The Future of Jewish Music in Poland

The Future of Jewish Music in Poland

Polesye in Opening Night Jewish Music Festival Berkeley 2013

March 2, 2013, Berkeley Repertory Theatre Thrust Stage

Polesye

Direct from Poland and Israel

Polesye was the ancient cradle of the Slavic peoples and a center of Hasidism. 

This unique project is inspired by the repertoire of Mariam Nirenberg, a pre-War Jewish

 folksinger born in this multicultural region. It was first recorded in the 1970s by eminent folklorist 

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Vocalist Olga Mieleszczuk provides modern arrangements

 to Nirenberg’s repertoire, accompanied by Israeli clarinetist and guitarist Ittai Binnun, 

violinist Cookie Segelstein, accordionist Josh Horowitz and bassist Stu Brotman.

Polesye in 2013 Chutzpah! Festival

25 February 2013, 7:30 p.m., Norman&Anette Rothstein Theatre, Vancouver BC Canada

POLESYE PROJECT and SHOFAR

Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 7:30pmTarget Free Thursdays
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Frieda and Roy Furman Stage

Singer, accordionist, musicologist and Warsaw-native Olga Mieleszczuk’s (Polesye Project) special focus is music of the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition of Eastern Europe, especially the border areas of Poland (Galitzia, Polesye). A classically-trained musician, who divides her time between Warsaw and Tel Aviv, she has studied and performed wide-ranging genres from Hassidic music, to Yiddish songs, to folk music from the Jewish, Slavic and Balkan traditions. Her recording, Jewish Folksongs From the Shtetl, drawn from works of Mariam Nirenberg, a Jewish singer from Polesye who emigrated to Canada in 1932, was released earlier this year.
Polesye project:
Olga Mieleszczuk - vocal,
Lisa Gutkin - violin,
Ittai Binnun - wind instruments,
Uri Sharlin - accordion, piano

For winter nostalgy...