This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
The Latest
-
The Schmooze Amid Cancellations, Editors Host Israeli Music Festival
Despite high-profile cancellations by the Pixies, Gorillaz and the Klaxons, the PiC.NiC music festival in Tel Aviv played host yesterday to Editors — and the band took to its online forum after the concert to call the performance “one of the most memorable shows of our career.” Lead singer Tom Smith, writing for the band…
-
The Schmooze Small Nations Stick Together at the Israeli Jazz Festival
So, what was a non-Jewish, non-Israeli Cuban doing organizing the NYC Israeli Jazz Festival, anyway? “Someone had to do it,” said Roberto Rodriguez who composes, leads and plays drums for the Cuban Jewish All-Stars. After 20 shows and over 1000 people passing through the doors at John Zorn’s non-profit jazz space The Stone last week,…
-
The Schmooze Could Elvis Costello Be Coming to Israel After All?
His wife, the Canadian jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, is to perform in Ra’anana in August, and the international pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs has offered Elvis Costello a “five star VIP tour of Israel” if he accompanies her on the trip. The Forward recently reported that Costello canceled his June 30 and July 1…
-
The Schmooze Rabbi Greg Wall on the BBC
The BBC doesn’t interview American rabbis all that often, let alone mention them in a completely spiritual, non-political context. But their recent special on Rabbi Greg Wall pleasantly defies expectations. Wall is a jazz and klezmer virtuoso who was recently ordained as a rabbi and appointed to lead the Sixth Street Synagogue in New York,…
-
The Schmooze A Passover Nightmare
It’s Passover time, and a heady mix of liberation, freedom and matzah fills the air. While we recount the tale of the Children of Israel’s escape from Egypt, a strange inversion of this story unfolds in France. In this nightmare exodus, the Israelite (a non-Jewish klezmer clarinetist) flees Egypt (Moldova) and makes it to the…
-
The Schmooze Nazis, Mendelssohns and Music: The Mendelssohn Mishpocha on Surviving Felix
“Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me,” a recent DVD release from Kultur International Films, reproduces a 2009 BBC TV film by UK-born writer Sheila Hayman about her eminent ancestor, the composer Felix Mendelssohn. The multi-talented Hayman is author of previous light-hearted novels and documentary scripts about robots, abortions in China, car design and other eclectic subjects….
-
The Schmooze Heard Fresh: Innovative Jazz Pianist Fred Hersch
The Cincinnati-born Jewish jazz pianist Fred Hersch, who will be giving a much-anticipated solo concert on March 31 at New York’s Weill Recital Hall, has been scaling barriers for decades. One of the few openly gay musicians in the surprisingly closeted and macho world of jazz, Hersch has also been HIV-positive since 1986, conquering many…
-
The Schmooze Music and Philosophy at a Private Concert Hosted by George Soros
Philosophy is what matters most to George Soros, I learned the other day after an elegant party at Soros’s duplex Manhattan apartment (I was invited by a mutual friend) celebrating the latest recording of Bartók by Angela & Jennifer Chun, a Korean-born sister team of violinists. I shared a cab on the way home with…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Who was Horst Wessel, and why are people comparing Charlie Kirk to him?
- 2
Culture Charlie Kirk kept a ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?
- 3
Film & TV Robert Redford’s legacy is surprisingly Jewish
- 4
Antisemitism Decoded Israel is being blamed for Charlie Kirk’s death. Here’s what that conspiracy theory says about the far right’s divide
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture This Israeli photographer’s work is all about ‘subverting masculinity’
-
Opinion The terrifying Nazi precedent for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension — and the reasons to stay hopeful
-
Fast Forward Freed hostage Edan Alexander says he’s returning to the IDF next month
-
Yiddish World How a Yiddish acting troupe fooled the Tsarist government
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
