About the Series
Join Klezmer Institute’s Christina Crowder to meet the people who have conducted some of the most important work in the documentation and collecting of early recordings of klezmer and other Jewish musics. Tune in live to ask your own questions and to participate in an intimate conversation about the day to day work of discographers and collectors that puts a focus on the personal reflections and stories that aren’t visible in the spreadsheet tables of a record catalogue.
Series 2: Cataloguing Collecting, & Contextualizing Early Recorded Jewish Music
Gramophone recordings gave the modern klezmer community its earliest listen to the sound of twentieth century klezmer and Jewish music. To get to our ears, those discs were recorded onto cassette tapes and CDs and now they stream over bluetooth right into our wireless headphones—a succession of miracles of recorded sound technology. We wouldn’t have any of those sounds without the work of the collectors and discographers that we’re putting “In Focus” for this series. We’ll delve into the world of high-stakes Ebay auctions, serendipitous ephemera, chasing matrix numbers, and the utter joy of listening to improbably preserved shellac for the first time. Plus, we’ll explore the kinds of histories that can be uncovered through the careful reconstruction of recording sessions and follow the pathways of early record producers who collected the urban music that folklorists Brailoiou and Bartok scorned.
Suggested Donation: $10 per session.
Sunday, October 10 Paul Gifford — Understanding the “Romanian” Orchestra phenomenon of the late 19th/early 20th century through ephemera & records
Sunday, October 24, Sherry Mayrent — Building the Mayrent Collection.
Sunday, October 31, Michael Aylward — Creating the European Jewish Gramophone discography
Sunday, November 21, Jeffrey Wollock — topics TBD.
Sunday, December 5, Round Table Discussion
Find more information about our speakers and register to attend at the series web page coming shortly!
