Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival

Featuring:

David Krakauer, clarinet

Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin

Nurit Pacht, violin

Melissa Reardon, viola

Aron Zelkowicz, cello

Kathleen Tagg, piano

PROGRAM:

Alexander Krein: Jewish Sketches No.1 for clarinet and strings

Solomon Rosowsky: Fantastic Dance for piano trio

arr. Ljova: Klezmer selections

David Schiff: Divertimento from Gimpel the Fool

Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34

and works by Stutschewsky, Zeitlin, Kaplan, and Radzynski

The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival and world-renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer presents a special centenary concert celebrating the Zimro Ensemble's historic global tour in 1919. The Zimro was a sextet of virtuoso musicians who championed early Jewish-themed classical music. Theirs is the story of the immigrant experience and international musical ambassadorship in the early 20th century.

Utilizing a clarinet, string quartet, and piano, this concert will recreate the program the Zimro sextet originally brought to life from their native St. Petersburg. "Hot off the press" at the time this music was first performed a century ago, this rich repertoire is all derived from authentic Eastern European Jewish folk sources and has rarely been heard in the intervening years.

David Krakauer is joined on stage by a starry lineup of musicians who will follow this Pittsburgh concert with an appearance in New York’s Carnegie Hall. This repeated program will coincide with the anniversary of Zimro's sold-out Carnegie concert that concluded their tour through Siberia, the Far East, and America (where they were promoted by noted impresario Sol Hurok).