This year, Jewish Music Festival Director Ellie Shapiro has taken on an additional title: den mother.
That’s because virtually the entire festival staff is about half her age or younger.
That’s just fine with Shapiro. The 2007 festival is all about youth, with more young performers in the lineup than ever before. This is not your bubbe’s music festival (though she’s more than welcome to attend).
“We’re taking it all to the next generation,” says Shapiro. “Music is about culture, culture is about evolution, and evolution is about the next generation. We want to tap into that whole counterculture and new forms of cultural exploration.”
The 22nd Jewish Music Festival, presented by the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, runs from March 8 through March 25, and will feature concerts all over the Bay Area.
As always, the festival explores the wide world of Jewish music. Artists from Israel, Italy, Argentina and other ports of call will perform everything from Sephardic folk rock to tango-flavored klezmer. Headliners this year include Israeli superstar Noa, mandolinist Avi Avital and Italy’s Ensemble Lucidarium.
A tribute to Tzadik, the avant-garde Jewish record label, is also on tap, with concerts by Pharaoh’s Daughter and jazzman Steve Bernstein.
And talk about youth — the annual Community Music Day brings kids of all ages face-to-fret with sazes, kanuns and other exotic instruments with unpronounceable names.
But perhaps nothing has Shapiro more pumped than the March 8 opening night performance. It’s the world premiere of “Musical Fortunes,” a new work by Oakland composer Dan Cantrell featuring themes based on traditional Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) music.
The Romani connection is an important step for the festival. “Romani music has been known for hundreds of years as an exciting art form,” says Shapiro. “When [Eastern European] noblemen needed music, it was the Gypsies and the Jews. Their music is now being discovered by young hip kids who love to dance.”
Shapiro first met Cantrell as her accordion teacher, but she was well aware of the Cal Arts-trained composer and his extensive experience working with Romani musicians in Europe.
“I’ve know and appreciated his work for many years,” she says. “We wrote a grant from the Creative Work Fund, which is very prestigious in the indie arts community. The objective was to create new work.”
Cantrell says there is an historical intersection between Jewish and Gypsy music. In places like Romania, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine, Jewish and Romani musicians often played together in bands and grew familiar with each other’s music.
“It seems a lot of stuff was traded back and forth,” says Cantrell. “There’s a certain thing in the Roma esthetic with speed and agility. It differs in some ways from klezmer music. To play klezmer you don’t necessarily rush into things. It’s more in the articulation of each piece. With the Roma, things get faster and faster.”
Cantrell borrowed from both traditions in composing “Musical Fortunes,” a suite of 12 songs, some pure Roma, some klezmer-influenced and others, like “Morenica,” out of the Sephardic tradition.
“The whole evening will be a piece that incorporates traditional music from Roma and Jewish roots,” he adds. “We have great collaborators.”
He’s referring to Roma musicians Ruman Shopov and Dushan Ristic, Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, and Jewish music superstar Michael Alpert. In a first for the Jewish Music Festival, Aaron Davidman, the artistic director of Traveling Jewish Theatre, has signed on to design the stagecraft for the evening. Dancers Rachel Brice and Elizabeth Strong will also join the lineup.
Not that Cantrell needs more incentive to love the Jewish Music Festival. He’s been a fan for years. “The festival brings in so many new and interesting and radical things,” he says. “It opens up peoples’ minds and ears.”
If you don’t believe him, then consider this: Shapiro has programmed the festival’s first poetry slam, slated for March 21. Finalists will vie for the top prize at the Community Music Day on March 25. All poets will be asked to write on the subject of diaspora.
Shapiro, who got the idea for the slam after attending one at a North Carolina folk festival, thinks contemporary poetry has a place at her event. “‘Shir’ in Hebrew means both ‘poetry’ and ‘song,'” she says. “Spoken word is as much about rhythm as it is about speech. It’s totally legitimate to have something like that in the festival. It stretches the boundary of music.”
Ultimately, however innovative this year’s programming may be, Shapiro wants her audiences to come away with the same sense of wonder as in years past.
“The world is a scary place,” she says, “and we think of the festival as a place where people can be inspired with hope.”
The 22nd Jewish Music Festival runs from March 8 through March 25 in various locations. Information and tickets: call (800) 838-3006 or visit www.jewishmusicfestival.org.
Schedule of events
The following is a schedule of the 22nd Jewish Music Festival, held March 8 to 25.
Opening night: “Musical Fortunes,” world premiere of new music from Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) routes by Dan Cantrell with Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble and others. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley.
“Klezmer Buenos Aires” with the Lerner Moguilevsky Duo, a blend of klezmer, Argentinean folk music, tango and jazz. 8 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.
“Tales From Terezin: A Musical Journey.” Violinist Randall Weiss and the Bridge Players present music performed at Terezin concentration camp. 4 p.m. Sunday, March 11 at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 290 Dolores St., San Francisco.
Ensemble Lucidarium performs “La Istoria de Purim: Music and Poetry of the Jews of Renaissance Italy.” 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15 at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley.
“The Symbolic Power of Jewish Music.” A conversation with musicians of the Tzadik Radical Jewish Culture CD label, with Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Basya Schechter and Peter Apfelbaum. Moderated by Myra Melford. 2 p.m. Saturday, March 17 at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., Berkeley.
Pharaoh’s Daughter, blending Chassidic chants, Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, and spiritual explorations. 8 p.m. Saturday, March 17 at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.
“Diaspora Blues,” from Grammy-nominee Steven Bernstein with Peter Apfelbaum and Friends. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 18 at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.
Poetry slam on the theme of diaspora. 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at the Starry Plough Pub, 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley.
Noa, Israel’s leading international concert and recording artist. 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 21 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. Tickets for this event: (415) 292-1233.
Mandolinist Avi Avital. 2 p.m. Thursday, March 22 at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley.
Berkeley composer Jorge Liderman performs “Aires de Sefarad,” Sephardic music with Duo46 and Avi Avital. 8 p.m. Thursday, March 22 at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St., Berkeley.
Community Music Day. Poetry slam finals, interactive workshops, children’s concert, instrument petting zoo and performances throughout the day. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sunday March 25 at Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley.