YFFFL Day 1 - Community Potluck, Klezmer Instrumental Jam, Shabes Songs - Lifelong Community Center

Apr

25

Friday, April 25 at 11:00 PM

to Saturday, April 26 at 1:00 AM

Lifelong Community Center

119 W Court St, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

COMMUNITY POTLUCK, KLEZMER INSTRUMENTAL JAM, SHABES SONGS

All are welcome to bring a potluck dish or beverage to this informal musical evening. Following a brief Kabboles Shabbos (Shabes evening blessings), guests are invited to nosh, shmooze, or play music. 

The instrumental klezmer music jam will be lead by Rebecca Couillard and Ryan Zawelof the Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University. All levels welcome! Please bring an extra music stand if you have one. Some printed sheet music will be provided and some tunes will be played by ear. Non-musicians are welcome to shmooze and dance

To close the evening, Yiddish song leaders of the group Abi Gezuntwill lead us in a Shabes Tish (Yiddish songs around the tables including niggunim (wordless melodies) and Yiddish zmires (songs).


BIOS

REBECCA COUILLARD plays her cello in the Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University. She also performs in a local Ithaca ensemble called Taksim, playing folk music from traditions around southern Europe and North Africa, as well as playing and learning from a variety of musical traditions, including Western European, Classical Turkish Mevlevi, and Balkan. 

RYAN ZAWEL has been a guiding member of the Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University for twenty-one years..Born in the Bronx in 1975, raised by a cabaret pianist, and educated by master musicians in schools and on stage.  Ryan’s musical life has been rooted in soul, klezmer, musical theater, jazz, marching band, symphonic orchestra, and rock ‘n roll. His primary instruments are trombone and tuba.

ABI GEZUNT is a group of about five women who have been singing unaccompanied Yiddish music together in Ithaca for about five years. Only one of them has some knowledge of Yiddish and only two are Jewish. They are are united simply by a wish to sing together, thinking of the tradition of acapella singing that was all but lost as a result of the Holocaust. Abi Gezunt have sung at a variety of occasions from Holocaust Memorials to a Ramadan/Passover dinner,


FESTIVAL INFO

This event is part of Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes (YFFFL), a new three-day arts and cultural festival taking place April 25-27, 2025 at the Lifelong Community Center downtown and other venues in Ithaca, NY.

Featuring live klezmer music, folk dancing, a community potluck, cooking and cultural workshops, a nature talk, an academic lecture, an open mic, and other community events, this intergenerational, all-ages festival is open to the public, including those new to Yiddish music and culture.

*Please see YFFFL Full Festival Schedule for YFFFL full festival pass & links to other individual events of the festival.


YFFFL SUPPORTERS

We thank our partners: Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University and Jewish Studies at Cornell University for working with us to put on this festival!

We thank our sponsors: Temple Beth El and Congregation Tikkun V'Or for supporting Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes!

We thank our funder: This festival is made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership.

Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Suggested Rate
$18
Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Sustainer Rate
$36
Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Supporter Rate
$27
Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Sliding Scale Rate
$9
Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Sliding Scale Rate
$5
Community Potluck & Klezmer Jam - Free Ticket
Free
Add a donation for Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes
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