Klezmer “Royalty†Join Jewish Music Festival at Berkshire Music School
PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz, founders and directors of the world famous klezmer groups Veretski Pass and Budowitz will join The Jewish Music Festival as klezmer coaches. They will also perform in the Festival faculty concert June 28th.The Jewish Music Festival, developed by BMS faculty member, musician and scholar Paul Green, will be held from June 17 through June 28 at the BMS Edgar B. Taft Recital Hall, 30 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield Massachusetts.
Lectures involving klezmer, classical, jazz and pop music combined with Bernstein and Gershwin will be offered Wednesdays and Thursdays June 17, 18, 24, 25 from 10 am to 11 am. Advance tickets for all four lectures are $40. Individual tickets at the door are $12. The lectures, paired with a June 28 Faculty Concert, are $50.
Klezmer coachings in clarinet, violin and keyboard will be held on Fridays and Sundays June 19, 21, 26, 28. from10 am – 12 noon and 2 pm – 4 pm. This series is open to mid-level to advanced players, not necessarily experienced in klezmer playing. Basic improvisation skills are helpful. The fee of $200 includes four coaching sessions, with a minimum enrollment of six students.
A concert by Jewish Music Festival faculty will be presented Sunday, June 28, at 3:00 pm. Admission is $15.
Cookie Segelstein received her Masters degree in Viola from The Yale School of Music. She is principal violist in Orchestra New England and assistant principal in The New Haven Symphony Orchestra. She is the founder and director of Veretski Pass, a member of both Budowitz and The Youngers of Zion with Henry Sapoznik. Veretski Pass plays “Old Country” Music” which originated in the Ottoman Empire. Centuries ago Magyar tribes crossed Veretski Pass to settle into the Carpathian basin, which later became to Austro Hungarian Empire. The group has sold out performances throughout the world, most recently at the prestigious Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Cookie has presented lecture demonstrations and workshops on klezmer fiddling all over the world. She has performed with Kapelye, The Klezmatics, Frank London, Klezmer Fats, The Klezmer Mountain Boys and The Klezmer Conservatory Band. She was featured on the ABC documentary, “A Sacred Noise”, heard on HBO’s “Sex and the City”, and appears in the Miramax film, “Everybody’s Fine” starring Robert De Niro. and heard on several recordings including the Veretski Pass self titled release and the new CD, Trafik, the Koch International label with Orchestra New England in The Orchestral Music of Charles Ives, Hazònes with Frank London, A Living Tradition with the late German Goldenshteyn, Fleytmuzik with Adrianne Greenbaum and Budowitz Live. She is also the publisher of "The Music of..." series of klezmer transcriptions, and is active as a Holocaust educator and curriculum advisor.
Joshua Horowitz earned his Masters degree in Composition and Music Theory from the Academy of Music in Graz, Austria, where he taught Music Theory. While there he served as Research Fellow and Director of the Klezmer Music Research Project for eight years. A founding member of Veretski Pass, he is also the founder and director of the ensemble Budowitz. Since its founding in 1995, Budowitz has served as one of Europes main traing grounds for traditional Jewish music featuring over 20 musicians, including the late cultural icons, Cili Schwartz and Majer Bogdanski. Budowitz has won numerous awards: BBC’s Critics Circle prize for best CD; the Belgian Gandalf Award for Best Concert; Songlines magazine’s Top of the World recognition; and the Viennese Fritz Spielmann Award.
Joshua taught Advanced Jazz Theory at Stanford University with the late saxophonist Stan Getz. His musicological work is featured in four books, including The Sephardic Songbook with Aron Saltiel and The Ultimate Klezmer. His recordings with Budowitz, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Rubin & Horowitz, Alicia Svigals, Adrianne Greenbaum and Fialke have achieved international recognition. He is the recipient of more than 40 awards, including the Prize of Honor for his orchestral composition, Tenebrae, presented by the Austrian government. Beside his work as a musician, he led the first post-WWII music therapy group at the pioneering Beratungszentrum in Graz, Austria.
Paul Green was in grammar school music class when he picked up a clarinet. Accomplished at age 13, he was recommended to Leonard Bernstein by Stanley Drucker, the First Clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. He graduated from Yale with a BA in Theory and Composition in 1970 and continued his studies at Juilliard, receiving an MS degree in performance. He graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 1978 and eventually joined the faculty there.
Paul Green is the founder and Artistic Director of the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival in Delray Beach, and in 2003 he was appointed to the 25th Anniversary Leadership Council of Chamber Music America. In 1997, he concertized in the Middle East as an Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, and has participated in international festivals of contemporary music throughout the world.
Berkshire Music School is pleased to have Paul Green as a clarinet instructor. A permanent move to the Berkshires is being planned. Presently, Green is a member of the faculties of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and Florida International University in Miami, where he teaches clarinet performance and chamber music. He is the founder and Director of Klezmer East, an ensemble in residence at Florida Atlantic University, a founding member of the Florida Woodwind Quintet, also in residence at Florida Atlantic University, and a member of the Nodus Ensemble, a contemporary music group in residence at Florida International University. He is also the Principal Clarinetist of the Miami City Ballet Orchestra, the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra.
This project has been supported by a grant from the Wassermann-Streit Y’DIYAH Memorial Fund administered by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. The aim of the Y’DIYAH Fund (Y”DIYAH, Hebrew for “learning”) is to enhance public understanding of diverse aspects of traditional Judaism by supporting a broad variety of non-doctrinaire projects and programs— exercising its motto, “The Greatest Good is Knowledge, the Greatest Evil is Ignorance.”
