Saturday, May 17, 2025 at 2:00pm
Two Weekends of Music, Dance, Film, Lectures, Workshops and More!
Schedule of Events:
2pm - 3pm - The Magid Presents: Shterna and the Lost Voice a musical Crankie storytelling adventure
The Magid Ensemble: Join us! – for a musical crankie storytelling adventure titled ‘Shterna and the Lost Voice’ – a new folktale by A.C. Weaver that brings together mythical stories of Elyahu Hanovi with traditional motifs of Yiddish folklore. Drawing inspiration from S. Ansky’s ethnographies of Jewish life in Eastern Europe during the turn of the 20th century, 'Shterna and the Lost Voice' follows the quest of a young woman from the realms of the dead to the celestial gardens of the immortal – all to restore her friend's lost voice. Our narrator guides listeners on Shterna’s epic adventure, accompanied by live original klezmer music, all while the narrative unfolds through a papercut crankie. This dynamic performance is geared towards audiences of all ages!
$22/All Ages Advanced, $25 Doors
Shterna and the Lost Voice is the debut theatrical project of the Magid Ensemble, transporting audiences into the rich world of Yiddish folklore. Developed through rigorous research on Eastern-European Jewish folklore, this immersive storytelling production follows Shterna on an epic hero’s journey, through the living world, the underworld, and the immortal world, in order to retrieve the lost voice of her friend. Narration unfolds alongside a stunning papercut crankie (a long scroll wound onto two spools that illustrates the story as it unwinds) and is accompanied by a live original klezmer music score. Shterna and the Lost Voice is a highly engaging 50-minute storytelling performance suitable for audiences of all ages!
Shterna and the Lost Voice is presented by The Magid Ensemble (magid, meaning “storyteller” in Yiddish) – a new collaboration featuring award-winning klezmer musicians and composers Mattias Kaufmann, Raffi Boden, and Rachel Leader, Yiddishist and storyteller Weaver, and visual artist Kiah Raymond. The Magid Ensemble explores the interplay of sound, story, light, and shadow to create expressive and immersive storytelling landscapes.
7pm - 10pm - Jake Shulman-Ment Duo with Brivele!
Saturday night Klez with internationally renowned violinist Jake Shulman-Ment performing with oudist and guitarist Yoshie Fruchter. Seattle based duo Brivele opens.
All Ages/ $22 Advanced, $25 Doors
About Jake Shulman-Ment
Brooklyn-based Jake Shulman-Ment is among the most highly regarded klezmer musicians performing today. He tours and records internationally as a soloist, and with Midwood, Daniel Kahn, Joey Weisenberg, Abigale Reisman, Pete Rushefsky, and many others. Past collaborators have included The Painted Bird, Di Naye Kapelye, The Brothers Nazaroff, Frank London, Sanda Weigl, Adrian Receanu, Duncan Sheik, Francesca Ter-Berg, Laurel Premo, Ali Dineen, Michael Alpert, Fleytmuzik, MetroFolk, and Romashka.
Jake performs tonight with Yoshie Fruchter. Yoshie Fruchter is a guitar, bass and oud player. Fruchter is notable for his work in composing and interpreting Jewish music, and has forged new directions with his performance, regardless of genre. His current project, Sandcatchers, in which he plays oud and is joined by lap steel player Myk Freedman and Erik Friedlander on cello, explores the sounds of the Middle East combined with the American South.
Brivele is a Seattle-based duo who braid together Yiddish song, anti-fascist and labor balladry, folk-punk, and contemporary rabble-rousing in stirring vocal harmony. Brivele is touring in support of their forthcoming album, “Khaveyrim Zayt Greyt,” which will be released on May 1, 2025 through Borscht Beat records.
In Yiddish, Brivele means "little letter." Like letters, songs travel — through time and over borders. They pick up dirt, aromas, fingerprints. They are sent to lovers, they foment revolution, they get stolen and censored, burned and salvaged, sewn into our clothes.
Brivele is Maia Brown and Stefanie Brendler, who journey into the archives of Yiddish anti-fascist musical tradition, bringing together anti-authoritarian satire, mournful remembrances, and the disguised political commentary in folk ditties and theater classics. These songs are a correspondence: ancestors' voices speaking clearly and uncompromisingly, sometimes sweetly, to the present moment.
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