Veretski Pass to Visit PBO Jews & Music Series

The Veretski Pass trio of Joshua Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein, and Stuart Brotman (courtesy of Philharmonia Baroque)

Those that have been following the different options available through the 2020/Virtual series presented by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) are probably aware of the monthly series of Jews & Music (JAM) events, JAMOnline. These offerings are co-hosted by Music Director Richard Egarr and Scholar-in-Residence Francesco Spagnolo. While guest artists tend to be PBO musicians, this month’s offering will see a visit from Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz, two-thirds of the klezmer ensemble Veretski Pass (as well as being a married couple).

Those that have followed this site for some time probably already know my favorite Segelstein quote: “This is not your grandmother’s klezmer. It is her grandmother’s klezmer.” The fact is that this is music that can probably be traced back as early as the sixteenth century. For that matter the origins of klezmer and songs with Yiddish texts probably took place a century earlier. (Then, of course, there were the Sephardic sources from medieval Spain, including songs with texts in both Hebrew and Ladino. In the early twentieth century, Alberto Hemsi was composing music based on those sources around the same time that Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály were drawing upon Hungarian sources in their compositions.)

This JAMOnline program exploring the intersection of early Western music with klezmer repertoires will take place tomorrow, Thursday, November 18, beginning at 11 a.m. There will be no charge, but registration will be required through a Zoom Web page. Registration includes providing an electronic mail address, which will be used to send instructions for how to connect to the presentation.