Klez Fest Events

Featuring Alicia Svigals, “Queen of the Klezmer Violin” and her Klezmer Fiddle Express band, pianist/composer Donald Sosin, Kanopy Dance, Elm Duo, Tsuzamen, and Yid Vicious. ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Klez Fest is sponsored by the Mead Witter School of Music, the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts, and WORT-FM.

Friday, September 20

3 pm-4:30 pm: Klezmer Masterclass with violinist Alicia Svigals

Klezmer Masterclass with violinist Alicia Svigals (all instruments welcome – bring your instruments and voices!). Learn the style and sound of klezmer music and its unique ornamentation.

Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue

7:30 pm: The Green Cousin-A Folk Ballet

The Green Cousin-A Folk Ballet, Kanopy Dance Company – with live music by Elm Duo

Watch the trailer here.

Music Hall, 925 Bascom Mall

Saturday, September 21

2 pm: Yid Vicious and Tsuzamen concert

Concert with Madison favorites Yid Vicious (playing their unique blend of traditional and contemporary klezmer) and Tsuzamen (playing world music with a Jewish vibe)

Music Hall, 925 Bascom Mall

7:30 pm: Alicia Svigals’ Klezmer Fiddle Express concert

Alicia Svigals’ Klezmer Fiddle Express

Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue

Alicia Svigals, the world’s foremost klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, will make joyous, kinetic music with a full-on old-school klezmer dance band playing a mix of original compositions and traditional arrangements.

Alicia Svigals, violin
Aaron Alexander, drums
Ilya Shneyveys, accordion
Jim Guttman, bass
Jordan Hirsch, trumpet

Sunday, September 22

2 pm: The Ancient Law Cine-Concert performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin

Cine-Concert, Ewald André Dupont’s 1923 silent film The Ancient Law with live original music composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.

This event is supported by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.

Watch the trailer here.

Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue

Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin have been bringing audiences to their feet throughout the US and Europe with their unique and stirring violin and piano scores for Jewish-themed silent films. The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz) was digitally restored in 2017 by the Deutsche Kinemathek with generous support from the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. The film is an important piece of German-Jewish cinematic history, contrasting the closed world of an Eastern European shtetl with the liberal mores of 1860s Vienna. The movie paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity.

PERFORMER BIOS

Alicia Svigals, violinist/composer and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, is the world’s foremost klezmer fiddler. Alicia almost singlehandedly revived the tradition of klezmer fiddling, which had been on the brink of extinction until she recorded her debut album Fidl in the 1990’s.  In February 2018, Svigals and jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer released the album Beregovski Suite, their fantasy on klezmer melodies culled from the archive of early 20th century Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski.  In 2019 she was a Finalist for the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in the category of Folk/Traditional Arts.   In May 2023, Svigals was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Jewish Theological Seminary for “extraordinary contributions to the arts and Jewish life.  In June 2024, she released her newest album, Fidl Afire – a return to her roots with a full-on party band. 

Kanopy Dance Company, a quintessential modern dance company, is a resident company of the Overture Center for the Arts. While the Kanopy Dance Company “informs” its works through its roots in the Martha Graham tradition, the company has developed its own brand, shaping an exciting new dimension and visual language to advance American Modern dance. Kanopy’s artistic directors, Robert E. Cleary, former dancer for Ballet Minnesota and Minnesota Dance Theater, and Lisa Thurrell, who trained and danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company, NYC, cultivate the dynamic growth of modern dance—establishing creative artistic benchmarks—by training professional dancers, choreographing original works and collaborating with internationally recognized guest artists.

Elm Duo, a father-daughter duet, has been performing together for over a decade. They are the award-winning vocalist and fiddle champion Eleanor Mayerfeld (the EL in Elm Duo) and the guitarist and prize-winning composer Michael Bell (the M in Elm Duo). They like to call their style folk cabaret, an eclectic blend of acoustic music from bluegrass to jazz to klezmer and more.

Yid Vicious has been engaging and delighting audiences throughout the Midwest since 1995. The group has released four CDs and has received numerous Madison Area Music Awards for its unique blend of traditional and contemporary klezmer. In 2009, Yid Vicious became the first performing arts ensemble in Wisconsin to receive a USArtists International grant, to perform at Argentina’s KlezFiesta, an international klezmer festival spanning three cities and including bands from ten countries. Yid Vicious is committed to keeping traditional klezmer music and dance alive, and collaborates frequently with internationally renowned klezmer dance instructor Steve Weintraub. The group has presented concerts, workshops, and clinics at performing arts centers, cultural festivals, universities, and K-12 schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan, and has performed to statewide audiences on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.

Tsuzamen — Yiddish for “together” — is a Madison-area group that describes itself as “a world music band with a Jewish vibe.” They draw on traditions from around the globe, whether playing originals or some of the oldest music known. Electrified by Eleanor Mayerfeld’s lead vocals, powered by Bruce Silverman’s drumming, connected to the Earth by Samantha Bosco’s bass, sent aloft with Meg Lamm’s violin and Dan Grabois’s French horn, and melded together with Michael Bell’s guitar and mandolin, their music uplifts, reaches out, and exhilarates.

Pianist Donald Sosin has been creating and performing silent film music for fifty years, playing for major festivals, archives, and DVD recordings. He has been resident accompanist at New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Museum of the Moving Image, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His scores are heard regularly on Turner Classic Movies and his music accompanies films on more than fifty DVD releases.