The Somerville Chanukah Party!

Welcome to the third annual Somerville Chanukah Party!

Join the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music and all of your friends to dance the night away and celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah, Janucá, Khanike...) the best way we know how: with music, dancing, and joy.

This year, we are delighted to feature the release of Tanz! Live in NYC with Michael Winograd and his band.

But wait, there's more!

Fresh from the successful crowdfunding campaign for their second album, Boston-based Yiddish song masters Levyosn joins for an opening set.

Plus, we are delighted to welcome Rachel Linsky and her dancers to the program for the Somerville Chanukah Party. You might remember Rachel from last year’s party, where she presented her Yiddish dance-inspired work for five dancers, Gathering Sparks, to rave reviews. This year, Rachel is bringing a first look at selections from her new evening-length show, Looking Back, Stepping Forward. Choreographed to music by Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, Looking Back, Stepping Forward invites us to spend an evening at the table, tsum tish, with four incredible dancers from Rachel’s company.

And that's not all... More acts are coming every week!

Huge thanks to the Somerville Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Boston Synagogue for helping to make it all happen.

Michael Winograd plays TANZ! 

In September of 1955, a few days following Rosh Hashannah, a group of inspired NYC musicians spent two days at the Columbia 30th Street Studio (aka “The Church”) recording a landmark collection of Jewish instrumental music.  TANZ!, released the following year, was an adventurous concept album featuring new and traditional Jewish melodies, presented with fresh modern arrangements and a fiery energy driven by two virtuoso clarinetists.  At the helm of the ship was Jazz and Klezmer musician Sam Musiker.  Having served as soloist in the Gene Krupa Orchestra, and as a side person with Sarah Vaughun, Musiker’s vision for contemporary Jewish music was in the finest of hands.  And alongside Sam was his father in-law, the undisputed king of Klezmer himself, Dave Tarras.  Arriving in New York in 1923, Tarras took the jewish music world by storm.  Joined by a top notch band, and with a contract from Epic records, TANZ! was destined for success, and had everything going for it.

Except an audience.  By the late 1950s audiences that may have flocked to the record stores for the great klezmer records in years past, were listening to other music… Rosemary Clooney, The Platters, Elvis.  TANZ! indeed came out at the wrong time, and the label printed rather few copies.  A true Jewish assimilation sob story.  It wasn’t until the late 1980s, when young klezmer revivalists found copies in used record bins and discovered this almost lost gem.  It has gone on to be a favorite among yiddish music insiders.  Generations of klezmorim went on to learn the tunes, and it was even reissued by Epic Records in 2000.  

Brooklyn clarinetist Michael Winograd developed an (unhealthy?) obsession with TANZ! over the years.  He dove in hard.  He transcribed each song in it’s entirety in 2018 while stranded inside during a blizzard, and later that year, for the very first time,  performed TANZ! in it’s entirety.  Tonight we celebrate the release of TANZ! Live in NYC, a masterfully recorded live performance of this landmark album from a concert in 2023.  Come take a trip back in time, celebrate Hanukkah with a performance of TANZ!

Musicians:

Michael Winograd - clarinet

Ilene Stahl - clarinet

Aani Kislinger - trumpet

Andrew Gutauskas - saxophone, bass clarinet

Will Holshouser - accordion

Josh Dolgin (‘Socalled’) - piano

Zoe Guigueno - bass

David Licht - drums

Levyosn

A Boston-based ensemble specializing in Yiddish song and klezmer, Levyosn takes its name from the Ashkenazi Hebrew word for the leviathan, a mythical sea creature traveling the world’s oceans collecting songs, krill, and dreams.

Their debut album, Levyosn’s Lullaby, is available now through Borscht Beat.

Check out the crowdfunding campaign for their second album at

https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/lysanderjaffe/levyosn-s-dream-album-number-two.

Rachel Linsky Dance

We are delighted to welcome Rachel Linsky and her dancers to the program for the Somerville Chanukah Party. You might remember Rachel from last year’s party, where she presented her Yiddish dance-inspired work for five dancers, Gathering Sparks, to rave reviews. This year, Rachel is bringing a first look at selections from her new evening-length show, Looking Back, Stepping Forward. Choreographed to music by Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, Looking Back, Stepping Forward invites us to spend an evening at the table, tsum tish, with four incredible dancers from Rachel’s company.