Ongoing Events
Ashkenaz presents, in partnership with the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Miles Nadal JCC
Jewish Culture in Contemporary Poland:
An Intimate Discussion with JANUSZ MAKUCH
Founder/Director of the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival
Sunday March 25th, 2pm at the MNJCC (Room 318)
$10
The founder/director of Europe’s largest Jewish culture festival discusses his 25-year journey reviving Jewish life and culture in Poland. Makuch will present an overview of the history and content of the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival and discuss the broader context of attitudes toward Jewish history and culture in Poland today. The presentation will include video footage from the Festival, including the spectacular “Szalom na Szeroka” finale concert that always concludes the celebration.
Janusz Makuch was born in Pulawy, Poland, in 1960 and studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He and Krzysztof Gierat jointly organized the first Jewish Culture Festival in Kracow in 1988, an achievement of enormous symbolic significance given the Festival’s devotion to a culture that had been sentenced to oblivion in communist Poland. In 1995, the organizers and friends of the Festival incorporated as a non-profit, non-governmental organization and made Janusz Makuch its chairman. Since that time the Festival has continued to grow extraordinarily and is now the largest and most prestigious celebration of its kind in Europe. The Festival features over a week of concerts, exhibits, workshops and celebrations with leading musicians and artists from all over the world working in Jewish traditions. Taking place in Krakow’s historic Jewish district of Kazimierz, the Festival attracts an audience of over 20,000, the majority of whom are not Jewish.
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*
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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.
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
