Klezmer Starts Here!: Music Collected by Moshe Beregovski

Doors: 6pm

Advance tickets can only be purchased online-we do not sell advance tickets at the venue. Refunds are not available within 48 hours of the event. Tickets do not guarantee seating during shows at the Royal Room. 

We are now accepting reservations for diners! After purchasing tickets, please visit the Reservations page to book a table. Table reservations require advance tickets, and are only for guests who plan to dine at the Royal Room.  We do not take reservations over the phone. SJCC Community members will automatically have tables reserved with ticket purchase. 

Seating for non-diners is first come, first served. Please arrive early to guarantee a seat!

The Royal Room is All Ages until 10pm.

Kesselgarden Klezmer Duo, The Talne Trio and The Klein Party perform selections drawn from the legendary Beregovski archives.

Moshe Beregovski is the most important ethnomusicologist of Ashkenazi Jewish culture. Born in Ukraine in 1892, Beregovski recorded and transcribed thousands of performances by Jewish musicians in Central Europe during the first part of the 20th Century. Between the chaos of World War II, the Holocaust, and the ensuing Stalinist era, these wax cylinders and diligently transcribed manuscripts were thought to have been destroyed or otherwise lost. Beregovski himself spent 6 years in the gulag. While a fraction of his research was published and translated during Beregovski’s lifetime, it was not until 1991 that the entire archive was discovered in the Vernadski Library in Kiev. Since then, this extraordinary music has been transforming the repertoire of klezmer and other musicians around the world. His work and life are explored in the extraordinary film “Song Searcher.” (https://www.songsearchermovie.com/)

Kesselgarden Klezmer Duo is Carl Shutoff (clarinet) and Laurie Andres (accordion), who have been playing together for over 20 years. “Kesselgarden” is how Yiddish-speaking Jews pronounced “Castle Garden,” a facility on the southern tip of Manhattan where Jewish immigrants entered this country prior to the opening of Ellis Island in 1892. Among first- and second-generation Jews, the term “Kesselgarden” was generalized to mean any situation that was noisy, confusing, or chaotic. Kesselgarden is a traditional band, playing Eastern European instrumental Jewish music of the 19th and 20th centuries, with original, sweet, and joyful arrangements which are neither noisy nor confusing. (https://sites.google.com/site/kesselgardenhomepage/)

The Talne Trio explores classical and string instrument roots of klezmer. Kim Goldov (violin) began playing with the Freylakh Klezmer Band in 1987, which played for numerous weddings and bar/bas mitzvas, and toured in the US, Canada, and Japan. He was a member of the Bucharest Drinking Team and Malke and the Boychiks and currently performs with Lox Stork & Bugle and SeaMuse. Megan Titensor (cello) performs regularly in chamber music and theNorthwest Symphony Orchestra. She has extensive recording experience and is a highly regarded and sought-after private instructor and Suzuki clinician. Mark Lutwak (piano) plays jazz with the Casalini Trio and leads the Klein Party.

The Klein Party is a “klezmerish band playing tunes from All the Old Countries.” While their repertoire centers on original arrangements of Ashkenazi Jewish music from the Old and New Worlds, they also explore a wide range of “world music” that shares the ecstatic joy, emotional intensity, and unavoidable party sounds that we call “klezmer.” The Klein Party is Eric Ray Anderson (ukulele), Brandon Campbell (saxophones), Joseph Casalini (bass), Ruby Grynberg (violin), Mark Lutwak (accordion), and Sabrina Pope (clarinet). (www.thekleinparty.com)

Klezmer Starts Here is a curated series at Seattle’s Royal Room presented by The Klein Party and the South Hudson Music Project. The concerts focus on different klezmer styles or practitioners. The Klein Party hosts guest artists from within and out of the tradition. 2023 concerts celebrate Belf’s Romanian Orchestra, Naftule Brandwein, Moshe Beregovski, and music from the Yiddish film & theatre.