September 9, 2005


Michael Dorf, the executive producer and founder of the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival had organized klezmer music events at the Knitting Factory for years and considered himself knowledgeable about the Jewish music scene. But even he was surprised when he started organizing last year's first-ever NY Jewish Music Festival: "I thought I knew a lot, but there's so much great Jewish music out there."

This year's festival runs over a week and a half (from September 13-25) and Dorf explains the format, saying, "I learned lot of lessons and gained experience from producing the NY Jazz fest which I did for a number of years. One of the things I've found is a proven formula is to have a festival spread out over a week. There are only so many shows you can do at one time. The idea here is to be able to offer 60 shows over 10 days, and with that said, we're still just scratching the surface of Jewish music. Between Sephardic, klezmer, Russian and other groups in this year's line up, I could use a whole month to include the hundreds of groups that were interested in participating." Dorf says all kinds of music are included; "We're wide open in our definition of Jewish music."

The festival opens at 8pm on Tuesday, September 13th at the 92nd St. Y, with an Opening Night Concert featuring the Klezmatics, Marc Ribot, Pharaoh's Daughter, Regina Spektor, Uri Caine, Tovah Feldshuh, and Matisyahu, all performing cover songs of great Jewish performers from Billy Joel to the Gershwins.

While New York isn't the only city with a Jewish music festival (San Francisco, Washington DC and Krakow, Poland all host them), "There's nothing comparable at this scope with this many groups, this diverse an offering, and only in New York can you have institutions like the 92nd St. Y, Lincoln Center, Brighton Beach, Joe's Pub and the JCC all involved," says Dorf.

Dorf is expecting 25,000-30,000 people to show up in total for various shows, since there's something for everyone, even some non-musical shows. A blind/deaf Israeli actor's group called Nalaga'at will be staging a rare US performance on the 15th and Dave Brubeck is premiering a new composition on the 14th (both are at the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center); also on the 14th is the first of four free lunchtime Sephardic Concerts (Michal Cohen on the 14th, Sarah Aroeste on the 15th, Divahn on the 21st, and Gerard Edery and Danny Masung on the 22nd, all at the Central Synagogue on E. 55th St.).

There are kids' programs on weekday afternoons, several klezmer performances, a Yiddishfest, wine drinking and Kabbalah study at All Things Safed on the 21st, vodka drinking, dinner and Russian music at the beach on the 18th, Oi Va Voi from London at Irving Plaza and Jill Sobule at Joe's Pub on the 22nd, and the First Annual Jewish Music Awards on the 19th, presented by Heeb Magazine. The final event will be Jewzapalooza at Riverside Park at 72nd St. on the 25th, which will begin with the "world's largest klezmer brunch" and end with performances by Soul Farm and Blackfield.

That covers about half of what's going on — you really have to check out the full schedule to get all the details (and the full scope) of what's on offer. See full festival details at oyhoo.com.

If you can't make it to New York for the festival, keep an eye out for all the upcoming coverage on Jewschool over the next two weeks.

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