Beyond the Manuscript, with Alicia Svigals

Beyond the Manuscript: Interpreting performance of klezmer rhythms in Makonovetsky’s notebooks, a workshop with Alicia Svigals

Alicia Svigals will guide participants through gems of klezmer fieldwork conducted in the early 20th century in Ukraine, discussing and trying out together rhythmic approaches to the notes on the page. The selections will be drawn from the transcriptions of violinist Avrohom-Yehoshua Makonovetsky (1872-?), whose notebooks reside in Kiev’s Vernadksy National Library of Ukraine and are only now becoming available to us. Bring instruments and voices and we’ll try ideas out online!  

Alicia Svigals, violinist/composer and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, is one of the world’s foremost klezmer fiddlers. She almost single-handedly revived the tradition of klezmer fiddling, which had been on the brink of extinction until she recorded her debut album Fidl in the 1990’s. Svigals is also a composer who works in many genres and writes and lectures on Jewish music and culture.

This 105-minute workshop will begin at 11am Pacific Time (2pm Eastern, 7pm London, 8pm Paris, 9pm Tel Aviv). Please confirm local time.

To reserve a space, scroll down and complete the registration form. Registration ends at 7am Pacific Time (PT) the day of the event, i.e. four hours before the workshop begins. After then, write workshops@klezcalifornia.org; we cannot promise to notice your email if you contact us after the deadline.

Registrants will receive sign-in by 8:10am PT that day. If you have not heard by then, first check your junk/spam folder, then write to workshops@klezcalifornia.org. Please do not wait until just before the event begins to notice whether you have the sign-in info.

A video of the workshop will be available to registrants for personal use only. If you are interested in the workshop but unable to participate in real time, please register. When you receive follow-up information the day after, you will see how to request a video.

Registering for this event includes giving KlezCalifornia permission to take still and video images and use them for educational or other organizational purposes. If you do not agree to such use, please turn off your video when you join the event. To keep you informed of future events, we enroll registrants in our free monthly newsletter which includes klezmer and Yiddish culture events in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. You may unsubscribe at any time. KlezCalifornia does not share its lists with other organizations.

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.