Projects & Programming
In the Works
Our first project was the publication of the Levitt Legacy Klezmer Folio vol. 1. Our work continues with a number of additional publishing projects, education and outreach, and an ongoing project to document klezmer community projects.
The Klezmer Institute is a partner in an international team developing a digital humanities project to digitize the music and notes from the original notebooks from the An-ski Expeditions housed in the Vernadsky Library National Library of Ukraine, Institute of Manuscripts in Kiev. Watch this space for more news about the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP).
Ongoing Projects
We have a number of exciting new projects in the works. Watch this space for announcements in the second half of 2020!
Publishing
We’re delighted to announce publication of the Levitt Legacy Klezmer Folio vol. 1, which is a collection of 23 tunes and songs from the Levitt klezmer family of New York. Two other publications are in the works: a collection of mid-century American klezmer tunes edited by Clara Byom, and a collection of Moldavian Jewish and Jewish-adjacent tunes edited by Christina Crowder. More klezmer books and folios are in the works for 2021 and beyond.
Present & Perform
Though the Covid-19 public helath restrictions limit our ability to meet in person, our board of directors is actively engaged with education and outreach programming in our areas of study. We will look forward to presenting concerts, meetings, and other programming as soon as it is safe to do so!
Archiving in Real Time
The Coronavirus quarantine period has meant the loss of income for thousands of artists and musicians around the world. Many members of the klezmer community have used some of this time staying connected to their fellow musicians through a series of projects centered around the life and work of one of Jewish music’s important collectors and theorists, Moshe Beregvoski. The Klezmer Institute is providing archival support for these individual projects in an effort to capture some of the knowledge and discovery that has been shared via Facebook discussion threads and on extended Zoom conferences. We would like to continue this kind of “archiving in real time” work even after the current public health emergency has passed.
