Join our monthly series celebrating The Joy of Jewish Music and Dance! Great for musicians, dancers, and enthusiasts to meet, schmooze, or simply to take in the beauty of these rich traditions. Bring your instruments and dancing shoes.
This month is all about Klezmer music and dance traditions. We are thrilled to be joined by Ilya Shneyveys and Sarah Myerson, two experts in the genre!
During the first 90 minutes, participants can choose between spaces to learn multi-ethnic music and dance technique and styles. Participants will all come together for a 30 minute dance party focusing on the dances and tunes taught in the prior hour. The remaining segment will be an informal music jam in one or more of the classroom spaces at the JCC East Bay.
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Meet our guest teachers:
Originally from Riga, Latvia, now based in Brooklyn, NY, Ilya Shneyveys is a accordionist and multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, arranger, and producer of Yiddish music. With expertise spanning from traditional klezmer accordion to experimental and fusion projects, Ilya performs and teaches at Jewish festivals around the world, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to your local synagogue catering hall. Ilya is a founding member of Berlin’s Neukölln Klezmer Sessions and Shtetl Berlin, and a long-time faculty member of Yiddish Summer Weimar. His notable projects and collaborations include Forshpil, Alpen Klezmer, KaraYam, Caravan Orchestra, Dobranotch, Shekedina, Black Rooster Kapelye, Michael Winograd and The Klezmatics.
Sarah Myerson is an ordained cantor actively working to connect egalitarian Jewish religious with secular/cultural Yiddish communities. She serves as the Kol Bo Spiritual Leader of Roosevelt Island Jewish Congregation and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She teaches Yiddish song workshops and Yiddish dance workshops in person worldwide, hybrid, and fully remotely online. She writes and performs new compositions, for example with Jewish spiritual music duo Shekedina. Sarah has a Master of Sacred Music and Diploma of Hazzan from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and a Bachelor of Music (Composition Honors) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
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Single session tickets: Sliding scale $25-54
Full series ticket: $180
Full series tickets: Register here
Single session tickets:
February 23, 2025 – Ilya Shneyveys and Sarah Myerson
March 23, 2025 – Peter Bonos and Bruce Bierman
April 27, 2025 – Dror Sinai, Rachel Valfer, and Bruce Bierman
May 18, 2025 – To be announced
The Joy of Jewish Music and Dance is co-presented by JCC East Bay and KlezCalifornia, and funded in part by a generous grant from the KlezCalifornia Yiddish Culture Fund.
