Yiddish Song Workshop and Zingeray
with A Glezele Tey

Sunday, January 26
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Join members of acclaimed klezmer performers A Glezele Tey for an afternoon of singing Yiddish folk songs and learning about Ashkenazi music & culture, with live musical accompaniment. From old classics to newly written melodies, we will explore the breadth and depth of the Yiddish song movement and the current surge of creativity & cross-generational collaboration happening today. Songbooks will be provided, and participants will come away with the tools to continue singing and creating new interpretations, translations, and songs of their own. No prior knowledge of Yiddish needed—all
are welcome!

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About the Workshop Facilitators:

Rachel Leader (violin) is passionate about cultivating vibrant community-led spaces, and is a
klezmer violinist, cultural organizer, and educator based in Northampton, MA. She is a founding
member of the critically acclaimed klezmer quartet Mamaliga, performing and teaching
internationally at Yiddish Summer Weimar, KlezKanada, and Yiddish New York. Rachel is also a
founder, violinist, and producer of the Magid Ensemble’s “Shterna & The Lost Voice,” an
immersive musical storytelling production that transports audiences into the rich world of
Yiddish folklore. Rachel received the 2021 Klezmer New Leaders Fellowship from the Brooklyn
Conservatory of Music, and is a founding member of in-demand klezmer bands Burikes, A
Glezele Tey, among other projects. She also regularly performs with Chaia (Kleztronica),
blending house and techno grooves with electric fiddle and archival samples to create
innovative soundscapes of Jewish diasporic identity. Rachel is the co-founder and director of
KlezCummington, an annual klezmer and Yiddish cultural festival on her family’s land in
Cummington, MA.

Ariel Shapiro (accordion, vocals) is a klezmer accordionist, cultural organizer, and
multi-disciplinary artist based on Nipmuc, Nonotuck, and Pocumtuc land in so-called
Northampton, Massachusetts. Ariel believes deeply in the transformative power of music and
art that is centered around community and intergenerational relationship-building, rooted in
culturally-informed history and artistic practices, and committed to justice and collective care
work. Ariel is a core organizer of KlezCummington, an annual Jewish cultural festival dedicated
to the creation and deepening of Yiddish diasporic music and cultures, as well the People’s
Puppet Parade, a community-based, devised spectacle theater processional exploring radical
histories and communal expressions of grief and joy. Ariel is a founding member of klezmer
bands Burikes, A Glezele Tey, and Khaloymes, performing fresh takes on traditional klezmer
tunes and Yiddish songs, leading community jams and zingerays (Yiddish sing-alongs), and
accompanying Yiddish dancing and theatrical productions, including Jenny Romaine/Great Small
Work’s “Three Cookbooks in the Garden: A stage illusion”, The Un-nameable Children’s Project
“Across the Ninefold River”, and A.C. Weaver’s “Inhabiting the Tsadik of the Woods”. Ariel also
collaborates with Der Tkhines Proyekt, setting old Yiddish prayers (written for and by women
and gender non-conforming folks) to new melodies, and composing new works to be sung in
the streets, around kitchen tables, and anywhere they can be used to help tear down systems of
injustice to build a frayer velt (a freer world).

Richie Barshay (percussion) began drumming inside kitchen cabinets at an early age, and
continues banging on things worldwide to this day. From his multi-percussion work with Herbie
Hancock in the 2000s, to tours and recordings with Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, The
Klezmatics, Fred Hersch, and Kenny Werner, he’s been dubbed “a major rhythm voice on the
rise” by Downbeat magazine, and “a major innovator who also knows how to have fun” by The
Guardian (UK). He’s also performed with Natalie Merchant, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Lovano, Lee
Konitz, Donald Harrison, Lionel Loueke, Julian Lage, the Curtis Brothers, Joey Weisenberg,
Gabriel Kahane, Pete Seeger, and the Tony Award winning musical The Band’s Visit on Broadway
and national tour. Since 2004 he’s traveled across 5 continents teaching and performing as an
American Musical Envoy with the U.S. State Department, and can be heard on over 90
recordings including two self-produced albums: Sanctuary featuring Chick Corea (2014), and
Homework featuring Herbie Hancock (2004). Based in Northampton, Massachusetts and New
York City, he is an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher helping performing artists and
others regain more body-mind coordination and ease of movement. More at
www.richiebarshay.com