Combining Joy and Sorrow: Klezmer Music with Elad Kabilio

Cellist Elad Kabilio

On Saturday October 3rd, award-winning cellist Elad Kabilio of 12th Night Klezmer and MusicTalks will present a concert of Klezmer music for Sukkot at The Theater at the 14th Street Y – MusicTalks: Klezmer Celebration. We sat down with Elad to talk all things Klezmer and bringing classical music to modern audiences.

Tell us a little about your experience with Klezmer and Gypsy music.

12th Night Klezmer‘s musicians are coming from all sorts of musical backgrounds – Classical, Jazz, Pop, World Music – but none of us had actually dealt with Klemzer. Moreover, in Israel where all of our musicians are originally from, Klezmer music has a hassidic-only connotation and is not that popular at all. We were curious to explore this genre of music which is the closest to us by identity as Jewish/Israeli artists. We have had such a great ride with exploring the roots of Klezmer music, understanding it, and finding our own expression in it.

What is the history of MusicTalks and 12th Night Klezmer?

MusicTalks was founded five years ago with the mission to bring more people into the world of Classical music. We all know nowadays that the world of Classical music is shrinking and we are losing lots of people. Instead of blaming the audience for not being interested in Classical music, we tried to understand what might draw people back. Our concerts are very intimate and personal. Each piece of music gets an introduction so you (the audience) can understand it better and our artists always share anecdotes about their personal reactions to the music. The reaction to MusicTalks was so great that we decided to do the same with other music styles. We recognize that people don’t know much about Jazz, Klezmer, and many other styles and would love to be exposed to exciting music.

What are you hoping audiences will take away from the concert?

The fantastic story of Klezmer music its essence combining joy and sorrow – which is so Jewish. We would love for the audience to get to know our musicians and maybe get inspired by this incredible music just like we did when we embarked on this journey.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I was interviewed by the Jewish Week in 2014 abut 12th Night Klezmer – check it our here!

MusicTalks: Klezmer Celebration

Saturday October 3rd at 7:30pm at The Theater at the 14th Street Y.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Purchase tickets here.

 

Aye Aye What’s Coming to the Y and PBS?!?

It’s less than a week away from our LABA Kids concert, Songs for Unusual Creatures and we checked with Michael Hearst again to get you some more exciting info and updates for this amazing show for the whole family!

In last week’s post, we showed you a video that features the Aye Aye, or Daubentonia madagascariensis, a lemur native to Madagascar. The furry and unusual nocturnal creature uses echolocation to find its food and get around the forest. It also has extra special long middle fingers that it uses to tap on trees to see if they are hollow.

Songs for Unusual Creatures does a great job of uniting music, science, and learning. So much so that the show has been picked up by PBS Kids! The pilot episode will be premiering online on October 14th, and those of you who are joining us this Sunday will get to see the live version of the show. “Being able to make a show that ties in music with science is awesome!” says Hearst, who admires the work of Leonard Bernstein in his young people’s concerts, as it is “a great idea to be able to provide education through music. It is unusual that TV is willing to take a chance on something that is so art-y and yet educational at the same time.”

After the show, kids will be able to try out some of the unusual instruments that accompany these creatures, including the theremin (a crowd favorite!) and the stylofone.  Then, families can watch the series on PBS Kids and remember the great time they had with the instruments, animals, and band live!

The show is almost sold out! So get your tickets here, with a special discount for Y members.

Songs for Unusual Creatures

Sunday, September 29^th

11:00am in the Theater at the 14^th Street Y