Klezmer music can be traced back to as early as the 16^th Century and appears in many guises throughout its history. This talk traces the role of this fascinating music via rare historical recordings, written documents and videos giving the audience a chance to hear, see and examine the development of music so as to observe how it has changed through each epoch. The role of Hasidism and classical music is analyzed and the audience is led through each musical stage of the 8-day wedding in order to experience the complex musical genres that developed. A lively Q & A follows the lecture, with Josh drawing from his vast archive of materials gathered through field and archival work in more than 15 countries to augment the presentation.

Josh Horowitz Bio

Joshua Horowitz is the director of the ensemble Budowitz and co-founder of the trio, Veretski Pass. He has taught, performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman, Theodore Bikel, Stan Getz, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra and The San Francisco Symphony and is currently the curator and orchestrator for the San Francisco Symphony’s Jewish Music Currents Series and co-curator of the The Sonoma State University Jewish Music Concert Series. He received the Prize of Honor by the Austrian government in 2000 for his orchestral work, Tenebrae, based on the poem of Paul Celan and continues to compose and perform in a variety of genres and disciplines.