Year of Klezmer
Earlier this year our “Year of…” project hit the road with the Klezmer trio Hop Skotshne – Flora Curzon Violin, Susi Evans, clarinet and Szilvia Csaranko, accordion.
“The Year of…” project
- Was conceived to introduce children to chamber and small ensemble instrumental music.
- Designed to inspire them to take up or keep up instrumental playing for themselves.
- For whole schools to enjoy an interactive assembly with the ensemble and groups from each school to play alongside them.
- The 10th year was the YEAR OF KLEZMER
- 2021 – Year of Guitar with Eden Stell Guitar Duo
- 2020 – Year of Bassoon with the Genovia Quartet
- 2019 – Year of Flute with the Tempest Trio
- 2018 – Year of Brass with the Onyx Brass Quintet
- 2017 – Year of the Recorder with Anna Stegmann and Tabea Debus
- 2016 – Year of the Reed with the Gelachter Trio
- 2015 – Year of Percussion with Joby Burgess
- 2014 – Year of Guitar with the Eden Stell Guitar Duo
- 2013 – Year of the String Quartet with the Carducci String Quartet
Engagement
More than 20,000 children in Somerset over 10 years have enjoyed Year of projects with 2,000 children and school staff engaged with the Year of Klezmer in 2022.
What is Klezmer?
Klezmer is Jewish music that originated in Eastern Europe, in countries such as Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Romania. A hundred years ago these countries had big Jewish populations who spoke Yiddish and used to play klezmer for weddings and celebrations that involved a lot of dancing.
Due to the events of the Second World War klezmer was almost completely wiped out, but a handful of Jewish folk musicians in America led the klezmer revival in the 1970s, and since then many klezmer bands have sprung up all around the western world.
The word ‘klezmer’ actually means musician in Yiddish. 100 years ago the klezmorim (plural for klezmer) were Jewish men, but these days anyone can be a klezmer, Jews and non-Jews of any gender, and you can play klezmer on any instrument, but the most common ones are violins, flutes, clarinets, accordions and a drum called ‘poik’, which is a bass drum with a cymbal attached.
Supported by Jackdaws Patrons, The music hub for Somerset- Sound Foundation Somerset, Mendip Council and Frome Town Council