PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts presents an evening of klezmer and Yiddish music featuring two ensembles: Jake Shulman-Ment and Abigale Reisman, known as Two Strings, and Ira Temple and Michael Winograd Friday, April 17.
This double bill brings together two duos that each draw on a distinct branch of the klezmer tradition: one rooted in old-world European string band aesthetics, the other inspired by the clarinet-led sound of mid-20th-century New York. Together, they bridge eras of Ashkenazic musical history, offering an original soundtrack of the diaspora.
Violinists Shulman-Ment and Reisman’s collaboration, Two Strings, is a project that blends technique, grounding in Yiddish and Eastern European traditions, and “a fearless spirit of improvisation,” organizers said in a news release.
With longtime collaborators Pete Rushefsky on tsimbl and Raffi Boden on cello, Two Strings weaves original compositions; newly set, early 20th-century radical Yiddish poetry; and rediscovered works from forgotten manuscripts into music that “is simultaneously haunting, ecstatic, and timeless,” said organizers.
Temple and Winograd are central figures in New York City’s vibrant klezmer scene.
Accordionist and songwriter Temple is the founder of Tsibele — a self-described “new-traditional” Brooklyn-based klezmer band — and a longtime director of the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee Purim Shpil. His upcoming solo album, Strange Tongue – Mistame-Loshn, reimagines traditional Yiddish songs through queer and trans-inflected English-language expansions, bringing Yiddish culture alive in contemporary Brooklyn.
Clarinetist Winograd has performed with leading figures in Jewish music — including Itzhak Perlman, Frank London, and The Klezmatics — and brings klezmer to global audiences with his band The Honorable Mentshn. His upcoming release, Tanz! Live in New York City, recreates the iconic 1956 klezmer album Tanz!, celebrating the clarinet-led sound of mid-century klezmer masters.
Doors open at 6:45 p.m., with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door ($12 for kids under 12), and $10 for livestream access. Advance tickets are available at nextstagearts.org. For more information, 802-387-0102. This concert is presented with the generous support of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.