In its Fall 2007 concert, the recently formed UVA Klezmer Ensemble under the direction of McIntire Department of Music's Director of Music Performance, Joel Rubin, will welcome violinist Alicia Svigals for a performance of instrumental klezmer and hasidic music. The ensemble, made up of UVA undergrads and grad students, faculty and other members of the greater Charlottesville community, is dedicated to exploring klezmer and other Jewish musical traditions from the 18th century to the present. The concert will focus on repertoire from the klezmer and hasidic traditions of late 19th century Russia, as well as on early 20th century New York and Philadelphia, and Svigals' own compositions. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of the klezmer tradition has been carried out in America and beyond. Klezmer's recent popularity has brought it far beyond its roots in medieval minstrelsy and Jewish ritual and into the sphere of mainstream popular culture.

Listen to an audio clip of Svigals performing by clicking on the play icon below.

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Violinist and composer Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, which she co-led for seventeen years. She has played with and written for violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, the late poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman, hasidic superstars Avraham Fried and Lipa Shmelzer, and many others. Svigals has appeared on David Letterman, MTV, Good Morning America, PBS' Great Performances, NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, Weekend Edition, and New Sounds, and on the soundtrack for the L-Word. She also has a busy party band in New York City, sought after for weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. www.aliciasvigals.com

Joel Rubin, musical direction and clarinet, is Assistant Professor and Director of Music Performance at the University of Virginia. He has long been considered to be one of the leading performers of klezmer music in the world today, earning accolades from sources as diverse as klezmer giants Dave Tarras and Max Epstein, international clarinet soloist Richard Stoltzman, avant garde composer John Zorn, and Nobel Prize Laureate and poet Roald Hoffmann. He studied with Stoltzman and Kalmen Opperman, and holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from City University (London). Rubin has concertized throughout Europe, North America and Asia. He has recorded six solo CDs of klezmer and hasidic music, the most recent of which are Midnight Prayer (www.traditionalcrossroads.com) and The Nign of Reb Mendel Futterfass (forthcoming, 2008). www.rubin-ottens.com

The concert is co-sponsored by the UVA Jewish Studies Program.

Single tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students, and 5 ARTS$ for UVA students, and can be purchased at the Cabell Hall Box Office at (434) 924-3984, 12pm to 5pm, Monday through Friday.

For more information, contact Marcy Day at (434) 924-6492 or mday@virginia.edu
For tickets, please call the Cabell Hall Box Office at (434) 924-3984.