The McIntire Department of Music presents a concert by the acclaimed Berkeley-based trio Veretski Pass with clarinetist Joel Rubin and the UVA Klezmer Ensemble, Thursday, Nov. 21 at 8pm, in Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $9 for UVA faculty and staff, $5 for students, and free for UVA students who reserve in advance at the Arts Box Office.

The event will feature the music from the group’s most recent project in collaboration with Rubin, “The Magid Chronicles” (Golden Horn Records, 2019). The project is dedicated to materials collected by Sofia Magid, a musicologist and ethnographer who documented traditional Jewish music in Belarus and Ukraine during the Stalinist regime of the 1920s and 30s. Veretski Pass and Rubin’s work with the materials spurred a set of new compositions, improvisations, and recompositions derived from and inspired by the Magid collection and drawing on traditions and cultures as diverse as Romanian, Turkish, Greek, and Hutsul. Although derived largely from ethnographic work, this work is essentially a creative re-imagination. Listen here to a recent radio program on PRX, “Sounds Jewish” by Andy Muchin, about Veretski Pass. View a short clip from a recent concert of “The Magid Chronicles” at Yiddish Summer Weimar.

Segelstein and Horowitz’s music has won numerous awards, among them the BBC’s Critics Circle award for best CD, the Belgian Gandalf Award for Best Concert, and the Viennese Fritz Spielmann Award. Often touring in Europe, Veretski Pass has twice been chosen as ambassadors representing traditional Jewish Instrumental Music of Eastern Europe for the German World Exhibition of Klezmer History (Klezmerwelten) and have headlined the Jewish Music Festival of the University of London. They recently performed at the prestigious Concertgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam to a sold out audience with a standing ovation, and their CDs have repeatedly been on the 10-best recordings lists of journalists. Cookie’s unique violin style was featured for a Jewish wedding scene on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and Josh and Stu’s compositions provided the music for Jes Benstock’s award-winning film “The Holocaust Tourist.” Now in its fourteenth year, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble has become a vital part of the musical community of Central and Northern Virginia, performing each semester in Old Cabell Hall as well as at conferences and festivals throughout the region. The ensemble is currently made up of undergraduates, grad students, and other members of the greater Central Virginia community. The group is committed to ethnic, racial, cultural and religious diversity. Current and recent members have backgrounds from the US, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Iran, Bangladesh, and India, with religious backgrounds ranging from Jewish to Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist.

For more information on the concert, visit the Klezmer Ensemble website.

The residency will also include a colloquium, “Laughter through Tears: Reconstructing the Lost Jewish Art of Badkhones” on Weds., Nov. 20 at 12 pm in New Cabell Hall with Joshua Horowitz, musician and independent scholar (Berkeley, CA), James Loeffler, Corcoran Dept. of History and Joel Rubin, McIntire Dept. of Music. For centuries, Jewish weddings in Eastern Europe featured the unique art of the badkhn, the professional Jewish wedding jester. Poorly documented and little studied, this tradition, part liturgical, part comedic, remains a crucial key to understanding Ashkenazi Jewish culture. This colloquium will feature historical examples followed by discussion from ethnomusicological and historical perspectives.

Visit our page for more information on the colloquium.

Co-sponsored by the Vice Provost for the Arts, the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Jewish Music Forum

Residency Schedule:

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 12 pm, New Cabell Hall 236:

“Laughter through Tears: Reconstructing the Lost Jewish Art of Badkhones”

• Joshua Horowitz, musician and independent scholar (Berkeley, CA)
• James Loeffler, Corcoran Dept. of History
• Joel Rubin, McIntire Dept. of Music

For centuries, Jewish weddings in Eastern Europe featured the unique art of the badkhn, the professional Jewish wedding jester. Poorly documented and little studied, this tradition, part liturgical, part comedic, remains a crucial key to understanding Ashkenazi Jewish culture. This colloquium will feature historical examples followed by discussion from ethnomusicological and historical perspectives.

For lunch, please RSVP.

Thursday, November 21, 2019, 8:00 pm, Old Cabell Hall Auditorium at the University of Virginia:

UVA Klezmer Ensemble Fall 2019 Concert

Who: University of Virginia Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of Joel Rubin with special guests Veretski Pass (Berkeley, CA)

What: Fall 2019 concert

Program: The Magid Chronicles. The program explores materials collected by Sofia Magid, a musicologist and ethnographer who documented traditional Jewish music in Belarus and Ukraine during the Stalinist regime of the 1920s and 30s. Although derived largely from historical materials, this work is essentially a creative re-imagination.

When: Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 8:00 pm

Where: Old Cabell Hall Auditorium at the University of Virginia

Tickets: Single tickets are $10 for adults, $9 for UVA faculty and staff, $5 for students, and free for UVA Students who reserve in advance at the Arts Box Office. Tickets are available in advance or at the door.