On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 7:PM, the Litvakus Trio make their appearance at Wayne YMCA, NJ – Rosen Performing Arts Center with a program of lively klezmer music and Yiddish songs. Zisl Slepovitch (clarinet, vocals), Joshua Camp (accordion); Taylor Bergren-Chrisman (double bass) make up the trio.

Accordionist Joshua Camp is a versatile and talented musician. Composer, performer, producer, Joshua Camp received a Bachelor’s of Music Composition from Virginia Commonwealth University, with a background in classical piano performance.  Excerpts from his website: His interest in free reed and other little-known instruments began and developed while working at the Hohner company as an accordion and harmonica technician.  He moved to New York City in 2000 and from 2001 to 2003 was the music director for the Lehman College (CUNY) dance department in the Bronx.  

As a founder of the groups One Ring Zero and Chicha Libre, Joshua has released twelve CDs, including the critically acclaimed album, “As Smart As We Are”, a book/CD featuring songs with lyrics contributed by such authors as Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Dave Eggers, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, and Denis Johnson. One Ring Zero and Chicha Libre have performed at many music festivals and cultural institutions including the Whitney Museum of Art, Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, Central Park Summer Stage, MASSMoCa,  the Calgary Folk Festival, Festival d’Accordéon Le Grand Soufflet,  France, Festival Músicas do Mundo, Portugal, Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre,  the Stimmen festival in Germany, the Spring Scream festival in Taiwan, and the Fundacion Principe de Asturia in Spain. His groups have  received grants from The Virginia Commission for the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.  They have appeared on ABC national news, CBC in Canada, the Nat Geo channel, The Simpson’s 20th Anniversary Special, and A&E’s Breakfast With The Arts.  The music has been featured in dance concerts, films, animations, fashion shows, and the NPR programs Fresh Air, Morning Edition, and This American Life. 

As a commercial composer, Joshua has written a nine song musical for Allergan starring Michael Welch (The Twilight Series) entitled “Aczone”:  The Musical. In addition, he’s composed pieces for Mastercard, Levi’s Workshop, Victoria’s Secret, Scoop NYC, Sears, Puma, Victoria & Albert Museum, and many others.  Television placements include Weeds, Homeland, Suburgatory, This American Life, The Path, and Extra Virgin. In 2008, Joshua received a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council to compose 8 Prospects  a contemporary chamber piece inspired by Charles Ives’ Central Park In The Dark.

As an accordionist, he has played on the most recent Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” (2015/16) , and on the Grammy nominated cast recording of the same production.  His accordion can also be heard on Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.   Past theatrical productions include the soundtrack to Lincoln Center’s  Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard, as well as Columbia University’s production of Beggar’s Opera, translated by Vaclav Havel. 

D. Zisl Slepovitch, a native of Minsk, Belarus, is an ethnomusicologist (Ph.D.), klezmer, classical, and improvising woodwind and keyboard player; conductor, composer, educator, founding member of critically acclaimed bands Litvakus, Zisl Slepovitch Trio, and Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble. Dr. D. Zisl Slepovitch is the musician in residence at Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. Slepovitch’s theatre, film, and television work includes multiple productions by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (off-Broadway), Rejoice (dubbed “Eternal Echoes” CD, Sony Classical) with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot (PBS, Sony Classical), Defiance movie, and many others. Dr. Slepovitch has taught Yiddish language and culture at The New School, has been a guest artist and visiting lecturer at many universities and cultural organizations worldwide. 

Litvakus is a klezmer collective led by the internationally renowned clarinetist, vocalist, composer, and scholar D. Zisl Slepovitch, a native of Belarus, and the first to focus exclusively on the music and culture of Belarus and Litvak Jews. The Litvakus’ repertoire presents a unique mix of traditional Belarusian and Litvak (North-East European Jewish) folk music, as well as contemporary pieces written in the spirit of roots music. In their various programs, Litvakus have collaborated and recorded with Michael Alpert, Sasha Lurje, and Daniella Rabbani, among others. Zisl Slepovitch’s ethnographic multimedia program Traveling the Yiddishland is a touring production of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, where the founding band members first met in 2008. As a contemporary klezmer band, the way Litvakus sounds unexpected; but it also overpowers by the warmth of the deeply rooted tradition. Bagpipe-like drones, drones on the fiddle and bass, “shtetl disco” groove, both authentic and vibrantly modern, come to life with old and forgotten tunes and free improvisational takes on them. Litvakus equally fits chamber and large open-air settings, plays at festivals, concert venues, clubs and private events.

Location of concert:
Wayne YMCA
1 Pike Drive, Wayne, NJ 07470
Tickets ($18) available at door and online. All ages.

For further information on Joshua Camp: joshuacampmusic@gmail.com
For further information on Litvakus: litvakusband@gmail.com or dslepovitch@gmail.com