First Worldwide Klezmer Festival in Argentina

6:43 PM Sandra Gutrejde 0 Comments

The First Worldwide Klezmer Festival will take place in Buenos Aires from September 15 to September 21, 2008, with the participation of bands and orchestras from United States, Europe, and Argentina.
The purpose of this event is to spread this music genre admired by different audiences around the globe, which goes beyond frontiers and languages, and to show this European culture and its traditions to the audience through this lively, catchy, and energetic music.
The festival, named EMMKA, is sponsored by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and has been declared a festival of cultural interest by the Secretary of Culture of the Federal Executive Office, the Honorable House of Representatives; the Honorable Argentine Senate and the Government of Entre Ríos.

Klezmer is the music of the Yiddish culture. Yiddish is the language spoken by the large European-Jewish Community, extended within a wide area of Central and Eastern Europe during the Second Millennium; from Germany to Russia and the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
Originally, klezmer (plural klezmorim) referred to the musical instruments used to play this music; however, it was later extended to refer to both the genre and musicians, who are now called kleyzmorim.

After being absent for several decades, at the end of the '70s, Klezmer Music started to be appreciated again; especially as non-Jewish jazz musicians, such as Don Byron, started to perform it. Don Byron is a famous clarinetist, who is part of the worldwide renowned Klezmer Conservatory Band, an orchestra which is an example of the rebirth of Klezmer.
This "Rebirth" of the Klezmer Music quickly spread in the US and Europe, resulting in the formation of many multicultural orchestras in the '80s and '90s. In Argentina there was also a similar phenomenon, yet quite later. Several bands of Klezmer Music have been formed especially in the city of Buenos Aires over the last three years.

The schedule includes shows in Theaters, Cultural and Community Centers, universities, museums, embassies, churches, synagogues, and open air concerts to be given downtown near the Obelisk at midday every day of the Festival.
A Klezmer Gala will be held at Theatre Presidente Alvear, Corrientes 1659, on Tuesday, September 16th, 9pm.
The main event of the Festival will take place on Saturday, September 20th, at Costanera Sur, in which all Festival's Groups will participate, with free admission.

For more information and complete schedule, visit Klezmer Fiesta, the festival's official website.

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