Couses
New Yiddish Song July 21-28
Advanced and Intermediate Song Workshop
With Daniel Kahn, Efim Chorny & Alan Bern (Advanced)
Ilya Schneyveys & Sasha Lurje (Intermediate)
Artists-in-Residence: Susan Ghergus, Michael Winograd, Patrick Farrell, Benjy Fox-Rosen
In the last 10 years, a new wave of creativity has swept through Yiddish song. Musicians from East and West have joined forces to create contemporary songs of amazing variety, power and beauty. Every artist who composes, arranges, performs or accompanies New Yiddish Song faces similar questions: What to take from tradition and where to innovate? Which musical language(s) to use? How to find or create texts? How to set texts to melodies, harmonies, forms? How to interpret and perform new songs?
This workshop is led by outstanding international artists who have answered these questions in their own unique way. Efim Chorny's new songs are rooted in the great traditions of Rumanian Yiddish folk and theater songs, and many of them became instant classics and are sung around the world. Dan Kahn's songs explore the boundaries between cultures, classes, languages and the sexes and are celebrated for their cabaret-like wit. As a composer, arranger and accompanist, Alan Bern pushes the boundaries of melody, harmony, form and expression in Yiddish song. In Forshpil and other projects, Ilya Schneyveys and Sasha Lurje have created songs that cross many boundaries of style and language while remaining anchored in Yiddish.
The workshop will include sessions on song-writing, arranging, performance, interpretation and analysis, the repertoires of Dan Kahn and Efim Chorny, international New Yiddish Song repertoire, ensembles and master classes. The workshop is open for singers, accompanists, song-writers and arrangers who are ready to explore the relationship between traditional and contemporary Yiddish song. Advanced and intermediate sections meet together for parts of each day and separately for other parts. We ask you to register for the level you think is appropriate, advanced or intermediate, understanding that the workshop leaders may advise you to switch levels if it would be in your own best interest.
Please feel free to contact the management with any questions about whether this workshop is right for you: registration@othermusic.eu
Workshop fee: Standard 515 € / Reduced 395 € / Supporter 715 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
>> Registration back 
Yiddish Language Classes:
In 2013, we're delighted to be able to offer three week-long, intensive Yiddish courses: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced! The courses build on one another and you can take all three in a row. The third course, taught by Professor Simon Neuberg, requires a strong prior knowledge of Yiddish, and if you work hard in the first two courses, you can be ready for it.
If you only have one or two weeks free, then of course you can also take just one or two courses, as always, according to your Yiddish language ability. Graduates of the Intermediate course in 2011 are more than welcome in Prof. Neuberg's course this year.
So you can study Yiddish in 3½ weeks this summer in Weimar with some of the best teachers and specialists in the world, surrounded by the incredibly rich cultural program of jam sessions, concerts and other events of Yiddish Summer Weimar.
The Yiddish courses are being offered in cooperation with the Seminar for Jewish Studies, University of Halle-Wittenberg. College students can receive credit for their participation. For more information about this, please send an email to:
beginning July 23-28
With Dorothea Greve
The Hebrew alphabet ("square script") is the key to one of the world's richest and most fascinating cultures that originated 1000 years ago in the Rhineland, read more 
beginning July 23-28
With Dorothea Greve
The Hebrew alphabet ("square script") is the key to one of the world's richest and most fascinating cultures that originated 1000 years ago in the Rhineland, blossomed in Eastern Europe, and can be found today on every continent – Yiddish culture.
In this intensive course students quickly and playfully learn to read the Yiddish alphabet, opening the door to all sorts of original Yiddish texts, including songs, poems and short stories. You'll get important tips on pronunciation and start to "shmuesn" ("shmooze") in Yiddish from the very first lesson, thus developing a feeling for this expressive and musical language. The course creates an ideal basis for anyone working with Yiddish on stage, e.g. for singers. Previous knowledge is not required, and success is guaranteed! In addition, this course will introduce you to the gripping history of the Yiddish language and you'll experience first-hand what YIDISHKAYT means!
Workshop fee: Standard 405 € / Reduced 315 € / Supporter 555 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
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intermediate July 30 - August 4
With Yuri Vedenyapin
This course will be aimed at those interested in learning the Yiddish language and exploring the diverse history and culture of Ashkenazic Jewry. read more
intermediate July 30 - August 4
With Yuri Vedenyapin
This course will be aimed at those interested in learning the Yiddish language and exploring the diverse history and culture of Ashkenazic Jewry. Basic familiarity with the Jewish alphabet and with simple Yiddish phrases will be expected. Classes will include samples of Yiddish prose, poetry, songs, films, and contemporary ethnographic material. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing authentic pronunciation and on understanding variations among the main Yiddish dialects.
Workshop fee: Standard 405 € / Reduced 315 € / Supporter 555 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
>> Registration
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advanced August 6-11
With Simon Neuberg
In keeping with this summer's theme, we'll also engage with 21st century Yiddish literature in this course. read more
advanced August 6-11
With Simon Neuberg
In keeping with this summer's theme, we'll also engage with 21st century Yiddish literature in this course. The final selection of authors and works is still open and can depend on the class participants' wishes, in order to avoid works that are may already be familiar to everyone. We'd like to ask you to bring your favorite works of Yiddish literature from the year 2000 onwards with you to the course to be able to briefly present them.
Workshop fee: Standard 405 € / Reduced 315 € / Supporter 555 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
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Dance Music Orchestra: New Yiddish Dance Music July 29 - August 4
With Ilya Schneyveys, Mitia Khramtsov, Alan Bern, Hampus Melin, Jacobus Thiele
In 2013, the Dance Music Orchestra takes on the challenge of creating New Yiddish Dance Music for New Yiddish Dance! We will draw on the resources of traditional and contemporary Yiddish music as well as other traditional and contemporary folk and popular musics, both acoustic and electric, to create our own unique repertoire and style. read more
With Ilya Schneyveys, Mitia Khramtsov, Alan Bern, Hampus Melin, Jacobus Thiele
In 2013, the Dance Music Orchestra takes on the challenge of creating New Yiddish Dance Music for New Yiddish Dance! We will draw on the resources of traditional and contemporary Yiddish music as well as other traditional and contemporary folk and popular musics, both acoustic and electric, to create our own unique repertoire and style.
The workshop begins on July 29, one day before the Dance for Everyone workshop, to let us work closely with the New Yiddish Dance teachers and for us to get to know everyone in the orchestra and what each musicians brings to the mix. Starting on July 30, the orchestra will meet together with the Dance for Everyone workshop to develop a common repertoire and style, but will also have separate meetings to work on music alone.
Because we will often need to react quickly to the dancers, this workshop is intended for experienced dance musicians (Yiddish, folk or other). And because dance musicians watch all of the wonderful dancers while playing to inspire them and be inspired by them, they can't be too dependent on written music. If you have open ears and imaginations and would like to be part of an exciting, experimental project to create New Yiddish Dance Music, this workshop is for you! If you're interested but not sure, please feel free to contact: registration@othermusic.eu
Workshop fee: Standard 460 € / Reduced 355 € / Supporter 635 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
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Dance For Everyone: New Yiddish Dance July 30 - August 4
With Steve Weintraub, Vivien Zeller, Andreas Schmitges
Traditional Yiddish dance has often taken over steps, forms and even entire dances from other folk and popular dance cultures. It then adds a body language of style, gesture and communication that transforms the borrowed dances and makes them distinctively Yiddish. In 2013, the Dance for Everyone workshop undertakes an exciting new project: read more
With Steve Weintraub, Vivien Zeller, Andreas Schmitges
Traditional Yiddish dance has often taken over steps, forms and even entire dances from other folk and popular dance cultures. It then adds a body language of style, gesture and communication that transforms the borrowed dances and makes them distinctively Yiddish. In 2013, the Dance for Everyone workshop undertakes an exciting new project: to apply this process to other current folk and popular dance movements, such as Balfolk, Contradance, Tarantella and more, and create a New Yiddish Dance movement that starts right here during Yiddish Summer Weimar.
Running parallel to Dance for Everyone, the Dance Orchestra will be busy creating New Yiddish Dance Music, working closely with the dance teachers and orchestra leaders to create new music especially for the dance workshop. There will be dance teaching sessions for all participants and smaller group sessions for more individual topics such as Dancing to Doinas, Basic Traditional Style, Advanced Traditional Style, Couple Improvisation and more.
Is this workshop for you? If you love to move, you are curious about Yiddish dance or already deeply into it, you love wonderful live music, you're fascinated by the conversation and exchange among cultures, then YES! If you have questions, please feel free to contact: registration@othermusic.eu
Workshop fee: Standard 405 € / Reduced 315 € / Supporter 555 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
>> Registration back
Shpilndik! Zingendik! Tantsndik! (Play! Sing! Dance!) July 31 - August 3
A Hands-On Introduction to Klezmer Instrumental Music, Yiddish Song, and Dance
With Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer
Whether you have some experience as a klezmer player, Yiddish singer or dancer, or are completely new to the style, this hands-on workshop offers a feast of Eastern European Yiddish instrumental, vocal music and dance. read more
With Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer
Whether you have some experience as a klezmer player, Yiddish singer or dancer, or are completely new to the style, this hands-on workshop offers a feast of Eastern European Yiddish instrumental, vocal music and dance.
This workshop will be taught with a lively, integrated approach—a marriage of instruments, singing and movement. Working by ear and with written music, we will explore ways to express the full potential of Yiddish music and dance, as individuals and as a group. Daily topics will include Eastern European Jewish modality, klezmer phrasing, articulation and ornamentation, Yiddish song repertoire and style, and Yiddish dance steps, gestures and movement.
Open to instrumentalists, singers and dancers of all ages and musical backgrounds.
No knowledge of Yiddish or previous experience necessary.
Important! Participants who only want to dance and neither play an instrument nor sing are recommended to take the Dance for Everyone workshop that also takes place during this week.
AND! Starting at 2 pm on August 4, the first ever Yiddish Summer Pool Party will take place, with the hot sounds of Forshpil from Riga and the Yiddish Summer Dance Orchestra. If you can stay an extra day after this workshop, you can be there, too!
Workshop fee: Standard 285 € / Reduced 225 € / Supporter 385 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
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New Yiddish Music August 5-11
Advanced and Intermediate Instrumental Music Workshop
With Frank London, Alan Bern, Michael Winograd, Patrick Farrell, Benjy Fox-Rosen (Advanced)
Ilya Schneyveys & Mark Kovnatskiy (Intermediate)
Beginning in the late 1980s, klezmer bands like the Klezmatics and Brave Old World began to expand the language of Yiddish music, leading to the concept of New Jewish Music in the mid-1990s. Now, almost 20 years later, the expansion has gone so far that connections to older Yiddish music are often tenuous or completely missing. "New Yiddish Music" crosses borders of musical language, genre or performance style while keeping an audible Yiddish music heritage. But how to do this?
This workshop is led by internationally celebrated musicians whose work consistently explores this question at the highest artistic level. Grammy-winner Frank London has created countless projects that blend Yiddish music with other contemporary musics, including rock, pop, free jazz, brass band, Balkan, and more. Alan Bern has led projects that explore Yiddish music vis-a-vis improvisation, lautari music and classical music, and, as Director of Yiddish Summer Weimar, he has encouraged and supported many of the most creative younger bands in New Yiddish Music. The Michael Winograd Trio represents the very best of the new American Yiddish music scene, in which traditional and avant-garde styles live comfortably together. And Ilya Schneyveys and Mark Kovnatskiy are at the forefront of New Yiddish Music projects in Europe.
The workshop will include sessions on composing, arranging, performance, interpretation and analysis, instrumental classes, ensembles and master classes. The workshop is open for composers, arrangers and instrumentalists who are ready to explore the relationship between traditional and contemporary Yiddish instrumental music. Advanced and intermediate sections meet together for parts of each day and separately for other parts. We ask you to register for the level you think is appropriate, advanced or intermediate, understanding that the workshop leaders may advise you to switch levels if it would be in your own best interest. Please feel free to contact the management, with any questions about whether this workshop is right for you: registration@othermusic.eu
Workshop fee: Standard 460 € / Reduced 355 € / Supporter 635 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about
>> Registration back
Children's Songs Workshop August 5-10
Fun griner katshke, broynem ber un flaterl... Yidishe lider far kleyne un groyse kinderlekh
(About the green duck, the brown bear and the butterfly... Yiddish songs for small and big children)
With Diana Matut, Andreas Schmitges
Following the wonderful experience of last summer, we'd like to invite you once again to our workshop on songs for young and old. Everyone between the ages of 6 to 120 is welcome! read more
With Diana Matut, Andreas Schmitges
Following the wonderful experience of last summer, we'd like to invite you once again to our workshop on songs for young and old. Everyone between the ages of 6 to 120 is welcome! Together, we'll learn a small repertoire of songs and work on melodies, language and pronunciation. The subject is Yiddish children's songs, some of them with German parallel versions. We want to make a lot of music all together. Depending on the number of participants and their ages, we may sometimes divide into two separate groups to meet the needs of both younger and older singers.
You should bring with you: patience for young and old, lots of good mood, enjoying singing and the ability to hold a voice. If you play an instrument, then bring it with you, too! We might be able to use it.
Instruction times: 10.00-13.00 and 15.00-18.00 daily, August 5th until August 9th
Final presentation: on August 10th, 11.00 in the morning
Children can stay with us the whole day. For a small fee it's possible to eat lunch together and spend the lunch break time by dancing, visiting the park and so on. A short final presentation of our repertoire is planned, more information about that will be shared before the workshop begins.
Languages of instruction: as needed, (German, Yiddish and/or English).
For the children: Please bring a little bag with a scissors, paste, strips of paper, brush, paintset and colored pencils.
Workshop fee: Children up to 14 years 180 € / Childer over 14 years 315 € / Family (up to 2 children and parents or grandparets) 460 €
There are no further discounts for this workshop other than the Early Bird registration discount and the one-time reduction for members of other music e.V.
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A bisl Yiddish, mit Andrea Pancur July 30 - August 2
Mini-workshop during the New Yiddish Music Concert Week
Times: Daily from 11 am to 1 pm, you can participate once, twice, three or four times.
Place: Musikschule „Ottmar Gerster”
Prices: 15 € (Adults), 10 € (Children: 6-14), for each 2-hour session
Advance registration: management@othermusic.eu or (0)3643 85 83 10 or at the door
With Andrea Pancur
Visit historic Weimar for one or more days during the New Yiddish Music Concert Week, hear two great concerts each evening, take in the sights during the day, and... read more
With Andrea Pancur
Visit historic Weimar for one or more days during the New Yiddish Music Concert Week, hear two great concerts each evening, take in the sights during the day, and... what else? Attend a two-hour mini-workshop and get to know the amazing richness of Yiddish culture first hand! Perfect for first-time Yiddish Summer visitors, for families with children, and for anyone curious about Yiddish culture.
What do „Joiboiboi“ and „Jambambam“ actually mean? Why does the thief steal only useless junk from the Rabbi? What is Tsimes? How did Yiddish children used to spend their days? What were their favorite games? How did a shtetl look? How do you write your own name in Yiddish? What's a Rabbi and what's a shul? How do Yiddish dances work?
You can learn all that and more here. We'll explore Yiddish life in the past and today. The motto is „hands on,” that means that we'll try out as much as possible ourselves. There's no weeklong commitment, just decide day to day if you want to come. back
