Preview

Yiddish Summer Weimar 2016!
July 6 - August 13

Thanks to a very generous grant from the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, we're already able to announce the program for Yiddish Summer 2016. And what a program it's going to be! We'll create two new large-scale performance pieces with directing teams from North America and young artists from all over Europe, produce the world's first symposium on Yiddish Historically Informed Performance (YHIP) and expand both the workshops and the Festival Week. Bobe mayses?* No, Yiddish Summer Weimar 2016!! So check out the plans below, spread the word, come join us, and keep your eye on this website for breaking news! And remember... Uncle Avreml Wants YOU!

Bobe Mayses?
European Legends and Yiddish Border-Crossings
in the Other Music Academy (OMA)


Young (and young-at-heart) actors, dancers, musicians, singers, puppet performers, circus artists and more, for two new performance projects to be created during YSW 2016:

Bobe Mayses: Puppet theater/installation/performance piece created and directed by Jenny Romaine (New York), with text by Michael Wex (Toronto) and music by Alan Bern(Berlin), inspired by the Bovo Bukh, 1507, by Elia Levita Bakhur. July 9 - August 6, 2016.
Gilgul: Contemporary dance piece based on Yiddish traditional dance, created and directed by Steven Lee Weintraub (Philadelphia), with music by Zilien Biret (Montreal). July 21- August 6, 2016.

AND…
Scholars and participants for the first Yiddish Summer Weimar conference on Yiddish Historically Informed Performance (YHIP) in instrumental and vocal music and dance, organized by Diana Matut (Halle) and Andreas Schmitges (Cologne/Halle). July 19-22, 2016.
AND…
Participants for workshops in Yiddish language, storytelling, badkhones, klezmer and Yiddish vocal music, dance, cooking and more.

blood emerged angle   Photo: Orlando Marra

Dates 2016

Workshops

Festival Week

Aug 1 - 6       Bobe Mayses and Gilgul premieres, evening concerts and many more offerings (Mini-Workshops, Intro-ductions, Meet-the-artist and more) during the day.

Conference
Jul 19 - 22     Yiddish Historically Informed Perfomance (YHIP)

Theatre  Project
Jul 9 - Aug 6     Bobe Mayses with Jenny Romaine (director), Michael Wex (dramaturgie) and Alan Bern (music), among others

Dance  Project
Jul 21 - Aug 6     Gilgul with Steven Lee Weintraub (choreography) and Zilien Biret (music)

* Bobe Mayse is the Yiddish term for an ‘old wives' tale.’ It derives from the Bovo Bukh by Elia Levita Bakhur which tells the incredible adventures of Bovo d’Antona, a Jewish knight. The story itself is based on an English chivalric romance. The Yiddish version, written more than 500 years ago, was so well known amongst Yiddish speaking Jews in Europe that the term Bove-mayses (fantastic tales) came into existence which then turned into Bobe Mayses in current eastern Yiddish.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Yiddish Summer Weimar 2016 is a project of other music e.V., directed by Dr. Alan Bern, and made possible thanks to generous funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the City of Weimar and numerous other public and private supporters.

Header Historical photo: © from the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography (St. Petersburg, Russia)/Photo of violinist Vanessa Vromans: © Adam Berry/Collage & design: Sayumi Yoshida [spiralegg.design]