Music of the Middle East, jazz-influenced improvisations, klezmer and liturgical melodies will comprise the 2nd annual Jewish Music Series at Sonoma State University. Jointly presented by the Department of Music and Jewish Studies program, the six-part series runs from Sep. 1-Dec. 1, 2016 at 6:30 pm in the Green Music Center’s Schroeder Hall.
Artists hailing from New York City to the Bay Area will include trumpeter Frank London – cofounder of The Klezmatics – and virtuoso clarinetist Ben Goldberg with his Invisible Guy trio. The series is part of a course entitled Survey of Jewish Musics led by Joshua Horowitz, director of the ensemble Budowitz. Horowitz, who plays chromatic button accordion, cimbalom and piano, is a founding member of Veretski Pass and has performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Theodore Bikel, Ben Goldberg, Rubin and Horowitz, Brave Old World, Adrienne Cooper and Ruth Yaakov.
Admission is free. Parking charges are waived. Seating is available on a first-come, first serve basis. Call 707-664-2324 for more information.
Schroeder Hall at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center is located two miles east of Highway 101 on Rohnert Park Expressway, near the intersection with Petaluma Hill Road.
- SEP 1– Eliyahu Sills & Qadim Ensemble – Middle Eastern/Mizrachi/Sephardic
- SEP 15– Frank London, trumpet with Glenn Hartman, accordion & Jake Marmer, poet – New klezmer and improvisations with spoken word
- SEP 29– Ben Goldberg, clarinet & Invisible Guy trio
- NOV 3– Jeanette Lewicki and the gonifs – Yiddish and klezmer
- NOV 17– Stephen Saxon, cantorial soloist – Melodies from the liturgy
- DEC 1– Anthony Russell, vocalist with Veretski Pass – Spirituals from the Shtetl, Davening from the Delta
About This Series
The 2016 Jewish Music Series series is curated and hosted by Joshua Horowitz, the founder and director of the ensemble Budowitz and founding member of Veretski Pass. Joshua performs on chromatic button accordion, cimbalom and piano. He has performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Theodore Bikel, Ben Goldberg, Rubin and Horowitz, Brave Old World, Adrienne Cooper and Ruth Yaakov. His music was recently featured in the British film Some of my best friends are... Jewish / Muslim – awarded the Sandford St. Martin Trust Religious Broadcasting Award – and is also featured in the new film by Jes Benstock, The Holocaust Tourist.
Joshua received his Master’s degree in Composition and Music Theory from the Academy of Music in Graz, Austria, where he taught Music Theory and served as Research Fellow and Director of the Yiddish Music Research Project for eight years.
Joshua has taught Advanced Jazz Theory at Stanford University with the late saxophonist Stan Getz and is a regular teacher at Klez Kamp, Klezmerquerque, Klez Kanada, Klez California and the Klezmer Festival Fürth. His musicological work is featured in four books, including The Sephardic Songbook with Aron Saltiel and The Ultimate Klezmer, and he has written numerous articles on the counterpoint of J.S. Bach.