Vocalist Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and accordionist Dmitri Gaskin masterfully blend two very different cultures into one unforgettable experience: African American spirituals and the music of Jewish Eastern Europe.
Drawing from a diverse collection of folk songs, lullabies, art, religious music and Yiddish culture, this concert combines an array of historic genres to create an authentic sound from two traditions.
[This music] undoubtedly succeeds in its imaginative and unusual project, to “reverse engineer the aesthetics of music from an imagined past.” We, in the present, are enriched. — In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies
The JW3 music programme has been kindly sponsored by The Dorset Foundation in memory of Harry Weinrebe.
Tsvey Brider
Diverse idioms, styles and periods contrast and combine in Tsvey Brider, creating contemporary and unique interpretations of music in the Yiddish language. Winners of Mexico City’s Concurso Internacional de Canciones en Idish (Der Yidisher Idol), the members of Tsvey Brider have performed and recorded with such noted artists as Anthony Coleman, Daniel Kahn, Michael Winograd, Michael Alpert, Alan Bern, Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi and Veretski Pass.
Anthony Russell
Anthony Russell is a vocalist, composer and arranger specialising in music in the Yiddish language. This work has brought him to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, New York, Toronto, Montreal, London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Krakow, Tel Aviv, Symphony Space in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Anthony's work with klezmer trio Veretski Pass resulted in Convergence, an EP exploring a century of African American and Ashkenazi Jewish music. An essayist in a number of publications including Jewish Currents and Moment Magazine, Anthony lives in Massachusetts.
Dmitri Gaskin
Dmitri Gaskin is an accomplished accordionist, pianist, composer and arranger specializing in klezmer and Romanian folk music. Winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for a contemporary classical composition, Dmitri also formed Harmonikos, a performing collective of young composers and musicians. He lives in California with his three accordions.
