Performance of the Brave Old World
Saturday, April 12th, 2003, 8:30 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church
Free and open to the public
 In
1989, the klezmer revival in America was in search of new directions when
four of its leading figures came together to form a new band and create
a new Yiddish music for the concert stage. Their vision combined the artistry
of classical music and the freedom of jazz with the vibrant power of the
East European Jewish tradition. The result was a powerful new musical
style full of improvisation and musical communication, in which daring
innovation grows from the deepest roots of tradition.
BRAVE OLD WORLD brings together four pioneering virtuosi
of the Klezmer scene. Vocalist and violinist Michael Alpert, renowned
for his native Yiddish and soulful lyricism, is "the only klezmer artist
writing Yiddish songs on contemporary topics" (New York Newsday). Musical
Director Alan Bern, acknowledged as the leading master of klezmer piano
and accordion, brings his unique and innovative musical vision to the
group's arrangements. Christian Dawid on clarinet inspires audiences
with the lyrical passion and imagination of his playing, while the incomparable
Stuart Brotman embodies multi-instrumental virtuosity on bass, percussion
and cimbalom. BRAVE OLD WORLD has brought klezmer music into the global-village present with original and provocative new Yiddish songs on subjects as contemporary as Chernobyl and the fall of the Berlin Wall, in international workshops and residencies, and through pioneering collaborations with East European artists like Hungary's renowned Muzsikas. BRAVE OLD WORLD creates its music anew onstage at every concert, and plays it with a passion that reaches out and embraces audiences. Since its founding, BRAVE OLD WORLD, whose members live in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Berlin, has achieved international recognition with concerts spanning Europe, North America and Israel (First Prize, 1992 International Klezmer Festival, Safed) and award-winning recordings on the Rounder, Flying Fish, Wergo, Ellipsis and Pinorrekk labels (1994 German Record Critic Prize). |
