On Sunday, October 28th in Philadelphia, a concert took place called Soul Songs: Inspiring Women of Klezmer. It was conceived and led by the one and only Susan Watts, (check out her episode from a while back) and featured a total of 11 women and non-binary klezmer musicians. The concert had only new compositions by these amazing musicians. It was a remarkable event. Great music, great show, great sets, huge sold-out crowd. I wanted to use this episode to get Susan, one of my main klezmer partners in crime in Philadelphia, back on the podcast and give her a chance to reflect on the success of this massive project. 
The musicians of Soul Songs are: Susan Watts, Lauren Brody, Zoe Christiansen, Adrienne Greenbaum, Rachel Lemisch, Marilyn Lerner, Cookie Segelstein, Ilene Stahl, Joanna Sternberg, Deborah Strauss, and Alicia Svigals.
Visuals and other work by Jenny Romaine, Tine Kindermann, and many more
Essays by Emily Socolov 
Huge thank you to Selina Morales and Toni Shapiro-Phim from the Philly Folklore Project, who made this happen.  
No recordings from the concert are available yet, so I’m letting the story speak for itself. 
Stay in touch about klezmer in Philly with Susan’s Community Klezmer Initiative.

Photo Credit Alan Lankin

Susan Watts – Soul Songs Reflections

Internationally renowned klezmer trombonist Dan Blacksberg sits down for in-depth and informal conversations with musicians and other artists whose work has made them an integral part of the klezmer world. Listeners get to go behind the scenes of the lives and work of the individual artists, and the modern history of klezmer music. We’ll talk about memorable moments in our artistic development, bring up wild performance stories, and ruminate what it’s like to be connected to this international community that makes up the klezmer world.

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Today on the Radiant Others Klezmer Music Podcast, Dan speaks with Francesca Ter-Berg and Flora Curzon about their duo Fran and Flora and their new album entitled Precious Collection, out now on the Hidden Notes label. We talk about what it takes to make a band’s second record and how to stick together through their evolution as individuals and as a duo. We talk about how they choose repertoire and how they choose the collaborators who fill out the amazing sound of their new album. And we talk about navigating the music business, and how to juggle all these different and sometimes contradicting types of work. Dive in to this honest discussion about it all. 
 


Multi-award-nominated experimental/folk duo Fran & Flora captivate audiences with their reinventions of traditional Eastern European melodies and songs. Francesca Ter-Berg (cello/vox) and Flora Curzon (violin/vox) draw inspiration from archival recordings, recovered manuscripts and studying with traditional masters, infusing source material with drones, loops, free improvisation and electronics to create a ‘border-defying’ aesthetic (Mojo).
 
If you are a regular at klezmer festivals around North America and Europe, you probably know these two amazing musicians from taking their classes or playing together in jams. They know their stuff and they are a big part of our Yiddish community. It was a pleasure to go deeper into their work, and to share this conversation with all of you.

 
Listen Precious Collection on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms
Find out more about Fran and Flora at https://franandflora.com/


Music in this episode is all from Precious Collection, including:
– Dobriden – Hamanul
– Fishekekh Gefinen – To Catch a Fish
– Hold Me Close

Radiant Others is produced by Dan Blacksberg and Beila Ungar.
The Radiant Others podcast aims to be the internet’s central space for important conversations in Yiddish and Klezmer music. Please support our work on https://www.patreon.com/RadiantOthers
 

 




		
						
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Fran and Flora

Ilya Shneyveys is an international performer, accordionist and multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer, arranger and producer of contemporary Jewish music. He’s one of the most in demand musicians on the klezmer scene and works in just about every setting imaginable, from the traditional to the most cutting edge.

This episode is a “return to form” with Dan and Ilya having a free-ranging conversation that covers a wide range of topics. And even so, we only scratch the surface of all the amazing work Ilya does on the as a musician, a teacher and as a community builder.
Go to https://ilya.shneyveys.com/ to find out lots more about what he’s up to! And if you’re in Brooklyn on July 12th, go see his psychedelic Yiddish fusion band Forshpil! Details here.
Follow Ilya on Instragram and try to keep up with him.
Music in this episode is
Volekhl – from Forshpil‘s 2012 self-titled album
Di Sapozhkelekh Tsvey from Forshpil:Tsvey (2022)
Nishmat Kol Khay (“breath of all life”) – Performed live on zoom by Shekedina (Ilya Shneyveys and Sarah Myerson).
DJ SHNEY feat Jake Shulman-Ment – “Frey with J”
Radiant Others is produced by Dan Blacksberg and Beila Ungar. Please support our work on https://www.patreon.com/RadiantOthers

		
						
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Ilya Shneyveys

Today on the Radiant Others Podcast, Dan speaks with Ira Khonen Temple. Ira is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and embedded cultural organizer. Recent credits include accordionist for Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and music director of Indecent at the Weston Playhouse, Great Small Works’ Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committe Purimshpil, and Zoe Beloff’s Days of the Commune. Ira is a founder of the radical-traditional Yiddish music group Tsibele.
Ira and Dan get into some really important topics around the culture of the Klezmer music world, some of Ira’s artistic practice and how Ira has learned and developed their repertoire.
Music in this episode comes from Ira’s concert at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, as well as their collaboration with Laura Elkeslassy
Follow Ira on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming projects!

		
						
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Ira Khonen Temple

Today on The Radiant Others Podcast we hear a conversation between Dan and Aaron Bendich, the founder of Borscht Beat, a multifaceted cultural project with a focus on Jewish Music. After a decade of collecting records, Bendich launched Borscht Beat as a radio program on WJFF Radio Catskill in early 2021 (listen to past programs here). A year later, Borscht Beat relaunched as a record label, and has since released 5 albums of contemporary klezmer and Yiddish song. Beyond his work in radio and on the label, Bendich is an active participant in the live Jewish music world, and promotes and photographs concerts in New York City and beyond.
In this episode Dan and Aaron discuss how Aaron got interested in Jewish music and his path to founding Borsch Beat. They also get into the ins and outs of running a record label and some of the albums that have been released through Borscht Beat, which can be found on the label’s Bandcamp page.
Music in this episode includes:
Welcome to the Welcome (Zoe Aqua)
Heron on the Wing (Michael Alpert and Craig Judelman)
Mayn Heym (Tsvey Brider feat. Varetsky Pass)
A Gute Vokh (Levyosn)
Basura Dub (Shabbos Ranks)
Yaass (Marv Kurz)
Radiant Others is produced by Dan Blacksberg and Beila Ungar. Please support our work on https://www.patreon.com/RadiantOthers.
 

		
						
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Aaron Bendich/Borscht Beat

What would it be like if klezmer music’s geographic and historical continuity had never been interrupted? Today I talk to violinist, composer, educator, and researcher Zoë Aqua about her experiences researching Jewish and non-Jewish music in Transylvania and surrounding regions in Hungary and Romania. These are regions where musicians have been exceptionally successful at keeping regional styles and repertoire alive and transmitting them to new generations. Some of these musicians know and transmit specifically Jewish music from their families or where they live. It’s both a perfectly complementary experience to how we nurture and grow our klezmer and Yiddish worlds, and a completely different experience to how we are able to do things.
 
Zoë and I talk about how she ended up doing this research on a Fulbright fellowship that’s now in its second year. How she is following in the footsteps of many other klezmer musicians, often string players, who have gone to learn the many styles of this region that sometimes feel like distant cousins to our klezmer, as well as learning unique Jewish repertoire from different masters. It’s a pile of fun and wild stories and a lot of food for thought about cultural continuity and transmission. We end by talking about hopes and dreams for how we pass on knowledge in our own community and what new ideas have emerged for Zoë during her time there.
 
We also talk about her new album on Borscht Beat, In Vald Arayn, which features her original klezmer compositions inspired by Translvanian sources and played by a great band of musicians who are fluent in the music styles of the regions where she’s living. On this album, Zoë is imagining new alternate realities of musical paths and combinations of cultures that once lived side-by-side and then making them real for our enjoyment. It’s great music and I hope you check it out.
 
Radiant Others is produced by Dan Blacksberg and Beila Ungar. Please support our work on https://www.patreon.com/RadiantOthers.

		
						
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Susan Watts – Soul Songs Reflections

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