Join KlezKanada and the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) on Facebook Live for a virtual concert and discussion celebrating and exploring the role of klezmer music in building community and promoting the cultural vitality of Quebec’s Jewish community.
The event will open with a performance by Montreal klezmorim Jason Rosenblatt & Rachel Lemisch, followed by a talk and discussion with Yiddishist, playwright, and journalist Rokhl Kafrissen, and will conclude with a short set of music from master accordionist Sergiu Popa.
Rachel Lemisch, a trombonist, comes from a family of klezmorim that goes back generations. She is a founding member of Orkestra Severni, Shtreiml, and is a member of Soul Songs: Inspiring Women of Klezmer.
Also a founding member of Shtreiml, Jason Rosenblatt is one of the world’s leading performers on diatonic harmonica (and definitely the world’s leading performer of klezmer music on diatonic harmonica). A multi-instrumentalist and multi-stylist, Jason is a truly unique voice in Jewish music.
(Photo credit: Yakov Pollack)
Rokhl Kafrissen is a lawyer, playwright and journalist in New York City, as well as a first call super-title operator on the Yiddish theatre scene. Her writing on new Yiddish art and Jewish life has appeared in the Forward, Jewish Week, Lilith and many other publications, as well as her own blog, Rootless Cosmopolitan. Most recently, she is the author of a new bilingual (English-Yiddish) play called A Brokhe.
(Photo credit: Avia Moore)
Originally from Moldova and a family of Roma musicians, Sergiu Popa has been living in Montreal since 2002. Since then, he has been gaining a solid reputation as one of Canada’s top accordionists. Classically trained, he also grew up playing at his father’s side as a wedding musician since the age of 8 – learning a vast repertoire of East European traditional folk, Roma, and Klezmer music.
(Photo credit: Studio Avant Garde)
A Different Tune 