A Musical Journey from Russia

New York, NY– YIVO and ASJM present: A Musical Journey from Russia, a concert highlighting the work of the Society for Jewish Folk Music on Wednesday, April 27th, 2016 at 6:30pm at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011).

The Society for Jewish Folk Music was created in 1908 by a group of young composers, with the encouragement of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Its mission was to forge a modern national style of Jewish music. Among the Society's prominent members were composers Lazare Saminsky, Aleksandr Krein, Solomon Rosowsky, Mikhail Gnesin, Moyshe (Mikhail) Milner, Joel (Yo'el) Engel, Lazar Weiner, Leo Zeilin, and Joseph Achron, all of whom will be featured in this program. This concert will feature songs sung by mezzo-soprano Donna Breitzer, and chamber music for clarinet, piano, and string quartet, performed by emerging musicians. Dr. Lillian M. Wohl, Executive Director of the ASJM's Jewish Music Forum, will speak at the performance, providing context about the composers and their time, as well as information about the works being played.

The Society for Jewish Folk Music was a part of a growing interest in Jewish nationalism and Yiddish folk culture that resulted in the study of Jewish folk music from the Pale of Settlement through fieldwork, public lectures, publications, and concerts. Eventually branches of the Society were founded in other parts of Russia. By the mid-1920s and early 1930s, politics and economic realities as well as World War I and the Revolution in Russia caused many of the Society’s prominent members to immigrate to Europe, Palestine, and the United States.

Program

• Joseph Achron - Hebrew Melody (Violin & Piano)
• Mikhail Gnesin - Variations on a Jewish Folk Theme (String Quartet)
• Alexandre Krein - Esquisses Hebraiques No. 1 (Clarinet Quintet)
• Solomon Rosowsky - Fantastische Tanz (Piano Trio)
• Leo Zeilin - Eli Zion - (Cello and Piano)
• Joel Engel, Mikhail (Moshe) Milner, Lazare Saminsky and Lazar Weiner – Misc. Songs

The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum.

For press inquiries, contact:

Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs
(212) 294-6152

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story

About The American Society for Jewish Music

The American Society for Jewish Music (ASJM) enables the performance, scholarship and dissemination of Jewish music and sustains these initiatives through a variety of activities, including concerts, publications seminars, conferences and other projects. Thought its website and on the Internet the ASJM provides global access to Jewish music, research and scholarship. ASJM, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, can trace its roots back to several earlier Jewish Music Societies and associations, first in Europe and then in America. Among the European models were the Kinnor Zion Society (1902-08) in St. Petersburg and the Society for Jewish Folk Music (1902-18), also in St. Petersburg and elsewhere within the Russian Empire.  After the Revolution, members of these groups published their compositions under the imprint of Juwal, Publication Society for Jewish Music (later called Jibneh) with offices in Tel Aviv and Berlin. Predecessors of the ASJM in the United States included Mailamm (Makhon Eretz Yisraeli L'-Mada'ey ha-Musika, 1932-39), founded by Miriam Zunser and some émigré members of the early European groups, and the Jewish Music Forum (1939-63), founded by Abraham Wolf Binder, which in turn became the Jewish Liturgical Society of America (1963-74). In 1974 the latter group was reorganized as the American Society for Jewish Music, Inc., under the direction of its first President, Albert Weisser. jewishmusic-asjh.org