KlezKanada

KlezKanada is an organization in the world of klezmer music and Yiddish culture. Its principal program is a week-long Jewish music festival founded in 1996 that takes place annually in August at Camp B'nai B'rith in Lantier, Quebec (outside of Montreal). The organization also hosts workshops, concerts, and other educational programs in Montreal throughout the year.

History

KlezKanada was founded by a group of local cultural activists led by Hy Goldman and Sandy Goldman in 1996.[1] In its first year its festival had roughly 300 participants.[2] It was inspired by KlezKamp, a similar festival in New York State which had been founded a few years earlier.[3] By the late 1990s KlezKanada had grown in size and began attracting many of the top musicians in the field, as well as offering a scholarship program for young musicians.[4] l.[5]

In an article on klezmer, Mike Anklewicz noted the development of the festival: "I have noted a shift from instruction in strictly historical klezmer in KlezKanada's first few years, to the inclusion of a much more diverse curriculum since about 2001.... By 2008, workshops addressed both historical styles and the creation of contemporary works in all genres of music, including Yiddish songs, writing for Yiddish theatre, contemporary Yiddish dance, instrumental improvisation, and instrumental composition."[6]

The camp is based around courses and lectures during the day (relating to klezmer music, Yiddish, and other topics) and concerts at night.[7] [8]

In 2001 "of the 37 [festival's] teaching and performance staff, 22 were New York-based." [9] Since then, the festival faculty has become more diverse: in 2018, less than half of the teaching faculty were American, while over a third came from Canada, and the rest from other countries, including Germany, Poland, and Russia.[10]

Past Participants

References
  1. "The Birth of KlezKanada | Yiddish Book Center". www.yiddishbookcenter.org. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  2. Scherbenske, Amanda L. "From Folksmentshn to Creative Individuals: Klezmer Transmission in the Twenty-First Century." MUSICultures 39, no. 2 (2012): 103-XI.
  3. Rogovoy, Seth. The essential klezmer: a music lover's guide to Jewish roots and soul music, from the Old World to the Jazz Age to the downtown avant-garde. Algonquin Books, 2000, 10.
  4. "KlezKanada Yiddish festival proves a success" Stein, Eric. Canadian Jewish News; Don Mills, Ont. [Don Mills, Ont]23 Sep 1999: 25.
  5. The Forward
  6. Anklewicz, Mike. "Extending the Tradition: KlezKanada, Klezmer Tradition and Hybridity." MUSICultures 39, no. 2 (2012).
  7. Wood, Abigail. And we're all brothers: singing in Yiddish in contemporary North America. Routledge, 2016, 42.
  8. Scherbenske, Amanda L. "From Folksmentshn to Creative Individuals: Klezmer Transmission in the Twenty-First Century." MUSICultures 39, no. 2 (2012): 103-XI.
  9. Wood, Abigail. And we're all brothers: singing in Yiddish in contemporary North America. Routledge, 2016, 41.
  10. "2018 Brochure Now Available!". KlezKanada. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
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