Beregovski’s Passport to the Old Country of Klezmer: Raiders of the Lost Charts, a workshop with Mike Perlmutter

Moishe Beregovski is considered to be one of the foremost documenters of Ashkenazi Jewish folk music. From roughly 1929 to 1947, Beregovski made ethnographic trips collecting secular Jewish music in various parts of Soviet Ukraine. His works make up the largest and most carefully notated collection of such music from pre-WWII and early post-war Europe.

Geographies and generations later, klezmer musicians may find themselves trying to make sense of klezmer nomenclature, repertoire, and function. Beregovski’s collection of hundreds of carefully transcribed and described tunes offers a window into this old world. Beregovski’s systematic approach presents an organized system for decoding old world klezmer names, tunes, and functions.

Workshop attendees will receive a broad overview of Beregovski’s work, focusing on Volume III: Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (Evreiskaia narodnaia instrumental’naia muzykaorient). We will then play through sheet music from the collection, hear various settings of pieces from the collection, and receive information for continued exploration of this repertoire.

Sheet music will be provided in treble clef, concert and Bb transposition. Additional transposition can be provided upon request. Musicians with basic proficiency on their instruments are welcome, as are singers, and those who are interested in listening in to learn.

The workshop begins 11am Pacific Time (2pm Eastern, 8pm London, 9pm Paris, 10pm Tel Aviv). Please check your local beginning time well in advance.

About Mike Perlmutter»

To reserve a space, scroll down to BOOK EVENT, click on NEXT, and complete the registration form. Registration ends at 7am Pacific Time the day of the event. After then, write workshops@klezcalifornia.org; we cannot promise to notice your email if you contact us after the deadline.

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Those who have registered by the deadline, which is Sunday 7am Pacific Time (10am Eastern, 4pm London, 5pm Paris, 6pm Tel Aviv; please confirm local time) will receive sign-in by 8:10am Pacific Time that day. If you have not heard by then, write a.s.a.p. to workshops@klezcalifornia.org. Please do not wait until just before the event begins to notice whether you have the sign-in info.

KlezCalifornia relies on donations from participants to cover the costs of online lectures, workshops, kumzitsn, play readings, and more. Donations of $25 (or whatever you can afford) are greatly appreciated to enable us to continue to connect you with Yiddish culture and to assist presenters, many of whom have lost most of their income. Please consider donating at least the cost of a cup of coffee!

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and The California Endowment.