FROM THE WILD EAST TO WEST PHILLY:
A JOURNEY INTO KLEZMER

An evening with the acclaimed French Jewish graphic novelist
Joann Sfar
author of the new book Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East heralded as "deeply suffused with Jewish religious and ethnic identity . . . profane, messy, jagged and wildly enthusiastic, much like klezmer itself."

Date: Thursday, November 9
Place:Hillel's Steinhardt Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Locust Walk at 39th Street
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cost: Free
For advance tickets: events@bindlestiffbooks.com or 215-222-2432.

Sfar will share tales and images from his prolific body of work. Come discover the colorful history of klezmer music… and shake your tuchas to a live performance by rocking international klezmer superstars all in one magical evening!

The performance will feature amazing Philly musicians: Rachel Lemisch, Jason Rosenblatt, Ilana Sherer & Susan Watts.

Followed by a book signing with the author.

Check out reviews & images from Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East:
www.firstsecondbooks.com/klezmer.html

Sponsored by Bindlestiff Books, Congregation Leyv Ha'ir, Kol Tzedek West Philadelphia Synagogue, the University of Pennsylvania Jewish Studies Colloquium, and Youngish and Yiddish.

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About the author:
The prodigious French Jewish graphic novelist Joann Sfar has over 100 books in print and an international following among readers of all ages. The son of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Sfar continues to harvest incredible riches from his twin bloodlines. In his bestselling The Rabbi's Cat, he took us to his paternal country of Algeria; now, in Klezmer he steeps us in the music, pathos, and relentless adventure of his mother's Eastern European heritage.

About the book:
Meet Noah Davidovich, dubbed The Baron of My Backside and his unlikely band of musicians: Chava, a young woman who follows The Baron away from her remote village; Yaacov, a favored student whose rabbi has banished him from his yeshiva; Vincenzo, a wandering Italian fiddler; and Tshokola, a gypsy pursued by Cossacks - all unforgettable new characters from the inimitable Joann Sfar.

In a startling, loose watercolor style, Sfar evokes the Jewish communities of pre-World War II Eastern Europe and the itinerant klezmer musicians who performed at celebrations, festivals, and cabarets. Following in the tradition of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories and rambling Yiddish folktales, Sfar's colorful characters personify the multifarious influences that have poured into the music of klezmer.

Klezmer is at once dark and light hearted, tragic and hilarious, violent and tender - and Sfar himself never ceases to amaze, to surprise, and to defy categorization.

About the performers:
Susan Hoffman-Watts represents the youngest generation of an authentic klezmer dynasty that reaches back to the Jewish Ukraine of the 19th century. Susan is the sole living purveyor of a klezmer style trumpet and sound which electrified Jewish American audiences for decades. Today, audiences are dazzled by Susan and her mother, the great klezmer drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts and their Philadelphia-based group, the Fabulous Shpilkes.

Rachel Lemisch , Philly native and trombonist extraordinaire, is a member of the Philadelphia chamber orchestra and hails from the famed Lemisch family klezmer dynasty of Iasi, Romania . In addition to performing with Shtreiml, she has guested with the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars and is member of Susan Watt's the Fabulous Shpilkes.

Jason Rosenblatt studied jazz piano at the Rimon School of Jazz in Ramat Hasharon , Israel and at the McGill Conservatory. He is at the forefront of popularizing the use of the diatonic harmonica as an instrument capable of playing virtually any style of music, including jazz, klezmer and Turkish music. He founded the acclaimed klezmer band, Shtrieml.

Ilana Sherer is a classically trained violinist who began playing klezmer music 6 years ago, and has since started a klezmer band everywhere she has gone--from Spain to Botswana , Brown University to medical school. Her most recent project was to establish a community band for members of Kol Tzedek West Philadelphia synagogue. In her other life, she is a medical student and a social justice activist.