The Band Litvakus invites all to come to their performance at this special edition of New York Klezmer Series on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 8:PM. Their founding member, Zisl Slepovitch, is releasing a book of his transcriptions from Sofia Magid’s absolutley unique, gap-covering ethnographic collection that recorded in the 1920’s and 30’s in Belarus and Ukraine. They have also re-issued their album “Raysn: The Music of Jewish Belarus” which features much material in this folio.
Zisl Slepovitch submitted these (photo below) two 60-page folios (Concert Key and Bb Instruments) to the printing company, Musical Treasures, from Sofia Magid’s Jewish Collection, Volume 1, twenty-two years in the making, now becoming a hard-copy reality!
Come Tuesday, December 10, to the release event at New York Klezmer Series at Hudson Yards Synagogue, 347 West 34th St (btw 8th and 9th Aves). Featured will be this rare material in a brief talk by Zisl followed by a Litvakus klezmer band’s performance with Sam Weisenberg, Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, and accordionist Joshua Camp. The event is supported by Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York where Zisl will give a talk and teach a workshop on the morning of Dec. 25, 2024 at HUC.
D. Zisl Slepovitch, a native of Minsk, Belarus, is an internationally renowned multiinstrumentalist and 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.
Excerpts from his website: 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.
Zisl has served as educator and artist in residence at BIMA at Brandeis University, guest artist at University of Michigan, Indiana University, and Amherst College and Vassar College, a teaching fellow and performing artist at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (New York City), Vienna Klezmer Workshop (Vienna), The Moscow Sefer Center, and Eshkolot Project (both in Moscow).
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.
