Opening conference in Krakow

23.-24 November, 2007

[Deutsche Übersetzung]  |  [polish translation]

The first working session of the project took place in Krakow on November 23 & 24 at the "Cheder," a newly opened venue that is to expand the educational activities of the Jewish Culture Festival Society in Krakow. Chaired by Dr. Alan Bern, the session was attended by all three partner organizations and a group of invited expert consultants drawn from a very wide range of professions, including musicians, musicologists, historians, producers, and journalists (see below).

Day One of the meeting was devoted to developing a common understanding of the culturally relevant Yiddish and Roma histories and relationships and to clarifying the conceptual approach to the project. In the morning, Dr. Slawomir Kapralski gave a talk on Roma ethnology, followed by a talk by Adam Bartosz comparing the position and image of Jews and Roma in Poland. The afternoon session included talks by Bob Cohen on his fieldwork on Roma and Yiddish music in present-day Romania, and by Ruth Ellen Gruber on freely chosen cultural identities, entitled “New Authenticities.” Because Dr. Walter Zev Feldman and Michael Alpert were unable to attend the meeting in person, Alan Bern read their emailed contributions aloud to the conference: a chapter from Feldman’s forthcoming book, Klezmer Music: History, Memory and Musical Structure, ca. 1750-1950, dealing with musical and social contacts among Jews and Roma in Moldawia and Wallachia, and an email from Alpert reflecting on the long tradition of Roma musical influence on Balkan and other European musics, highly audible once again in the world music scene today.

The purpose of Day Two was to learn about musicians and other cultural initiatives that could be relevant to our project. Ben Mandelson presented an overview of Balkan influence on the world music and club scene in London and elsewhere. Emil Lubej and Slavko Ninic both presented music recordings to discuss from the point of view of style and genre. Towards the end of the day, a very lively discussion developed among all participants, reflecting on how to meaningfully define Yiddish and Roma music and what basis to choose for the artistic collaboration between the two bands to be formed. With many possibilities on the table, it was decided to use the overlapping history of Ashkenazic Jewish and Roma musicians in Moldawia-Wallachia and later Romania as a starting point for choosing a repertoire that would allow the Yiddish and Roma bands to show both meaningful similarities and meaningful differences in style and approach.

Michael Alpert (in absentia), New York, musician, ethnographer, Yiddishist, pioneer of the American "klezmer revival," festival organizer

Kalman Balogh, Budapest, cimbalom virtuoso, director of Kalman Balogh & The Gipsy
Cimbalom Band, performed & recorded with Joel Rubin & many others

Adam Bartosz, Krakow, historian, director of the Tarnow Ethnographic Museum

Bob Cohen, Budapest, musician, musicologist, ethnographer, organizer, director of Di
Naye Kapelye

Dr. Walter Zev Feldman (in absentia), New York/Jeruslaem, musician, musicologist, historian, dance, ethnographer, director of Khevrisa,

Roman Grinberg, Vienna, musician, conductor, festival organizer, director of Frejelech

Ruth Ellen Gruber, Budapest, journalist, author of Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish
Culture

Dr. Slawomir Kapralski, Warsaw, Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Studies in
Warsaw Poland, and Lecturer at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology

Dr. Emil Lubej, Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Vienna, journalist, founder
of Emap.fm internet radio

Ben Mandelson, London, musician, producer, innovator, founding member of the 3
Mustaphas 3, Current member of Billy Bragg & The Blokes

Slavko Ninic, Vienna, musician, Balkanist, director of the Wiener Tschuschenkapelle

Ruth Schwarz, Christina Meglitsch and Friedl Preisl, KlezMORE Festival Vienna, Austria

Katrin Petlusch, Stephanie Erben and Dr. Alan Bern, other music e.V., Germany

Janusz Makuch and Robert Gadek, Jewish Festival Krakow, Poland

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