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Free Klezmer Concert ​

"The Peacock and the Sunflower"

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Presented by Veretski Pass and Joel Rubin Sponsored by the Easy Bay Holocaust Education Center and by the Contra Costa JCC

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Veretski Pass and clarinetist Joel Rubin will give a lecture/concert of the music of the Holocaust combined with Jewish music that was thought to have been destroyed. They will explore the Nazi’s use of music as propaganda, show examples of what was outlawed as “degenerate music” and demonstrate various ways in which music was used in the camps, even including music that was used to escort prisoners to the gas chambers. Integrated throughout the presentation they will present their own music - an exploration of the centuries of musical interactions between Jews and Ukrainians, concentrating on music that was considered lost until only recently.

Much of the material accesses materials in the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project - a huge treasure trove of sheet music that has only recently been made widely available from Kiev, and which Veretski Pass and Joel Rubin have been instrumental in organizing and disseminating.

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In addition to this rich archive, the pieces they play also contain original compositions and tunes extrapolated from the member’s own archives, including a field recording of a Skverer Hasid that Josh Horowitz made on a plane. All the band members have spent time in Eastern Europe and/or with old world musician informants as well as having family connections in and bordering Ukraine.

Veretski Pass and Joel Rubin’s approach to music extends pieces beyond the limits of what often finds in historical recordings and documents. This is what separates their approach from others of the last 50 years: they aren’t playing it exactly like it is on the record or in sheet music. Rather, they use their extensive experience in numerous musical traditions to craft works that are deeply traditional, but that exist in their own sonic universe, creating a performance of pathbreaking importance by one of the world’s leading klezmer ensembles.

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