Welcome to the 2010 Jewish Music Festival
Aaron Alexander
Aaron Alexander is a NYC based percussionist/composer, originally from Seattle, WA. Alexander has been at the forefront of the klezmer revival since the early 1990s in NY and has been the drummer for such groups as Hasidic New Wave, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, The Klezmatics, German Goldenshteyn, as well as leading the group Midrash Mish Mosh.
Avi Avital
Israeli mandolin player Avi Avital was the first mandolin player to be awarded at the prestigious “Aviv Competitions”. He has played as a soloist with important orchestras including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano (Italy), the Rostov State Theatre Orchestra (Russia), the Metropolis Ensemble (New York), the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, Orchestra Milano Classica and others. He has played under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Mastislav Rostropovitch, Asher Fish, Phillip Antremont and Antonello Manacorda.
Art Bailey
Pianist and accordionist Art Bailey is active in the improvised and world music scenes, and has appeared with such diverse musical performers as jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy, classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, and renowned bluegrass musician Del McCoury. Art has been the pianist with the Klezmer Conservatory Band since 1998, contributing new arrangements to the band’s repertoire and making stage and television appearances worldwide.
Ginger Kroft Barnetson
Ginger Kroft Barnetson is a member of the Monterey Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Carmel Bach Festival and Santa Cruz Symphony orchestras. She also performs with the ADORNO ensemble, a chamber music collaborative based in San Francisco.
Melinda Blake
Melinda Blake, vocalist, performed in the World Premiere of A Night in the Old Marketplace at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theatre.
Stuart Brotman
Stuart Brotman, bass, has the instincts of a gifted accompanist. His sensitivity to nuance and musical style, and experience reaching back almost half a century, have given him the ability to speak a remarkable number of musical languages like a native. While still a young bass student, Stu learned to accompany his grandfather, a cantor, and his father, a jazz and folk guitarist. At UCLA, Greek ethnomusicologist Sotirios Chianis introduced him to the rich complexity of Eastern European musical cultures.
Ron Caswell
Born a pauper in the municipality of Trenton, NJ, Ron Caswell escaped his cultural abyss to attend the Mannes College of Music. He’s performed on tuba with The New York City Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Little Orchestra Society, Our State Fair (Broadway), Flying Karamazov Brothers (Broadway), Orchestra of St. Lukes, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, They Might Be Giants, Menlo Park, Slavic Soul Party and too many more to mention. Ron is the tuba player for everyone.
Charlotte Cohn
A member of New York’s prestigious Actors Studio, Charlotte Cohn is a New York actress with an international flair
Katja Cooper
Jewlia Eisenberg
Jewlia Eisenberg is a composer, extended-technique vocalist, lay cantor, and founder of the diaspora girl group Charming Hostess.
Her work explores the intersection of text and the sounding body, pushing for translation strategies between verbal and non-verbal languages.
Kaila Flexer
Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer and producer. She is best-known locally for having founded and produced Klezmer Mania!, a much-loved annual Bay Area event for more than ten years (1989-2002).
José Gallardo
Mr. Gallardo has performed all over the world including the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Musikhalle Hamburg, the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Wigmore Hall in London, New York, Chicago and Israel.
Daniel Gildar
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Cantor Daniel Gildar has an international reputation as an accompanist of both cantorial and secular music.
Alla Gladysheva
Alla Gladysheva is currently a pianist with the San Francisco Ballet School and a professor of music theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Golem
Contrary to popular belief, Golem is neither a towering Jewish Frankenstein who defended the Jews of 17th Century Prague, nor a creature from Lord of the Rings. Golem is a 6 piece Eastern European folk-punk band.
Glenn Hartman
Glenn Hartman is the accordion player for and one of the founding members of the internationally acclaimed New Orleans Klezmer Allstars.
Gari Hegedus
Gari Hegedus of Teslim plays violin and viola as well as a variety of stringed instruments from Greece and Turkey including lauoto, oud, saz and hand drums. He has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has recorded and performed with Ross Daly.
Robert Howard
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Robert Howard began studying cello at age 12. A graduate of Rice University and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has studied and performed at festivals such as Tanglewood, Spoleto, Verbier, the Accademia Chigiana and the Sandor Vegh Academy in Prague.
Steven Hrycelak
Steven Hrycelak has just completed an MM in Voice from Indiana University, and has a BA in Music from Yale University. With IU Opera Theater, his roles included Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Zuniga in Carmen, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dottor Bombasto in Arlecchino, and William Williamson in the collegiate premiere of Bolcom’s A Wedding.
Jessica Ivry
“Much praise also goes to Jessica Ivry, whose live musical accompaniment, scored for solo cello, provides heartbreakingly apt counterpoint to the drama. Though Miller’s original stage directions called for flute, it’s hard to imagine anything more evocative than Ivry’s ominous pizzicato as Willy’s world crumbles.”
-Dan Pine, J. The Jewish Weekly
Michael Krasny
Michael Krasny, Ph.D., is host of KQED’s award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs program that concentrates on the arts, culture, health, business and technology.
Frank London
Frank London has been called a passionate intelligent soloist and one of the best jazz trumpeters to emerge since 1980. Bandleader, Composer, Trumpeter…
Lord Loves a Working Man
“Lord Loves a Working Man… These men pour their hearts out in songs that make audience members alternately work up a sweat and hold each other very, very close.” -SF WEEKLY
Leslie Ludena
A native of California, Leslie Ludena grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., where she began her professional career in local orchestras at age 15.
Benzion Miller
A world-renowned Hasidic cantor, featured on the PBS special: Cantors: A Faith in Song, captivates audiences with his brilliant tenor voice, virtuosic technique and deep spirituality.
Jonathan Russell
Jonathan Russell is active in the Bay Area as a clarinetist and composer. His compositions have been performed by numerous ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Empyrean Ensemble, the new music bands FIREWORKS and Capital M, and pianists Sarah Cahill and Lisa Moore.
Mariana Sadowska
Mariana Sadowska, Ukrainian vocalist and harmonium player. “Sometimes a musician has such an inborn desire to communicate that her message naturally becomes universal. Such is the case with [her.]” New York Times
Brandon Seabrook
Brandon Seabrook, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He has became widely renowned for his incredible energy, unique musical voice and his fresh and exciting approach to the banjo and guitar.
Lorin Sklamberg
Lorin Sklamberg is a founding member of the Grammy award-winning Klezmatics. He has been heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration with such diverse artists as Itzhak Perlman (dueting on his original composition, “Nign”), Don Byron, Jane Siberry, Marc Cohn, Paradox Trio, Hip Hop Hoodios, Esma Redzepova, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer, Neil Sedaka and Tony Kushner.
Teslim
Natalia Vershilova
Violist Natalia Vershilova graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, playing with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Malyi Opera Theatre.
David Wall
David Wall is a Toronto-based, award-winning composer and singer.
Randall Weiss
Randall Weiss made his solo violin debut performing the Tchaikowsky Violin Concerto as winner of the Victoria, B.C. Concerto Competition. For 17 years, he was Assistant Concertmaster of the San Jose Symphony, substituting regularly as Concertmaster. He is currently Assistant Concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley, one of America’s newest symphony orchestras.
Chen Zimbalista
Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista has dazzled audiences around the world with an enchanting array of rhythmic sounds that he cajoles from more than forty instruments, played with his lightening quick hands, some of them at the same time. His music – a euphonious blend of pulses and beats – defies classification. A true feast for the senses, his programs are taken from the classical, blues, jazz and occasionally from the rock repertoire.
The Jewish Music Festival is a program of the
Jewish Community Center of the East Bay (JCCEB)
archives- Major Sponsors
- Alliance for California Traditional Arts
- Anisman/Sherman Family and Julie Sherman
- Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
- Gaia Fund
- Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
- Gottesman-Biddle Family Philanthropic Fund (JCEF)
- Guzik Foundation
- Walter and Elise Haas Fund
- The Jewish Community Federation and Foundation of the Greater East Bay
- Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture (JCEF)
- Koret Foundation
- Forest Creatures Entertainment
- Official Wine Sponsor: Hagafen
- Official Chocolate Sponsor: Alegio Chocolate