Laughing at Hitler: Soviet Yiddish Music and Humor During World War II
featuring Dr. Anna Shternshis (narration) and Psoy Korelenko (vocals and piano)
Monday, March 21, 2022
8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific
FREE program on ZOOM
Click HERE to register and receive Zoom link
featuring Dr. Anna Shternshis (narration) and Psoy Korelenko (vocals and piano)
Monday, March 21, 2022
8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific
FREE program on ZOOM
Click HERE to register and receive Zoom link
Based on a recently discovered archive in the Ukrainian National library, this lecture-concert presents a number of Yiddish songs created in the Soviet Union under the Nazi occupation, in the Red Army and in the Soviet Rear. Anna and Psoy will present Yiddish songs that ridicule the German Army and Nazi leaders, ones that address the tensions between Jewish refugees in Romanian-run ghettos in Transnistria (Bershad, Mogilev-Podolsk and Shargorod), and other humorous pieces.
Anna Shternshis is the Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish studies and director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. She received her doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University in 2001. Shternshis is the author of Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923 - 1939 (Indiana UP, 2006) and When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford UP, 2017). Together with artist Psoy Korolenko, Shternshis created and directed the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory project, an initiative that brought back to life forgotten Yiddish music written during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. A recipient of 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, she is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Last Yiddish Heroes: A Lost and Found Archive of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union about Yiddish music created in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
Pavel Lion, a.k.a. Psoy Korolenko, is one of Russia’s most popular – and clever – songwriters, as well as a pre-eminent Yiddish singer, songwriter and scholar. Self-referred to as a ''wandering scholar'' and an ''avant-bard'', he is known for his multilingual one-person cabaret-esque shows, which balance folk and klezmer music, free-style poetry and intellectual comedy. Psoy writes and sings in English, Russian, Yiddish, and French. On stage since 2000, he has published one book of selected essays and song lyrics, ''The Hit Of The Century'', and 14 CDs – some of them in collaboration with active Jewish and Klezmer musicians ("Opa!", Daniel Kahn, Igor Krutogolov, "Oy Division"). Psoy is a member of the organizing committee for a Russian American music festival JetLAG, a guest of many klezmer music festivals, and an ex-artist in residence at the Trinity College (Hartford), The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). An author of insightful and sophisticated Russian sung poetry, Psoy is also known for his keen and explorative vision of the art of translation, “tradaptation” and what he calls Spell-Art (i.e. playing with foreign text, emphasizing linguistic distances, multilingual songs etc).
Anna Shternshis is the Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish studies and director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. She received her doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University in 2001. Shternshis is the author of Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923 - 1939 (Indiana UP, 2006) and When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford UP, 2017). Together with artist Psoy Korolenko, Shternshis created and directed the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory project, an initiative that brought back to life forgotten Yiddish music written during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. A recipient of 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, she is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Last Yiddish Heroes: A Lost and Found Archive of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union about Yiddish music created in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
Pavel Lion, a.k.a. Psoy Korolenko, is one of Russia’s most popular – and clever – songwriters, as well as a pre-eminent Yiddish singer, songwriter and scholar. Self-referred to as a ''wandering scholar'' and an ''avant-bard'', he is known for his multilingual one-person cabaret-esque shows, which balance folk and klezmer music, free-style poetry and intellectual comedy. Psoy writes and sings in English, Russian, Yiddish, and French. On stage since 2000, he has published one book of selected essays and song lyrics, ''The Hit Of The Century'', and 14 CDs – some of them in collaboration with active Jewish and Klezmer musicians ("Opa!", Daniel Kahn, Igor Krutogolov, "Oy Division"). Psoy is a member of the organizing committee for a Russian American music festival JetLAG, a guest of many klezmer music festivals, and an ex-artist in residence at the Trinity College (Hartford), The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). An author of insightful and sophisticated Russian sung poetry, Psoy is also known for his keen and explorative vision of the art of translation, “tradaptation” and what he calls Spell-Art (i.e. playing with foreign text, emphasizing linguistic distances, multilingual songs etc).
April 6 & 7, 2022
EXILE: MUSIC OF THE EARLY-MODERN JEWISH DIASPORA
Two performances: Rutgers University (April 6th) and The Center for Jewish History (April 7th)
EXILE highlights Jewish music as it shifted and melded with traditions in early modern Europe. The program takes as its starting point the rich musical cultures fostered by Jews in early modern Italy and their points of contact with non-Jewish traditions. From there, it touches on the influences of Italian, German, and English music and Jewish culture, highlighting Jewish musicians, the non-Jewish composers they influenced, and composers who inspired innovations in Jewish composition. The purpose of the EXILE project is to highlight the mutual influences of the early modern European Jewish experience – to break down preconceptions of Jewish music and culture and explore the implications of diaspora on Jewish artistic legacy.
The concert will feature Incantare’s core instrumental ensemble plus four singer specialists, as well as special guests Dongmyung Ahn, violin, and Rebecca Cypess, organ and harpsichord. The program It is closely tied with the forthcoming book Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy. This book “demonstrates that musical culture was fluid and shared between Jews and non-Jews, and that this shared cultural space involved complexities of identity and meaning.” The concert will contain narration and commentary on the music by author contributors.
Register for April 6, 7:30 PM at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ HERE
Register for April 7, 7:30 PM at the Center for Jewish History in NYC HERE
EXILE is proudly presented in partnership with the American Society for Jewish Music, the Jewish Music Forum, and Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Department of Music, and Department of Italian. EXILE is also supported by a Polyphonic Grant from the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Development.
The Journey of a Hebrew Melody
Rabbi Israel Goldfarb's
"Shalom Aleichem"
by Rabbi Henry D. Michelman, Chairman
American Society for Jewish Music
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Site last updated February 22, 2022
Site last updated February 22, 2022