The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music is a free monthly concert series presenting original music drawing from the Jewish cultural experience. Hosted by BackRoom at The Boston Synagogue, co-presented by JArts, and live-streaming everywhere, the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music highlights the best in Jewish-influenced music by composers and performers who live right here in our own backyard.
2023-2024 (5784) Season
Thank you for a fantastic season! We'll be back in the fall of 2024 with more amazing music.
Please consider making a tax deductible donation to keep the music going at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music. It's your support that makes every concert happen. Thank you!
Klezmer on the Brain
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
Neuroscience and music: a match made in the cerebrum.
Dr. Jonathan Cannon isn't just a founding member of Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band. He's also a mathematician and assistant professor in the department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior at McMaster University in Ontario, where he studies how the human brain perceives rhythm and timing.
Join Dr. Cannon and Ezekiel's Wheels for an evening of science, klezmer, and a little bit of a family reunion as he guides us through current research on the neuroscience of music to the sounds of the violin, clarinet, trombone, bass, and voice, then makes a very special guest appearance on fiddle with the Wheels for the first time this season. All that, plus a full set of new music from Ezekiel's Wheels to launch their summer season.
Not to be missed.
Alicia Svigals Fidl Afire Album Release Show
Tuesday, June 25, 2024 at 7pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville, MA
Alicia Svigals, a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, is widely considered to be the world's greatest klezmer fiddler. Her groundbreaking 1997 album Fidl sparked a worldwide klezmer fiddle revival. This summer sees the release of her long-awaited followup, Fidl Afire, and she'll celebrate with a show at the Burren backed up by Boston's top klezmer players: Hankus Netsky on keys, Grant Smith, drums, Jim Guttman, bass, Mark Hamilton, trombone, and Mark Berney, trumpet.
Jake Shulman-Ment's Midwood, feat. Abigale Reisman and Nat Seelen
Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 4pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville, MA
Led by violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, Midwood is a contemporary klezmer/rock celebration of freedom, wandering, and migration. Featuring some of the most exciting young performers on the international world music stage, they seamlessly traverse borders through original compositions, expansive improvisations on traditional melodies, and heart-wrenching re-imaginings of Yiddish folk songs.
Jake Shulman-Ment - violin, vocals
Yoshie Fruchter - guitar
Eleonore Weill - vocals, flutes, hurdy gurdy
Richie Barshay - drums
Hadar Ahuvia's nefesh + Dance Party
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
Join us for an evening of dance at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music!
First: Hadar Ahuvia's nefesh
Then: Community Yiddish dance party with the house klezmer band
nefesh sutures across generations and genres, weaving together contemporary dance, traditional Ashkenazic music, feminism, and neo-Hasidism. It reaches back to my traditional, yiddish speaking great-grandparents, reclaiming cultures nearly destroyed by anti-semitism and Zionism.
nefesh lingers in the details of shuckling, vocal sliding, unmetered singing and krechtsing, that distinguish the eastern European Jewish soundscape. It foregrounds the labor, sensuality, and life-giving nourishment of sacred service, and the wisdom of the body, our wandering -
navenaden - altar.
Choreography and performance by Hadar Ahuvia
Traditional music performed and arranged by by Hadar Ahuvia
Sound Design Tatyana Tenenbaum
Costume Design Athena Kokoronis
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Hadar is a dance artist, educator, ritual leader, rabbinical student and a student of eastern european jewish vernacular and cantorial music.
Her essay “Joy Vey” on choreographing an Israeli identity beyond Zionism is featured in the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance.
Her choreographic credits include Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project, Yaddo, 14th St Y, Gibney, Movement Research, NJCF, a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, and Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch in 2019.’
Her works aim to facilitate spaces for embodied processing, imagination and transformation.
Newton Highlands Klezmer Dance
Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 6pm
The Hyde Community Center Bandstand, 90 Lincoln St, Newton
Celebrate Jewish Heritage Month with the 2nd annual Newton Highlands Klezmer Dance!
We'll dance the evening away on the field in front of the Hyde Community Center Bandstand to the sounds of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music All Stars. Featuring original klezmer music from BFNJM Artistic Director Nat Seelen's CJP Arts and Culture Fund project performed by Nat on clarinet Eden MacAdam-Somer on violin, Zach Mayer on saxophone, Michael McLaughlin on accordion, and Jeff Sagurton on drums.
Our very own Adah Hetko will lead dancing to
bulgars, freylekhs, khosidls, zhoks,
and more. If you don't know what that means yet, fear not! Adah will teach you.
Shterna and the Lost Voice, a new Yiddish folktale
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
Join us! – for Shterna and the Lost Voice: a musical crankie storytelling adventure! This new folktale by A. C. Weaver is inspired by mythical stories of Elyahu Hanovi and traditional Yiddish folklore. Shterna and the Lost Voice follows a young woman’s quest from the realms of the dead to the celestial gardens of the immortal – all to restore her friend's lost voice. Shterna’s epic adventure is accompanied by live original klezmer music while the narrative unfolds through a papercut crankie. This dynamic performance is geared towards 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 storyteller A. C. 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.
What is a crankie?
A crankie is a long scroll wound onto two spools that illustrates a story as it unwinds. Kiah Raymond's original crankie incorporates shadow puppetry inspired by Jewish papercut art.
Di Boston Fidl Kapelye plays The Modern Klezmer
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
Join this supergroup of Boston's klezmer fiddle players for a concert and dance party featuring gems of the Yiddish violin repertoire alongside new compositions by members of the ensemble.
With Abigale Reisman, Yaeko Miranda, Lysander Jaffe, Rebecca Macinnes, Rachel Leader, and Kirsten Lamb.
Dance leading by Adah Hetko!
Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
The Scottsboro Trials stand as one of the most renowned miscarriages of justice in the history of American jurisprudence. Beginning in 1931 with a false accusation of rape against nine Black teenagers, the case went on to invigorate a nascent Civil Rights movement, earn the international support of Communist Party, and establish itself as a watchword among various strands of the American Left. It inspired reaction from the contemporary world of arts and letters as well, most famously by poets Langston Hughes and Richard Wright and novelist Harper Lee, who adapted its events in To Kill A Mockingbird.
The international, politically-oriented Yiddish intelligentsia of the Thirties was no less galvanized, producing a body of creative response that passionately took up the themes of the trial, juxtaposing its American injustices with a diversity of images, tropes and language imbued with their own distinct histories of oppression.
Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro brings this world alive as a concert-lecture featuring Professor Amelia Glaser, author of Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine (Harvard University Press), composer/vocalists Heather Klein and Anthony Russell, and composer/pianist Uri Schreter, performing their new settings of Yiddish and English poetry written in response to the pervasive climate of race prejudice that gave birth to the Scottsboro trials—and other injustices to come.
Levyosyn
Wednesday, February 21, 2023 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
Levyosn takes its name from the Ashkenazi Hebrew word for the leviathan, a mythical sea creature traveling the world’s oceans collecting songs, krill, and dreams. Like their namesake, this ensemble moves with strength and depth, through finely crafted harmony-rich arrangements of Yiddish folksongs, klezmer instrumentals and original compositions.
Itay Dayan - Hoffman's Farewell
Thursday, January 18 at 7pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Road, Boston
In 1927, klezmer musician Joseph Hoffman put to paper a folio of klezmer music. 96 years later, in June of 2023, his family published the book.Clarinetist Itay Dayan arranged a selection of the most unique and unknown pieces from the book for a 7 piece band and recorded it as a new album - "Hoffman's Farewell". With original, modern arrangements and a fresh band, this is guaranteed to be a special experience.
Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin - THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS
Thursday, January 4, 2024 at 8pm
Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville
Alicia Svigals may just be the world's greatest living klezmer violinist.
The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music is delighted to present Alicia alongside celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin in a cine-concert performance of THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS.
First shown in 1924, THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS is the best known work of Austrian Expressionist filmmaker Hans Karl Breslauer. Based on the 1922 novel by Hugo Bettauer, it is a satirical allegory of the near future for Europe, a sendup of antisemitism that was remarkable prescient and has remained unfortunately relevant.
Join us for this live presentation at the Somerville Amory, with live original music composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.
This program is made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.
Khanike Klezmer Spectacular
Featuring Michael Winograd and the Honorable Mentshn with Sasha Lurje. Opening performance by Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band. Afterparty by Zach Mayer's Electronic Jerusalem
Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 7pm
The Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA
It's a Khanike (Chanuka, Hanukkah, Janucá...) Klezmer Spectacular!
Featuring some of the greatest klezmer bands, most fabulous Yiddish singers, and best dressed clarinetists in the world:
Michael Winograd and The Honorable Mentshn with Sasha Lurje!
Opening performance by Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band!
Afterparty with Zach Mayer's Electronic Jerusalem!
Friends, this is not one to be missed.
Join the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music and all of your friends to dance the night away and celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah, Janucá, Khanike...) the best way we know how: with music, dance, and joy.
A Meeting of the Arts with Ira Klein, Beth Bahia Cohen, and Rachel Linsky
Thursday, November 30 at 6:00pm
The Vilna Shul, 18 Phillips Street, Boston, MA
This performance, titled A Meeting of the Arts, is an immersive art experience featuring original music and dance by composer and guitarist Ira Klein, multi-instrumentalist Beth Bahia Cohen, and dancer Rachel Linsky. This work is inspired by guitarist Ira Klein’s research into the mysterious Catalan Mahzor, a 14th-century Jewish illuminated manuscript from Spain.
Book release, season opener, and dance party!
Wednesday, November 15th, 2023, 7:00pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Rd, Boston, MA
A book release, a klezmer dance, and a birthday party all at once? It must be the season opener at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music!
Join us on Wednesday, November 15th at the Boston Synagogue for a celebration of new Jewish culture as we perform music from BFNJM Artistic Director Nat Seelen's upcoming book,
New Klezmer Dances: Volume 1.
We'll be joined by 2022-23 JArts/CJP Community Creative Fellow Rachel Linsky leading dancing and an absolutely crackerjack band of Nat Seelen on clarinet, Edmar Colón on saxophone, Cory Pesaturo on accordion, Kirsten Lamb on bass, and Grant Smith on drums.
You've heard them with Itzhak Perlman, Esperanza Spalding, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now, hear them together at the Boston Synagogue.
Oh yeah, and it's Nat's birthday party! There will be cake, snacks, and drinks.
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About the #BFNJM
The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music was created by local musicians who believe that:
People find meaning and joy in art and community, and communities come together around shared experiences, especially regular meetings over time.
We all benefit from hearing great concerts and musicians benefit from the opportunity to develop and present new works to people excited to hear them.
A strong cultural ecosystem is part of what makes the Boston area so vital and strong.
Great Jewish music is great music. You don’t need to be from the South Bronx to love hip hop or from Panama to love reggaeton; why should you need to know the difference between the Torah and the Talmud to fall in love with Abigale Reisman’s violin or Zach Mayer’s saxophone? Our music is from a certain cultural place, but it’s for everyone.
Art should be accessible to everyone in our broader community. Especially after the past 18 months has made hearing live music so difficult, we are doubling down on accessibility. Concerts are free and live-streamed for folks who can’t attend in person. For those who can, the venue is totally handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.
If you believe any of these things, or just want to hear some amazing concerts, join us for this season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music.
Partners
Special thanks go out to our partner organizations for believing in and supporting live music at such a difficult time for musicians.
The Boston Synagogue
A wonderful spirit is alive at The Boston Synagogue. We are a warm, small, neighborhood shul, and the only synagogue located in the heart of downtown with Shabbat and Holiday Services 52 weeks per year.
Our Mission is to serve the needs of the diverse community of Jews in downtown Boston, whether through joyful participatory worship, Friday Night Dinners, Saturday morning Kiddush, or Holiday celebrations, as well as with a slew of Cultural Events and other fun and engaging opportunities to connect with our open, vibrant community. The Shul also offers dynamic learning experiences for everyone, from our growing Hebrew School to Adult Education programs.
JArts Boston
JArts™ brings people together to explore and celebrate the diverse world of Jewish art, culture, and creative expression.
We believe in the unique power of arts and culture to build connections. Art, food, literature, music, and more allow us to better understand the life experiences of others as well as our own, and help to build a vibrant and more tolerant future for both our Jewish and Greater Boston communities.
JArts™ creates programs that bring people together — in the Greater Boston area and around the world — to celebrate and elevate the diverse world of Jewish art, culture, and creative expression. Let culture connect us.
CJP - Combined Jewish Philanthropies
At CJP, we are working every day to make our world a better place. We’re raising and investing money, building relationships and growing partnerships to address our community’s greatest challenges, and offering diverse opportunities to build a meaningful Jewish life.
Thank you to our sponsors and supporters!
NEFA
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
Boston Cultural Council
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture.
Newton Cultural Council
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Newton Cultural Council, a local council that is supported by the Mass Cultural Council and the City of Newton
Mass Cultural Council
CJP
JArts
You?
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