Walter Zev Feldman (USA/Israel; musicology, tsimbl, dance)

is a leading researcher in both Ottoman Turkish and Jewish music, and a performer on the klezmer dulcimer, tsimbl. During the mid-1970s he and Andy Statman studied with Dave Tarras and were two of the creators of the klezmer revival; at that time Feldman reintroduced the dulcimer tsimbl into klezmer music with his classic LP “Jewish Klezmer Music”. Today he performs with the group Khevrisa and elsewhere. Having grown up with traditional Ashkenazic, Greek and Armenian dance, during the 1970s he researched and taught Turkish folkdance. Today Feldman is a teacher and performer of Ashkenazic dance, leading workshops in the U.S., Canada, England, Germany and Israel. Zev is a part-time associate professor at Bar-Ilan University (Tel-Aviv) and a fellow of the Center for Jewish Music Research at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He was a co-editor of the Medimuses Project for Modal Musics of the Mediterranean for the EnChordais School in Thessalonica, Greece. In 2004 he co-directed the successful application of the Mevlevi Dervishes of Turkey for the UNESCO proclamation of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. In 2003 he curated the concert series “The Revival of Klezmer and Yiddish Music in New York” at the CUNY Graduate Center. He was the artistic director for Jewish music at the 92nd Street in New York, and was the artistic director of the series “Music and Dance of the Jewish Wedding” (2004-2007) and "Music of the Mystics"(2005). Today he is teaching klezmer music at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem.