Fairfield County residents are quite fortunate to have free world-class entertainment in our backyard throughout the summer. The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts, a non-profit, open-air summer festival located on the banks of the Saugatuck River, has been hosting various performing groups for the past 33 years from mid-June through August.
A Klezmer Bash will grace the stage on Thursday, July 10th at 8pm starring The Klezical Tradition, an ensemble of musicians comprising flute, clarinet, keyboard, violin, and voice. Klezmer, a Yiddish term originally meaning musician, describes the Eastern European instrumental groups from the shtetls or villages of Poland, Romania, and Russia which were popular before the second world war. Klezmer bands typically employed a singer, clarinetist, trumpet player, violinist and a string bass player and played exuberant, hearfelt tunes that reflected the dreams and the reality of the community.
For those who would like to sample this style of folk music, the Library has Naftule Brandwein's King of the Klezmer Clarinet, the Cracow Klezmer Band's Bereshit, the Klezmatics Possessed and Dave Tarras Yiddish-American Klezmer Music, 1925-1956. Seth Rogovoy's Essential Klezmer and Yale Strom's Book of Klezmer provide descriptive analysis and treatment of the subject.
