Part of The Portland Jewish Music Festival 2026!

The Inner Secrets of Klezmer Dance Tunes

Like most traditional musics, the “klezmer” in klezmer music isn’t the notes on the page, it’s what’s between your ears. Whether you’re familiar with klezmer or new to the genre, this workshop will take a deep dive into tunes from the heart of klezmer repertoire—freylekhs, khosidl, and bulgar—to find the Jewishness “embedded" in the tunes. We will explore the distinctive elements of klezmer style through phrasing, ornamentation, elaboration, and creating groovy dance textures, along with a conversation about “rhetoric” in certain kinds of tunes that resonate with Jewish philosophy. All instruments welcome, charts provided as needed.

All Ages, $30/Adv, $35/Door

Christina Crowder is an accordionist with thirty years of experience as a researcher, performer and educator in klezmer music and Asheknazic expressive culture.

Christina is the Executive Director of the Klezmer Institute, a digital-first organization founded to support Ashkenazic expressive culture through research, teaching, publishing, and programming. The Institute’s flagship projects, the Klezmer Archive Project (KA), and the Kiselof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP), have been awarded three grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Contact the host of Workshop: Christina Crowder, The Inner Secrets of Klezmer Dance Tunes