This is a list of Shtetl Berlin Online Workshops, starting January 2021.
For upcoming workshops please see the WORKSHOPS page.
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JANUARY 2021
  • Jan 12 - Instrumental Workshop with Christian Dawid and Patrick Farrell
Christian and Patrick get our Online Workshops (and the new year!) started off with a bang, presenting two great sirbas from recordings by Alexander Olshanetsky and Joseph Moskowitz. Everyone needs more sirbas in their repertoire! Let's play some triplets together!
  • Jan 19 - Vocal Workshop with Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn
Continuing their theme from Shtetl Berlin: “Aleyn Tsuzamen” - Yiddish songs of community, commotion, and communicable disease. Join Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn for a remote singing session exploring new and old Yiddish songs of solidarity, revolution, plagues, mass resistance, and love. Drawing on sources such as Beregovski, Gebirtig, the Yiddish theater, contemporary songwriters, and traditional ballads, these songs highlight our deep connections to one another, even in our separation. We are all alone together, let’s sing about it.
  • Jan 26 - Instrumental Workshop with Craig Judelman and Emil Goldschmidt - Playing melodies together
FEBRUARY 2021
  • ​Feb 2 - Vocal Workshop with Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn - “Aleyn Tsuzamen”
Yiddish songs of community, commotion, and communicable disease. Join Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn for a remote singing session exploring new and old Yiddish songs of solidarity, revolution, plagues, mass resistance, and love. Drawing on sources such as Beregovski, Gebirtig, the Yiddish theater, contemporary songwriters, and traditional ballads, these songs highlight our deep connections to one another, even in our separation. We are all alone together, let’s sing about it.
  • Feb 9 - Instrumental/Vocal Workshop with Ilya Shneyveys and Sarah Myerson - "Improvising in Yiddish modes"
In the times of social distancing and online latency, perhaps the only kind of music we can make together is music that has no meter. Luckily, Yiddish music offers extensive framework for that through genres like doina, forshpil and taksim in klezmer music, and through much of khazones (Jewish liturgical music), which is non-metrical. Historically, klezmer and khazones have always been two sides of the same musical coin, with klezmer melodies and performance being heavily influenced by the modes and motives of liturgical music. In this workshop, klezmer Ilya Shneyveys and Cantor Sarah Myerson will look into the connections between nusakh (modal system in Jewish liturgical music) and klezmer music and explore how these concepts can enhance your klezmer performance. Together we will learn some ways of using liturgical motives for modulation and improvisation and even attempt to play an online doina together! This workshop is open to instrumentalists, vocalists and anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Yiddish music.
  • Feb 16 - Shtetl Bake-Along with Laurel Kratochvila - "Homentashn!"
It's almost Purim, so instead of scrounging for a questionable recipe off the internet, join master baker Laurel Kratochvila- owner of Fine Bagels in Berlin- for a homentashn Bake-Along! We'll be learning a recipe and technique that won't fall apart or spread. (Recipe can be made dairy or parve - up to you.) In addition to making this glorious dough, we'll be making fillings: mohn, lekvar, apricot - name your favorite! Here is your list of ingredients and materials. Everyone will walk away from the workshop with a dozen beautiful homentashn! With musical interludes from Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell, singing songs for Purim and the kitchen.
  • Feb 23 - Instrumental Workshop with Christina Crowder and Patrick Farrell - "Reading the Kiselgof Collection"
The international klezmer community is currently in a state of high excitement due to the recent work by The Klezmer Institute to obtain scans of multiple volumes of notebooks from Zinoviy Kiselgof's early-20th-Century ethnographic expeditions documenting the Jewish music of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. The ongoing, crowd-sourced digitization of this collection will take many months to complete, but in the meantime we have invited Christina Crowder - fantastic accordionist, a founder of the Klezmer Institute and one of the Kiselgof project leaders - to share a few particularly wonderful tunes which we think should become klezmer standards. She will also talk a bit about the project and some questions of interpreting century-old written manuscripts. Accordionist Patrick Farrell will join to help lead the workshop. Learn to mix some classic cocktails from Geist im Glas owner Aishah Bennet, listen to songs, nigunim, and klezmer tunes from Shtetlers Sasha Lurje, Craig Judelman, and Patrick Farrell, hear deep thoughts from Avinoam Stillman, and watch a dirty puppet show broadcast all the way from Seattle by Adam Ende! Catch it live on Facebook or YouTube!
MARCH 2021
  • March 2 - Vocal Workshop with Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn - "Aleyn Tsuzamen"
Yiddish songs of community, commotion, commiseration and comedy. Join Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn for a remote singing session exploring new and old Yiddish songs of solidarity, celebration, lament, and love. Drawing on sources such as Beregovski, Gebirtig, the Yiddish theater, contemporary songwriters, and traditional ballads, these songs highlight our deep connections to one another, even in our separation. We are all alone together, let’s sing about it.
  • March 9 -Instrumental Workshop with Christian Dawid and Emil Goldschmidt - "Where's Dave?"
Through his exceptionally long and successful recording career, Dave Tarras is, to this day, one of the most influential and most copied klezmer soloists. What defined his style, how did it develop over the decades, and what of it can we make our own to sound (at least a bit) like Dave? Emil and Christian will have a close look at what made Tarras sound like Tarras, with a special focus on often overlooked repertoire and recordings. Not just for clarinetists, really!
  • March 16 - POSTPONED: Lecture with Michael Alpert - "Klezmer-loshn: The Slanguage of Klezmeray" 
Please join use instead, from 17:00-19:00 (Berlin) for an online interview and book-release event with our friend Dr. Philip Alexander, from Edinburgh, Scotland! Hosted by the International Forum for Jewish Music Studies at UCLA
Phil's book "Sounding Jewish in Berlin: Klezmer Music and the Contemporary City" has recently been released by Oxford University Press, and features interviews and perspectives from most of your Shtetl Berlin team as well as our friends and colleagues throughout Berlin. In the book, Phil reflects on the contemporary Yiddish music scene in Berlin, how it is shaped by the city, and how it shapes the city around us in return. We think Phil is a great guy and a smart dude, and we're happy to support his work. Also, the cover of his book features a photo taken at Neukölln Klezmer Sessions #7, in May, 2014!
Information here and here, and Zoom link here. (We know - it says "18:00 Western Europe", but the event is hosted from California. Their clocks change from Daylight Savings Time two weeks before ours in Europe do. 17:00-19:00 in Berlin is correct for this week.)
  • March 23 - Instrumental Workshop with Susi Evans, Craig Judelman, and Sanne Möricke - "Split Klezmer!"
This workshop will explore a new format, where we'll meet in our regular Zoom session and split into breakout rooms for an in-depth exploration of different instrument groups and their functions in klezmer performance practice. Sanne will work on accompaniment, groove and navigating between the chords; Susi will focus on expressive melodic playing; and Craig will share some insights about bowing, ornamentation, and ways to use the strengths of the fiddle to really make a tune sing, speak and dance.
  • March 30 - Instrumental/Vocal Workshop with Sarah Myerson and Ilya Shneyveys - "Improvising in Yiddish Modes: Festival Edition" 
​Historically, klezmer (instrumental music) and khazones (cantorial music) have always been two sides of the same musical coin, with klezmer melodies and performance being heavily influenced by the modes and motives of liturgical music. In this workshop, klezmer Ilya Shneyveys and Cantor Sarah Myerson will look into the connections between nusakh (modal system in Jewish liturgical music) and klezmer music and explore how these concepts can enhance your klezmer performance. We will learn different ways of using liturgical motives for modulation and improvisation and even attempt to play an online doina together! This workshop is open to instrumentalists, vocalists and anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Yiddish music.
​APRIL 2021
  • April 6 - Vocal Workshop with Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn - "Aleyn Tsuzamen"
​Yiddish songs of community, commotion, commiseration and comedy. Join Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn for a remote singing session exploring new and old Yiddish songs of solidarity, celebration, lament, and love. Drawing on sources such as Beregovski, Gebirtig, the Yiddish theater, contemporary songwriters, and traditional ballads, these songs highlight our deep connections to one another, even in our separation. We are all alone together, let’s sing about it.
  • April 13 - Instrumental Workshop with Alan Bern​ - "How to tell a zhok"
Everybody loves a good zhok, right? Some of our favorite klezmer tunes belong to this genre, which Zev Feldman calls a "transitional" genre. What does that mean? Think of a musical hybrid, rooted in both Moldavian/Romanian music and Yiddish music. And in fact, depending on how you tell it (play it), you can make a zhok sound more or less Yiddish - style isn't everything, but almost! In this workshop, we'll work on some familiar and some unfamiliar zhoks, noticing the different ways they can "work" musically, and we'll concentrate on what makes a good Yiddish zhok. (Hint: it really does have to do with the idea of "telling" it instead of just "playing" it!)
  • April 20 - Lecture with Michael Alpert - "Klezmer-loshn: The Slanguage of Klezmeray"
Like professional musicians in many cultures, Jewish klezmorim in Eastern Europe had their own Yiddish argot or slang, some of which lives on in the musicians' slang of European countries. Think of the hip talk of African-American jazz musicians and you've got the idea - it's how working musicians talk about non-insiders without them understanding. Called "labushanki" (professional-musicians' talk) or "klezmer-loshn" (klezmer language), this secret language is interconnected with other Yiddish trade argots, including the slang of the Jewish underworld in places like Odessa, Kiev and Warsaw. Come to this session by klezmer/Yiddish pioneer Michael Alpert, and learn the secret names of klezmer instruments and how you too can talk about your customers on the job without them having a clue!
  • April 27 - Instrumental Workshop with Christian Dawid & Patrick Farrell - "Freylakhs in D"
Christian and Patrick bring a few fun, grooving, jam-session-ready, rarely-played or brand-newly-rediscovered traditional freylakhs. Nothing too difficult to learn, just good klezmer dance music revolving around our favorite tonal center of the almighty D. A workshop for getting back to the basics, and expanding our common repertoire.
  • May 4 - Vocal Workshop with Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn - "Aleyn Tsuzamen"
Yiddish songs of community, commotion, commiseration and comedy. Join Sasha Lurje and Daniel Kahn for a remote singing session exploring new and old Yiddish songs of solidarity, celebration, lament, and love. Drawing on sources such as Beregovski, Gebirtig, the Yiddish theater, contemporary songwriters, and traditional ballads, these songs highlight our deep connections to one another, even in our separation. We are all alone together, let’s sing about it.
  • May 11 - Instrumental Workshop with Susi Evans & Szilvia Csaranko​ - "Jam Session Survival Training"
The Shtetl Berlin group is originally all about jamming, and we want to bring it back to its roots. For obvious reasons we can’t play together or hear each other via Zoom, but we can use the time to prepare ourselves for the day when this will be possible again. In a jam session situation we often find ourselves having to pick up a melody by ear, on the spot, and trying to hear the chords that fit. The question is, how do you join in with a tune you don’t know? Susi & Szilvia will show you techniques and tips for how to make this easy and fun with their step-by-step guide to jam session survival!
  • May 18 - Lecture with Kurt Bjorling - "Beregovski and Beyond"​
This workshop explores methods of working with material from multiple sources in order to gain a deeper understanding of the music they represent. Between Beregovski, Kostokowski, the newly released KMDMP materials and more, there are now plenty of excellent Klezmer notation resources available whose usefulness can go well beyond simply providing otherwise unknown material. By comparing multiple examples of a tune we'll learn more than we can get from any single example, increasing our understanding of material for which we do not have multiple sources and enabling us to imagine, create, and develop our own variants and interpretations. 
Kurt asks that participants familiarize themselves with the primary tune we'll be investigating which can be found in the workshop materials folder. Knowing this melody by heart will greatly increase the value of the workshop!
  • May 25 - End of Season Party and Sing/Play-Along! with your Shtetl Berlin Team 
--------- Starting at 18:00 Berlin time ---------
After 18 wonderful online sessions in 2021, we all need a break. But who knows? Maybe in the autumn we'll be back together in the cozy and heymish back room of Oblomov playing too loudly, getting sweaty, and dancing and singing together. We can dream!! For now, we want to bring this season of Shtetl Berlin Online Workshops to a festive conclusion. We'll pass the lead around in our Zoom room and play through as much of the song and instrumental repertoire from the past five months that we can get to in two hours or so. We'll post our favorite repertoire from the year in the folder for this week so all can join in and read along at home.  Join us for a grand "See you later! Biz bald!" until we can play and sing all this music together in person!
PURIM Happy Hour THIS THURSDAY - Feb. 25, 7pm!

Join us live on Facebook and YouTube for:
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  • Cocktail mixing mini-workshop with Geist im Glas owner Aisha Bennett. Aishah will teach us how to make the perfect Whiskey/Vodka Sour, a Pickle Juice Martini and a special Ashkenazi-friendly spicy beetroot Bloody Mary!
 
  • Join Shtetlers Sasha Lurje, Craig Judelman, and Patrick Farrell for some songs & nigunim, and our friend Avinoam Stillman for a couple of thoughts about why Purim is not just fun, but like, super deep.
 
  • In the spirit of Purimshpiln of old, a very entertaining not-for children puppet show by Adam Ende all the way from Seattle, Washington!​
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​​Be a part of the action: 

Download the pdf files below or check out the youtube playlist of tunes we'll play, and play/sing along at home!

​Make sure to check out the list of ingredients to prep for the cocktails. (Below with the pdf files.)

​There will be a couple of drinks which you can make on the spot, and one special drink that you can make with regular vodka during the event, and then infuse your own vodka to get the full effect later.
chassidishe_purim_nigunim_-_c_instruments.pdf
File Size: 67 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
chassidishe_purim_nigunim_-_bb_instruments.pdf
File Size: 71 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
purim_instrumentals_-_c_instruments.pdf
File Size: 36 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
purim_instrumentals_-_bb_instruments.pdf
File Size: 37 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
cocktal_menu_pourem_for_purim.pdf
File Size: 2616 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
purim_song_lyrics.pdf
File Size: 96 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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The event will start at 19:00 and go until 20:30 (Berlin time), live on Facebook and YouTube 

A Freylikhn Purim!

Get in the mood with one of our favorite Purim Nigunim below,
​and we'll see you Thursday!