metro Square (next to Roy Thomson Hall), co-presented by Ashkenaz and the Toronto Jazz Festival.

Ashkenaz student competition

Jan — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:38:52 +0000

YIDDISH PRINCESS SHOW

Enter our student competition to win two tickets to Yiddish Princess on Thurs, June 16, 2011! (other great prizes also on offer)

Yiddish Princess blends "Yiddish folk songs of the 1880s with the hard rock of the 1980s" (the KlezmerShack) ... If you like your power pop with a good old side of Yiddish heritage, these guys are for you. They're from Brooklyn, they performed at the 2010 Ashkenaz Festival and they're back in Toronto this June, performing at Revival, 783 College St.

You can also become a fan of Yiddish Princess on Facebook.

Enter to win:

Full name: *

Birthdate: *

University or college name: *

Student number: *

Email address: *

What is the name of the band that Ashkenaz presented in February this year? *