Media Relations
Press Release:
MEDIA
CONTACTS:
Carol
Lewis
561-297-0245,
clewis36@fau.edu
Klezmer Company Orchestra and
Klezkatz Turn Up the Heat for ‘JudeoJazzistico’
Concert on March 7 at FAU
Concert is Main Event for Six-Day
Kultur Festival, Celebration of Jewish Music and
Arts
BOCA RATON, FL (February 9, 2010) –
“JudeoJazzistico”
will be presented by the innovative, international award-winning
Klezmer Company Orchestra (KCO), under the direction of music
director and accordionist Aaron Kula, on Sunday, March 7, at 3 p.m.
at the Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium in the
Student Union, on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton
campus.
The concert’s music features rich orchestrations of colorful
melodies and dynamic rhythms perfected by the critically-acclaimed
KCO, FAU Libraries’ professional ensemble-in-residence. Kula,
director of music collections and performance at FAU Libraries,
spent eight months selecting centuries-old music from the print
music archives and composing new arrangements for the 25-piece
orchestra and the Klezkatz vocal trio.
“I am fortunate to be given the awesome responsibility and
opportunity to transform vintage Klezmer melodies into new songs
for a multicultrual generation,” said Kula. “The FAU
Libraries print music collection has one of the richest holdings in
the country, and we want to share it with the world.”
“JudeoJazzistico” is the main event for “Kultur
Festival 2010, a six-day celebration of Jewish music and arts
hosted by FAU Libraries. The concert is the 13
th annual benefit KCO has held for the library,
and it draws its
inspiration from Latin and Spanish dance
melodies and rhythms. The concert blends
Ladino, Hispanic and
European music with dance rhythms from
the Americas.
“The music on the “JudeoJazzistico” concert is
global; however, there is no need for a passport as all you
need are ears to be transported,” said Kula.
The concert will include 15 newly composed pieces and additional
favorites from the KCO music folio. One of the new songs,
“Malagueña a la Freylach,” is a fusion
song that incorporates three editions of the well known Spanish
melody “Malagueña” and a traditional Klezmer
melody titled “Der Heyser Bulgar.” Another
selection fusing Latin and Jewish musical culures is
“Klezmerengue,” a hot and fiesty big band dance number.
The compositions are intense and difficult to play and require both
virtuosic playing and skilled improvisations from the KCO ensemble,
Kula said.
A highlight of the concert will be the debut of the Klezkatz vocal
trio
featuring
Georgene Barger, Elena Corriea and Cherill Rae, who will sing
in
Ladino,
Spanish, English, Hebrew and Yiddish. “I am excited to
perform with this professional vocal trio as they add personality
and panache to the KCO sound,” said Kula. “The
vocalists are multi-talented and can sing in a variety of musical
styles from ballads to swing.”
Since Kula founded KCO in 1997, the professional
ensemble-in-residence has successfully taken music in the
library’s collections from shelf to stage. The ensemble
hit a milestone in 2008 when
Beyond the Tribes, its independently produced CD, landed
two international awards.
A cross-section of materials from the library’s special collections is incorporated throughout the festival in lectures, concerts, film and book arts. Dr. William Miller, dean of Libraries at FAU, said he is pleased that the music in the library’s Special Collections and Archives has evolved from the shelf to stage to a second annual festival. “It is gratifying to have our collections brought to life in this way,” said Miller.
Kultur Festival 2010 is sponsored by FAU Libraries with additional support from the Jewish Cultural Society at FAU, the Nathan and Marion Crosby Holocaust and Judaic Library Collections Endowment Fund, WXEL, and the South Florida Association of Jewish Libraries. Proceeds benefit FAU Libraries.
For tickets, call 800-564-9539 or visit www.fauevents.com . For more festival information, visit www.library.fau.edu/news/kultur.htm , and to experience KCO, visit www.klezmercompany.com .
-FAU-
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses and sites. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts 10 colleges: College of Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Engineering & Computer Science, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Graduate College, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. For more information, visit www.fau.edu .
