Trampled Manuscripts Artist Residencies
Hosting The Lost Klezmer Music of the An-ski Expeditions
Shpilkis with Christina Crowder, January 11, 2025. Photo courtesy Dylan Bosseau.
Resources For Hosts and Sponsors
The Trampled Manuscripts Artist Residency Program connects local communities to a treasure trove of newly-available klezmer music from 100 years ago. This page includes resources for hosts and sponsors of upcoming residencies. Find the main KMDMP page here, and the front page of the residency program here.
Because we’re not anywhere near a central hub of Yiddish culture and music but we do have a klezmer scene, we get performers coming through and teaching workshops. But there aren’t really opportunities to do a deeper dive with how to approach a program of material in an ensemble. Musicians are experiential learners and getting to learn by prepping for a couple gigs was unique, empowering and fun.
Programming Options
What happens during a Visiting Artist Residency?
Visiting Artist residencies range from two to seven days of in-person programming around the KMDMP corpus in your community. Under the artistic direction of Klezmer Institute’s Christina Crowder, the residency usually centers a flagship main concert and is designed to include a number of additional workshops, lectures, private lessons, and coaching sessions that can be scheduled depending on the needs of your community and local artists.
The Concert
The Trampled Manuscripts concert is the main showcase for the residency. It brings together local klezmorim to put on a concert of all new music from the KMDMP corpus. The concert can feature one single ensemble, with or without featured outside guests, or can evlove to include all or part of two or more local ensembles for sets that flow between featured soloists or mini ensembles along with full group items. Workshop attendees are also often invited on stage to participate in the final dance set.
Workshops & Hosted Jam Sessions
Instrumental & Vocal Workshops of many types that present KMDMP tunes & niggunim
- KMDMP tunes for general audience – any instrument, any level
- KMDMP for strings – KMDMP corpus is filled with beautiful Jewish music for violin
- Nigunim from the KMDMP corpus – for anyone who is interested in the power of nign for individual and communal singing.
- Curated jam session that includes teaching a few KMDMP tunes
Lectures & Presentations
Presentations and Lectures for general and academic audiences, such as:
- An-sky and the Vision of the Jewish Ethnographic Society — the Legacy of Jewish Musical Folklore Collectors in the Twentieth Century
- The Crowdsourced Digital Archive: Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project
- The Klezmer Archive Project: Digital Humanities for Heritage Documentation and Preservation
Ashkenazic Movement & Dance
Movement Workshops centering Ashkenazic gesture
- For general audiences – anyone interested in exploring gesture and the “rhetoric encoded in klezmer music”
- For folks with mobility issues — exploring Asheknazic gesture is a lovely low-impact movement workshop for elders or anyone with mobility issues. The class centers finger, hand, and arm movement and connected listening to live music along with dance movements that emphasize repetition, rhythm, and gentle stretching.
Rehearsals, Lessons, & Band Coaching
One of the central goals of the residency is close study of the source “texts” of the KMDMP manuscripts, and the opportunity for professional and semi-professional musicians to work closely with the visiting artist to develop the repertoire for the concert. Preparation begins well in advance of the residency with zoom consultations to develop suitable repertoire, and rehearsal sessions over zoom to work through general approaches.
During the residency itself, ensembles and featured guests will have in-person rehearsals in preparation for the concert. The residency is also a wonderful opportunity for ensembles to schedule private ensemble coaching to work on overal style and approaches to their existing repertoire, and for individuals to schedule one-on-one coaching. Master classes for diverse instruments are another opportunity for local groups.
Why Trampled Manuscripts?? At the end of his wedding manuscript, Avraham-Yehoshua Makonovetsky wrote to Moshe Beregovski:
“I would have sent you the old transcriptions, but they are very torn, a lot is missing and you would not be able to get anything out of it. Because in the bandit-times [the civil war?] they lay where they were [?], in the dirt and water and snow, and got all torn up.”
— Translation by Sasha Lurje, Hannah Ochner, Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky
Close Study of the Source
We bring 40 years of ongoing klezmer revival to interpreting these unique manuscripts written by klezmorim for their own use. Like reading a personal musical diary, these “telegrams to the future” connect us directly to Ashkenazic musical heritage.
Workshops & Jam Sessions
Workshops and jam sessions are a great way to bring new music to existing klezmer affictionadoes and bring in newcomers. The KMDMP corpus has many accessible tunes that are unfamiliar to most klezmer players.
Concerts
The flagship concert spotlights local artists who have already invested in learning about idiomatic approcahes to klezmer music, and brings together artists who may not usually have the chance to work together in a community celebration.
Our community was enriched and enlivened by Christina Crowder’s community workshop on klezmer music from the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky archive. She transmitted knowledge to seasoned klezmer musicians as well as encouragement and nurturing to budding klezmorim. The following week Crowder performed with some of Portland local legends and the result was a concert that blew the roof off of our venue, Eastside Jewish Commons, with heart-felt music, soulful playing, and finally a series of rhapsodic freylachs that literally lifted people off their chairs and had them line dancing in the aisles. It was as if our community had suddenly joined our ancestors in an exuberant shtetl wedding dance.
Programming Objectives
The Klezmer Institute has defined a set of objectives for evaluating the immediate and long-term impact of these residencies.
— Spotlight local klezmer experts through high-profile events and intensive one-on-one coaching with the visiting artist
— Connect klezmer musicians to Jewish communal spaces such as synagogues and community centers to facilitate future programming, and to strengthen connections with existing non-Jewish community venues;
— Introduce a new generation of musicians to the depth and complexity of European klezmer music through workshops, jams, and private coaching;
— Facilitate intergenerational connection between young musicians who have explored Jewish identity through engagement with Ashkenazic expressive culture, and older Jewish musicians & audiences who share the same cultural heritage;
— Coordinate funding between local community, arts, Jewish, and academic partners in support of Ashkenazic expressive culture programming;
— Support professional development and capacity-building for individuals and groups looking to level-up local organizing around Ashkenazic expressive culture in their community.
— Build connections with seniors through Ashkenazic movement workshops for those with mobility issues
— Introduce Klezmer Institute Projects (Klezmer Archive and the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project) to students and scholars in Jewish Studies, Digital Humanities, Music, Musicology, Folklore Studies, and Ethnography, etc.
Accordion Workshop in Minneapolis, MN, October 2024.
It made me feel like more of a recognized leader in this scene, both by myself, my community (klezmer and also the PNW folk scene in general), and perhaps the wider scene beyond our region as well. Anski’s concept of Jews being “zamlers” really struck a chord with me, and this program felt like it aligned with that really well.
Planning the Residency
How does it work?
Planning for a residency usually begins at least a year to eighteen months before the planned date with the selection of a time frame for the event, participating local artists, and a first draft of programming goals.
Building the Program & Programming partners
Seeking local partners to host and sponsor events is a big part of the residency planning process. We will work together to identify potential institutional and private partners, from synagogues, art centers, and universities, to cafes, bookstores, and private homes.
Sample Schedules
Here are some sample schedules from recent residencies.
Minneapolis, MN — October 22-27, 2024
Tues, Oct 22.
2pm PM Arrive DL2325
7-9 PM “Working with Traditional Music Archives” Panel Discussion — Celtic Junction Arts Center
Wed, Oct 23
11 AM – noon Yiddish Sing-a-long and Movement Workshop — Active Day at Millennium
6:30-8 PM KMDMP Instrumental Workshop
8-9 PM Di Bayke band coaching @ Red Sea
Thurs, Oct 24
TBD House concert rehearsals
7-8:30 PM Klezmer accordion workshop @ Josh’s house
Fri, Oct 25
1-2:30 PM Small group accordion workshop @ Josh’s house
3-4:30 PM House concert rehearsals
7 PM House concert (doors 7, start 7:30) @ Kim & Taylor’s
Sat, Oct 26
10-noon PM Private Coaching
6-9 PM Sukkot Tantshoyz — New City Center
Sun, Oct 27 Departure 10:30am
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Phoenix, AZ, January 2024
Thurs. Jan. 25
1:00 Pm Arrival
4:00 PM Rehearsal with Kate Bivona
5:00 PM Rehearsal with Little Chef Klezmer Band (and Bivona)
Fri. Jan. 26
10 AM ASU Talk about KMDMP at the intersection of Digital Humanities, Public History & Musicology
6:00pm workshop/curated jam at prof. Adler’s house
Sun. Jan. 28
11:30 AM Private accordion coaching at ASU — Deanna
6:30 PM Concert, Beth El Congregation
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Seattle, Olympia, Bellingham Residency — January 2025
Weds. Nov. 27
6:00 PM Zoom rehearsal with Shpilkis
Sat. Nov. 30
2:00-5:00 PM In person with Mae Kessler, Olympia
Dec. 24-25
In-person rehearsal sessions with Jimmy Austin, Peter Lippman, and Zyml at Yiddish New York
Wed, Jan 8th (Seattle)
6:00 PM Rehearse with Shpilkis
Thurs, Jan 9th
12:00 PM Rehearse with quartet
6:30 – 8:30 pm: Instrumental(ish) workshop at The Rhapsody Workshop, King Street Station
Fri, Jan 10th
1:00 PM Rehearse with Peter Lippman, Kim Goldov, Maia Brown, Stefanie Brendler — solo features and songs
6:00 PM Casual Shabbes event with Jimmy Austin and family
Sat, Jan 11th
2:00 PM Rehearsal with Kim Goldov
7:00 PM Seattle show at Black & Tan Hall
- Load in 4:30
- Shpilkis sound check 5pm
- Christina and the Zamlers sound check 5:45
- Doors 6:30
- Show 7:00
- Done by 9:30
Sun, Jan 12th
1:00 PM Quartet rehearsal
6:00 PM Informal klezmer dinner hosted by Kim & Nancy Goldov
Mon, Jan 13th
2:00 PM Private coaching w/Stefanie Brendler.
7:00 PM the Rhapsody Project Klezmer Jam at the Couth Buzzard
Tue, Jan 14th – Olympia at Temple Beth Hatfiloh (PM)
- Load in and Sound check 4:00
- Dinner 5:30 – 6:30
- Concert 7:00 – 8:30 with Christina and the Zamlers
Wed, Jan 15th – Bellingham
6:00 PM House concert and jam, Bellingham
Fundraising
Residencies have been funded through a variety of sources, including Jewish Federation grants, local synagogues, door shows, arts council grants, and private donations. We will work together to identify potential institutional funding sources and grant timelines so that applications can be prepared as programming partners come on board.
Because the residency invites many musicians to participate as performers—anywhere from five to 15 people—finding funding support for both the visiting artis and equitable compensation for participating musicians is a core value of our program.
Press and Outreach
Developing a press strategy early in the preparation cycle is an essential component of publicizing the concert and other events throughout the community. We have developed a library of media assets for use and adaptation during this process including concert and program descriptions, printed program templates, graphics templates, and photos. These can be adapted and developed for press releases, social media campaigns, newsletters and other outreach campaigns.
Reporting & Feedback
Reporting and feedback is essential for demonstrating the impact of the residency as it happens, and post-residency followup helps us track how this program is having lasting impact in the communities we’ve visited.
We have developed a standard set of questions to include on surveys for concert and workshop attendees that can be shared via QR codes at the events themselves, and have a separate survey for musicians who participate in the major concerts.
These tools compliment financial and descriptive reporting requirements for funders and donors.
The Klezmer Institute prepares a comprehensive in-house report at the end of each residency.
Residencies & Residential Programs
It was very meaningful to have the opportunity to learn and present these tunes to my community that have been lost for so long. This music is encoded with Ashkenazi history and has so many stories to tell. It was a gift to have Christina be the guide, with her musical direction, for introducing us to this corpus.
Kvell’s Angels – Amy Paster, Violin. Julia Herzog, flute. Lucila Nerenberg, guitar. Laura Rosenberg, concertina. Photo Credit Times Colonist on Saturday, Oct 7th 2023
2026
April — Champaign-Urbana, IL (planning stage)
2025
January — Seattle, Olympia, Bellingham, WA
June — Victoria, BC, Canada, KlezCadia Festival features KMDMP corpus
August — Trip To Yiddishland; KMDMP tunes course, Hopewell Junction, NY
November — Detroit, MI (planning stage)
2024
January — Santa Fe & Albuquerque, NM
January — Phoenix, AZ
August — Trip To Yiddishland; KMDMP tunes course feature; Hopewell Junction, NY
October — Minneapolis, MN
2023
April — Fun Dor Tsu Dor Residential Festival (2 weeklong programs), Ligoure, France
May — Bordeaux, France
May — Brussels, Belgium
August — Portland, OR
2021
July-August — Yiddish Summer Weimar features the KMDMP Corpus and Project; Weimar, Germany
