Summer Course at KlezKanada (August 19-25, 2013)
Course Title: JWST 354 Eastern European Jewish Music Intensive (3 credits)
Instructor: Dr. Hankus Netsky and KlezKanada Faculty
Time & Location: Offered at KlezKanada, August 19-25, 2013.
Course description
An introduction to the various Jewish musical traditions that flourished in Eastern Europe and the Americas including folk, theatre, Hassidic, cantorial, and klezmer. Students will also participate in workshops in Yiddish dance, film, and literature.
Prof. Netsky will contact students before KlezKanada begins to circulate articles that must be read prior to the weeklong retreat. In addition, short readings will be assigned at KlezKanada itself. When the course ends, each student will be required to complete a music performance, research, or fieldwork project.
Students will arrive at KlezKanada on Monday, August 19, and over the following 4 days (Tuesday-Friday) will spend 4 hours per day studying with Prof. Netsky. No formal classes are scheduled for Saturday. A concluding session will be held on Sunday morning. When not studying with Prof. Netsky, students will attend lectures and performances offered by other teachers and artists. Students will choose what to attend from a list of options circulated by Prof. Netsky.
Students who register for this course must also register for KlezKanada. The cost for the week at KlezKanada is $200 (includes transportation from Montreal, lodging and all [kosher] meals). Information on how to register for KlezKanada will be posted here in May and will be circulated directly to all students who register for the course through Minerva.
B.Mus students may take this course as a free elective.
About KlezKanada
KlezKanada is Canada’s largest annual festival of Jewish culture and the arts. Arising from the wellsprings of Jewish culture and experience unique to Montreal and Canada, the summer festival is a weeklong intergenerational celebration with international resonance and impact. KlezKanada draws over 400 participants from every province in Canada, 25 U.S. states, and Eastern and Western Europe, as well as Israel. Through workshops and seminars in music, dance, visual arts and Jewish studies, participants have access to the wealth of knowledge and experience of KlezKanada’s internationally-acclaimed faculty. The week features world-class concerts and vibrant dance parties in the evenings, as well as the ever-popular late-night KlezKabaret.
KlezKanada takes place at the Retreat Centre of Camp Bnai Brith Montreal (Lantier, Quebec; Laurentian Autoroute, exit 89).
Click here for video from the first McGill-KlezKanada seminar (2011). To download a copy of the program of KlezKanada 2012, click here. The 2013 program will be available in May.
About Prof. Hankus Netsky
A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and scholar, Hankus Netsky teaches improvisation and Jewish music at the New England Conservatory. He is the founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. Netsky has previously taught Jewish music at Hebrew College and Wesleyan University, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Several of his essays on klezmer music have been published by the University of California Press.
Hankus Netsky collaborated with Marty Ehrlich on the August 2010 release Fables, an entry in the "Radical Jewish Culture" collection on John Zorn's Tzadik label. The original compositions that make up this recording represent the intersection of jazz and Jewish musical traditions. Netsky has produced numerous other recordings, including almost a dozen by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He has composed extensively for film and television, and has collaborated with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, and Theodore Bikel. He is currently touring with Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in support of their recently released cd, Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul.
For more information, contact Dr. Eric Caplan (514)-398-6544; eric [dot] caplan [at] mcgill [dot] ca
