The stereotypical klezmer artist does not look anything like the headliner on the To Life! Seniors Stage.
First of all, the artist is female. Secondly, she’s a singer — an accomplished opera singer at that. And thirdly, she’s fairly young in the world of Yiddish vocalists.
But Heather Klein is definitely on the rise as a promising Bay Area-based klezmer singer. Heather Lauren Klein and Die Gute Neshomehs will perform at 3 p.m. on the Seniors Stage.
Since earning her undergraduate degree and a master’s in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Klein has pursued many interests outside the Yiddish genre. However, this twentysomething entertainer, who charmed audiences last year on the Seniors Stage, tries to give klezmer a certain life of its own.
“I love to get people excited about the personalities this music takes,” Klein said. “I like showing that it doesn’t have to be an older person singing the music, but maybe just a younger person interpreting it in a newer way.”
Klein has performed klezmer gigs around the Bay Area for the past three years, ever since spontaneously throwing in a few klezmer tunes at a recital. She has introduced other musicians to the music, even converting some of them to stay in klezmer bands. And she has sung with Bay Area notables such as Meshuggenismo! and Red Hot Chachkas.
For her To Life! performance, Klein has assembled her own group.
To perfect her craft, Klein also participates in KlezKanada, a Jewish Yiddish music camp aimed at people in their 20s and 30s. She loves the environment at the camps — jamming with hundreds of great musicians and learning more about klezmer.
“It is people your own age doing something the older generation is into, somewhat diminished in a way and coming back. We make music and sing songs that our grandparents were singing to make environments better back in their days.”
Klein comes by both her singing career and her Jewish influences honestly. After her bat mitzvah, she sang cantorial solos and led services for her synagogue in Las Vegas. She also started a BBYO chapter at the synagogue.
Trained in opera since age 11, Klein wavered a bit initially about seriously focusing on opera. But her years at the S.F. Conservatory convinced her that opera would play a role in her future, and she has filled both klezmer and opera roles during the past three years.
“I’ll try to see where both careers go in the future,” she said. “I’ll look at whichever takes off first.”
Klein speaks French, German, Italian and Hebrew — which comes in handy for her work as a tutor at Congregation Beth Am. For her singing, she looks to her Yiddish coach, her “Yiddish lifeline,” for guidance. And though klezmer is a relatively new career path, Klein believes she can use her singing experience to succeed.
“I think I have the spirit and energy to make people happy and make the audience want to stand up and dance. You have to have flair and charisma to sing klezmer.”
Also returning to the Seniors Stage this year, beginning at noon, are: emcee and comic Lynn Ruth Miller, Yiddish Choristers, musician Mark Levy, Fantasy Dance Group and HaShirim Chorale.