SASHA LURJE
SINGER
Sklamberg Lurje Judelman Trio
Featuring co-founder of The Klezmatics, Lorin Sklamberg (NYC), darling of the international Yiddish scene, Sasha Lurje (Latvia/DE), and renowned globe-trotting fiddler Craig Judelman (US/DE) this new transatlantic collaboration is thrilled to present four distinct programs. As diverse as the Yiddish culture it represents, these programs are tailor made for intimate evenings of folk songs, celebratory festival stages, sophisticated theaters or community gatherings. In addition to featuring two of the leading voices in Yiddish music today, this small band can pack a big punch with their extensive klezmer repertoire, and are thrilled to offer workshops and performances with traditional dance leading.
Lorin Sklamberg, has been a mainstay of the global music scene since co-founding the Klezmatics in the late 1980’s while contributing to the development of Yiddish culture as Sound Archivist of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Ms. Lurje (raised in Riga, Latvia) brings to the stage her fire, talent and charisma, a penchant for cabaret charm as well as a deep knowledge of the old Yiddish Ballad style learned first hand from the last of the old troubadours. Mr. Judelman grew up in Seattle amid the aftermath of various folk revivals and made a name for himself as an old time as well as klezmer fiddler in New York before life took him to New Orleans and now Berlin.
Artists
Lorin Sklamberg
who 'sang before he spoke' and taught himself to play guitar, piano and autoharp, has been involved in the world of Jewish music since he was 15 years old, when he co-founded a band, Rimonim, with three Hebrew school classmates at his conservative shul in Alhambra, California. After being introduced to klezmer, Lorin began to seek out songs within the genre, but it wasn’t until after he moved to New York in the early ’80s that he was able to incorporate klezmer into the music he performed.
Prior to that move, Lorin attended two California universities and dabbled in Early Music, opera, American folk and pop and Balkan and East European musics, in addition to dancing and singing in four semi-professional ethnic song and dance ensembles. He studied voice, guitar, accordion and oud and served as the cantor at USC’s Hillel House and Los Angeles’ gay and lesbian synagogue, Beth Chayim Chadashim. Since then he has earned a Grammy for his work with the Klezmatics while also composing and collaborating on numerous projects, working with such luminaries as Chava Alberstein and Susan McKeown. Lorin can be heard on some 50 CDs, and also composes and performs for film, dance, stage and circus, produces recordings, and teaches and lectures from London and Paris to Kiev and St. Petersburg. By day he works as the Sound Archivist for the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
When he’s not on stage he can be found digging for treasures at the YIVO center in New York where he works as the head sound archivist.
Sasha
Lurje
was born in Riga, Latvia, and when a friend invited her to join a Jewish youth theater, she didn’t realize how suddenly her life's trajectory had shifted. She received early mentorship from many of the giants of the Yiddish music revival, at festivals in Russia and particularly at Yiddish Summer Weimar in Germany, propelling her to the forefront of the contemporary Yiddish music scene. It wasn’t long before she was joining her heroes on stage, and teaching hundreds of singers herself, making it her life’s work to spread Yiddish culture. Ms. Lurje has taught and performed at most of the major festivals and workshops for Yiddish music in Europe and the USA. Among her notable projects are her work with Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, and Semer Ensemble, which performs Jewish music recorded in Berlin in the 1930's. Her Yiddish progressive rock band Forshpil just released their second album, making it clear to the next generation that this music isn’t just a delicate museum relic, but a living cultural treasure trove, ready to adapt and evolve as far as we will let it.
Craig Judelman
grew up in Seattle and since the age of four, he was never more comfortable than when he had a fiddle in his hand. He started with classical music but quickly realized he had much more to say than one genre could allow, studying Klezmer, Jazz, American and other folk music wherever he could. His passion for finding the sounds he hears in old recordings and adapting the violin to whatever context the moment demands has led him around the world, performing and teaching klezmer and old time American folk music on both sides of the Atlantic. He has performed and recorded with such legends as John Cohen (New Lost City Ramblers), Peter Stampfel (The Fugs), Steve Earle, Patty Smith, Michael Alpert (Kapelye, etc) and Alan Bern (Brave Old World). He performs around Europe with his old time stringband Interstate Express, as well as playing everything from Italian music to swing, and is the Artistic Director of Seattle Yiddish Fest. Craig and Sasha both currently live in Berlin where they help drive one of the world's most active Yiddish music scenes, but spend most of their time on the road playing and teaching this music, feeding the next generation and pushing this rich culture towards its next evolutions. They can also both be heard on the project Songs from Testimonies, music from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University.
Programs
Golden Thread Ensemble
Songs Of Social Change
Golden Thread Septet is a project led by violinist and composer Craig Judelman featuring vocalists Lorin Sklamberg and Sasha Lurje and an all star group of the world’s leading klezmer string musicians. The septet will be presenting a program titled ‘Yiddish Songs of Social Change’, a thoughtful variety of historic Yiddish songs in newly-composed arrangements that explores the subjects and dynamics of social change both within the Jewish community and in its relation to the outside world in the 20th century.
The project combines deeply traditional Yiddish expression with classical compositional forms, as well as references to Klezmer music, Yiddish theater, folk song, cantorial music and more to create a unique musical experience. Featuring many of the world's leading string players and two of its most beloved vocalists, this group of artists perform both classical music and traditional Yiddish music at the highest level, and this project displays their full range of virtuosity in an evening of music with something for everyone.
Yiddish Songs of Resilience:
Yiddish Songs of Resilience
Yiddish Songs of Resilience presents songs ranging from contemporary to early-modern that speak to finding power in the midst of catastrophe. The Jewish people have centuries of experience dealing with difficult times, and song has always been a powerful way to give voice to their struggles and hopes for a better future. These songs help us contextualize the present moment and remind us we will make it through to better times, as we always have.
Song in general and Yiddish song in particular has always been a lifeline when we feel lost, and this year more than ever these these songs need to be sung and heard. While this program reaches back to the songs sung at home in the Shtetls of Eastern Europe, it is by no means nostalgic or kitsch, but rather based in the tradition yet free from the shackles of ‘revivalism.’ The songs themselves have the power and the band finds fresh and appropriate arrangements to keep the beauty and the message to the songs center stage.
Songs from the suitcase
Zingt af Yiddish: A celebration of Klezmer a klezmer frolic
An intimate evening of Yiddish song with the Klezmatics’ frontman and two of the Europe’s leading klezmer performers.
From old folk ballads to rousing Yiddish theater songs and the golden age of the Lower East Side, these two pillars of the contemporary scene give an insiders tour of your favorite songs you've never heard. They're joined by fiddler Craig Judelman (USA/DE), whose deep background and natural familiarity with old time American music (Jewish and non) provides the perfect counterpoint, along with Mr. Sklamberg accordion, for these two voices. This small all star band packs a big punch, charming audiences with the stories of the Ashkenazic experience that range from intimate to revelatory.
This concert is much more than a collection of songs - the performers are also skilled storytellers, using the songs to give the audience a greater understanding of the culture and context that created them.
Traditional Yiddish Dance Set
With over 80 years of experience playing for dancing between them, this trio knows how to get a party going and keep the energy up while creating a welcoming environment for people of all levels and physical abilities to experience the deep joy of dancing to Klezmer. With a drum, fiddle and accordion, the trio’s their passionate and joyful connection to this music and years of research quickly entices dancers to the floor. Sasha Lurje can lead dancing or when possible they are thrilled to have Montreal-based, world-renowned dance leader, researcher and cultural organizer Avia Moore with them as a special guest. Dance sets can be presented without any prior instruction as a fun event at a festival stage, or as part of a taster workshop introducing the various genres of Yiddish dance, basic steps and an overview of style.
Videos
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