Music from the Carpathian Bow
Music from the Carpathian Bow
Veretski Pass Lectures, Workshops, and
Master Classes
Veretski Pass offers a series of lectures, workshops and Master Classes on the music of Jewish East Europe and related themes.
The Veretski Pass lecture/demonstrations are full 90 minute programs with pieces performed live, multi-media presentations and examples played from Veretski Pass’ renowned collection of historical Jewish music, always followed by a lively Q & A.
A typical evening begins with the ensemble performing historically informed music on original instruments, followed by a Power-Point slideshow, interspersed with comments and queries and more live music, ending with a Q & A with no holds barred. The topics they have chosen are typically laden with controversy, often inviting the question, “Is this really Jewish?”
Veretski Pass has performed their educational series worldwide since 1993. They have served as program developers for an increasing array of festivals, and under their guidance, this unique interactive program has continued globally through music camps, ensembles, museums, and JCCs.
The Workshops are structured according to the number of days allotted and the level of the participants (from beginning to advanced), and emphasize total active participation. All participants receive a detailed syllabus dealing with the contents of the course. Workshops can be from 1-7 days long. The members of Veretski Pass play and teach the following instruments: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Accordion, Tsimbl (Dulcimer), piano. Because the basic families of instruments are covered (wind, string and percussion) related instruments present no problem in instruction.
The Master Classes offer an intensive exploration of the performance practices of Jewish music as students watch and listen as the teacher takes one student at a time. The teacher will give them advice on and demonstrations of how to play certain passages, with admonitions of common technical errors. The Master Class tends to focus on the finer details of performance, and benefits all of the students present while providing a lively, educational and entertaining set-up for the audience.
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Educational Promo Kit 46 MB
Lecture Topics
Ask Dr. Klez: Audience Q & A, dealing with the behind the scenes of the Jewish music profession, complete with live and recorded examples.
Ko-opting Klezmer: The politicization of Klezmer music by various groups and cultures.
Grand Theft Ottoman: Follow the thread of melodies throughout many cultures who claim them as their own.
Geld for Guilt: Klezmer Music in Germany: Why do Germans love Jewish music? Find out the back story.
If the Tune is Jewish, Why is the Style Hungarian? Learn how Jewish music morphs into new styles, sometimes with surprising results.
A Galitsian Jewish Wedding: We play and examine the complex sounds and pillars of the complete shtetl wedding, taking you through every step.
Mahler’s Wellspring: Listen and learn to distinguish between fact and fiction how classical composers have used Jewish music, with live and recorded examples!
Jews of the Prairie: Growing up with Carpathian Jews in Cowboy Country. Cookie’s personal experience growing up in Kansas City, Missouri with Holocaust survivor parents in America’s Heartland.
"Creating The Klezmer Shul"- Synagogue Music in a World Music world: Exploration of the composition by Veretski Pass and its implications for Jewish spirituality.
The Jewish Violin: Cookie Segelstein will explore the many elements that contribute to the Jewish style of playing by examining characteristics of Ashkenazi Jewish culture: the humor, the physical gestures associated with Jewish expression, and the evocative sound of spoken Yiddish. Using historical recordings, interviews, and her own virtuoso playing, she will explore this familiar but inexplicable sound.
Klez for Kids: fun, educational and interactive session for kids K-12 about Jewish music, dance and culture.
Klezmer and Hazzones: The relationship of Klezmer music and Hazzones (Hazzanut - Cantorial singing) is one of mutual exchange. Hazzones makes use of Klezmer tunes and gestures and Klezmer music uses liturgical prayers and gestures. This lecture will show in detail how this interaction operates.
Racial Purity and Music: Poses the question of whether Jewish music really is Jewish after all. An exploration of the idea of cultural ownership, state programs for homogenizing and parading cultures and the mechanisms at play in stylistic evolution.
Master Classes
Band Makeovers: Virtually every aspect of performance is examined and given a makeover, including details of arrangement, communication, stage choreography and style minutae.
Violin Master Class: Learn the subtleties of Klezmer fiddle with Cookie - phrasing, articulation, fills, turnarounds, etc.
Accompaniment Master Class: The fine points of harmony construction, bass lines, textural energy and fills with Stu Brotman
Accordion Master Class: Josh will show how to move between accompaniment and melody to cultivate heterophony.
Tsimbl Master Class: All of the secrets of Carpathian tsimbl playing from accompaniment figures to complex stickings.
Workshops
Bandstand 911: Combination of master class and emergency medicine, Veretski Pass tackles the unspoken issues that affect working and playing musicians.
Carpathian Collage: This ensemble will specialize in Jewish, Ukrainian and Moldavian tunes known in the Carpathian Mountain town of Cookie's father, Nizhni Veretski.
Doinas and Kale Bazetsns: An in depth study and examination of the modal and motivic structure of the various types of Kale Bazetsns and doinas and their relationship to each other.
Ear Training Boot Camp: The secret manual for immediate ear to hand playing and transcription, Veretski Pass will show speed learning techniques, insider tricks and intensive drills used to train conductors.
Grand Theft Ottoman: Hands-on class in which Klezmer tunes are learned side by side with their cultural neighborrs’ renditions following analysis of rare historical recordings.
Structures for Improvisation:
An exploration of new forms and uncharted modal territory using common modulation patterns,Turkish Ottoman Makamat and experimental progressions.
Klezmer Dissonance:
Uncovers a host of secrets for delaying harmonic changes, jumping and staggering entrances, creating intentional clashes between melody and accompaniment and more.
Klezmer Theory 101: The modes, the harmonies and the vast modulation possibilities in Klezmer music. Part theory, part playing, part ear training and part exploration.
Line Spinning: a crash course in melodic variation and improvisation using an exhaustive array of typical motives used for beginnings, transitions, cadences, fills and modulations to spin out variations using the "Simon-says" method.
Magic Melody: techniques of first constructing, then improvising compound lines with a single melody. Students will use the bordun class of Klezmer tunes that feature polyphonic melodies as the basis for building self-accompaniment lines, stationary and moving pedal points, implied polyphony in two and even three voices.
Modal Matrixing:
explores the vast modulation possibilities in Klezmer music. Modulations are grouped systematically into families which can be comfortably comprehended and navigated. Students learn how to predict modulation types from the beginning section of a tune and to understand tune types according to their modulation structures.
Modal Modulation:
an exhaustive hands-on exploration of the movement between modes in Klezmer music, dealing with 31 of the most typical modulations: simple, complex, modal interchange and sequential progression.
New Doinas
Students will create new doina forms drawing on the modulations found in Klezmer music and explore uncharted modal territory. Reference will be made to the techniques of the Ottoman modal system (makam).
Old World Bandstand: Improvisation in the old style varying motivic cells in a tune through the "Simon Says" method. Students will learn accompaniment lines, ornamentation, alto, tenor and bass lines, fills and turnarounds as well as techniques for combining tunes in suites to facilitate dances.
Rocky Rhythms: This class takes students and ensembles through an intense series of drills carefully designed to loosen the bond between the melody and the beat, recovering lost traditions of rhythmic flexibility.
Variatsyes: Typical motives taken from well known tunes are extracted and varied back and forth. Variation techniques include altering the melodic path of a line without changing its beginning and ending points, interpolating fills, constructing turnarounds and connecting phrases.
String Band: This traditional Klezmer string band will take tunes and expand them into full suites, at the same time teaching improv phrases, fills, turnarounds and endings to encourage group improvisation.
How to Groove in a Klezmer Jam: Stu Brotman will help students know how to navigate a jam session, dealing with concepts such as courtesy, strength and weaknesses, flexible hierarchies, and finding your way when you don’t know the tune.
Klezmer Shul