Chicago YIVO Society’s Blog

The Chicago YIVO Society is proud to announce Mayses un Klangen–a special concert in honor of Sarah Lazarus.

Date: July 10 (Sunday)

Time: 1:30–3:30 PM

Where: Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center

Mayses un Klangen (Stories and Sounds) features texts based on Jewish folklore to be narrated by Cantor Stewart Figa accompanied by cellist Racheli Galay and pianist Ilya Levinson. The music was written by Israeli composer Daniel Galay (Racheli’s father).

RSVP & PRE-PAYMENT REQUIRED!

For details, visit the ILHMEC website.

Sarah Rose Lazarus (1911-2000) taught thousands of children in Chicago’s folkshuln the joys of Yiddish music, and later taught at Hebrew day schools.  Her happy personality and nurturing attitude made her beloved to her students.

Our special guest for this performance will be Sarah Lazarus’ son Jeremy. Born and raised here in Chicago,  Jeremy  A. Lazarus, M.D. (President-elect of the American Medical Association) is now a clinical professsor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and resides in Denver.

Jewish Music spiced with Jazz

Date: August 15 (Mon)

Time: 12:15 PM

Where: Indian Trails Public Library, Wheeling

Phone reservations required:

847-459-4100

Date: July 7 (Thurs)

Time: 12:15 PM

Where: Evanston Public Library

Kurt Bjorling, leader and clarinet

Date: June 30 (Thurs)

Time: 12:15

Where: Indian Trails Public Library, Wheeling

Anette Bjorling, harp

Kurt Bjorling, clarinet and basset-horn

Klezmer “listening music”

Phone reservations required 847-459-4100

Date: June 20 (Mon)

Time: 12:15

Where: Indian Trails Public Library (Wheeling)

Vocalist with guitar

Nostalgic Yiddsh songs

Bibi Marcell is a member of the Maxwell Street Klemzmer Band. The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band is a klezmerband based in Chicago. Founded in 1983, the band combines dance music, folk songs, theatre medleys, and jazzy Yiddish pop music from the 1930′s to the 1950′s, with traditional Jewish music, to bring what they describe as an old-fashioned spirit of fun to their performances.

They have performed across America, and in European cities including London, Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam,Enschede and The Hague. In 2004, the band’s 2002 CD Old Roots, New World was voted Best Jewish/Hebrew/Klezmer Album by the indie Just Plain Folks 2004 music awards.

(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Street_Klezmer_Band).

Date: June 16 (Thurs)

Time: 12:15

Where: Sulzer Regional Library, Chicago

Leader: Steve Gibons

Date: June 15 (Wed)

Time: 12:15

Where: Skokie Public Library

Leader: Steve Gibons

Songs in Yiddish and English

“Chicago’s go-to group for stripped-down, old-fashioned Roma music- They bring the improvisational sophistication of jazz to Romanian and Bulgarian Gypsy music without smoothing out its ragged edges.”
–Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Date: June 6 (Mon)

Time: 12:15

Where: Skokie Public Library

Stewart Figa (baritone)

Ilya Levinson (piano)

Stewart Figa Bio: Figa has performed in Yiddish Theater Productions in New York, where he worked with great artists of the Yiddish stage. He sang the classic Yiddish song “Rumania, Rumania” on the award-winning CBS-TV series Brooklyn Bridge. The Northwestern University theater graduate serves as cantor atWest Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest, Ill.

(Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=2071)

Ilya Levinson Bio: Russian-born Ilya Levinson graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory as a composer, where he studied composition with Alexander Pirumov and orchestration with Edison Denisov. After immigrating to the United States in 1988, Levinson completed a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Chicago where his training included instruction from Ralph Shapey, Shulamit Ran, John Eaton, and Howard Sandroff. He teaches Composition, Orchestration, Sightsinging 2, Keyboard 1 at Columbia College Chicago and Musicianship skills at the University of Chicago.

(Source: http://www.colum.edu/academics/music/faculty_staff/Ilya_Levinson.php)