MUSIC
Adults $26
JCC Members/Seniors $22
Students $16
Plus HST & nominal service charge
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World Premiere
A BLESSING ON THE MOON
The Colour of Poison Berries
Saturday February 11 @ 8pm
Sunday February 12 @ 2pm
Monday February 13 @ 8pm
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
Music by Andy Teirstein, libretto by Andy Teirstein and Joseph Skibell and featuring the Warsaw Village Band [Poland / USA]
CAST
Will Erat
Jonathan Estabrooks
Zachary James
Suzanne Kantorski-Merrill
Kamala Sankaram
Music Director – Charity Wicks
Lighting Designer: Nick Kolin
Costume Designer: Lara de Bruijn
WARSAW VILLAGE BAND
Mariusz “Mario” Dziurawiec – Sound effects
Piotr Glinski – Marimba, Baraban (Bass Drum)
Pawel Mazurczak – Bass
Magdalena Sobczak-Kotnarowska – Tsimbel (Polish Hammered Dulcimer)
Sylwia Swiatkowska – Old Polish Fiddle
Maciej Szajkowski – Percussion
Ewa Walecka – Fiddle, Voice
Chutzpah! 2012 opens with an extraordinary event: the world premiere of a musical and theatrical adaption of author Joseph Skibell’s masterpiece novel, A Blessing on the Moon.
This new music-theatre experience combines imaginative and physical theatricality with a fiery, folk-infused score that brings Skibell’s daring and original story to life.
Andy Teirstein’s composition joins with the glorious timbres and galloping percussion of the Warsaw Village Band and a cast of five accomplished singer/actors under the spell of Jim Calder’s direction.
A Blessing on the Moon; The Colour of Poison Berries is the surreal and magical tale of Chaim Skibelski. It follows Chaim’s wandering search for an afterlife following his violent death at the hands of a German soldier in wartime Poland.
On his travels, he is sometimes accompanied by his Rabbi who is now a crow. This mystical story is a haunting evocation of the Polish Holocaust and a journey towards peace and wisdom.
The music, which ranges from Polish folk/roots to cabaret, adds nuance to every line spoken—and combines with movement to beautifully explore the edges of magic realism contained in the words of this epic narrative.
Andy Teirstein’s work is inspired by a rich and diverse range of folk and roots music, and is described by The New York Times and Village Voice as “magical,” “ingenious,” and “superbly crafted.”
The six-member Warsaw Village Band is considered among the most important and accomplished musical ambassadors of European culture today. Their modern brand of traditional folk music has garnered BBC Radio Awards and a Grammy nomination, among a raft of other accolades.
Joseph Skibell’s 1997 debut novel A Blessing on the Moon was named one of the year’s best by Publisher’s Weekly, Le Monde and Amazon.com. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Sami Rohr Award in Jewish Literature. His work has been translated into many languages, most recently Ido and Chinese.
A Blessing on the Moon featured in the Vancouver Sun – View article
ablessingonthemoon.com
warsawvillageband.net
josephskibell.com
andyteirstein.com
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Vancouver Premiere
HADAG NAHASH
Opening band Vancouver’s Santa Lucia
One night only!
Saturday February 25
Doors open @ 8pm
Commodore Ballroom
868 Granville Street
Bursting out of Jerusalem, Hadag Nahash is simply the hottest band Israel has to offer, with multi-gold and -platinum awards to their credit. Now, they’re busy taking the international music scene by storm.
This powerhouse sextet performs a sonic melting pot of hip hop, rock, jazz, reggae and electro-funk, with hard-driving grooves and a Middle Eastern flavour. Their music is uplifting and supremely dance-ready, but they’re much more than a just a good-time party band. Outspoken musical activists, their songs call for peace, tolerance and equality and include provocative and controversial left-leaning lyrics of political protest. Hadag Nahash’s music has become part of the soundtrack for progressive struggles within and beyond Israel.
In recent years, the band’s international fan base has grown exponentially as they share stages with the likes of The Black Eyed Peas, Cypress Hill, The Streets, Speech from Arrested Development, Matisyahu and Leeroy (Saian Supa Crew). They’ve toured the UK and the United States several times, contributed their music to Adam Sandler’s movie You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, the TV show NCIS and the soundtrack for the ultra-hip game The Sims 3. They perform in both English and Hebrew and have released their fifth studio album, 6, with internationally-acclaimed producer Yossi Fine.
Vancouver’s Santa Lucia has a sound that evokes the early days of Latin Funk and the likes of Carlos Santana, but with their own blend of rock and funk grooves. This 7-member band plays an addictive combination of Nuyorican boogaloo, West Coast funk and sizzling Cuban rhythms with a horn section, driving percussion and lyrics in both English and Spanish.
A Special Post-Festival Chutzpah! Concert
Vancouver Premiere
The Touré-Raichel Collective
Sunday April 29 @ 8pm
Monday April 30 @ 8pm – second show added!
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
Malian guitar master meets Israeli superstar in a very special post-Chutzpah! concert. Pianist/composer Idan Raichel and guitarist/songwriter Vieux Farka Touré are two virtuosic artists from very different musical traditions.
Raichel, who sold out the Chan Centre in his last Vancouver visit, is credited with changing the face of Israeli popular music with his pioneering blend of Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms, Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry and Caribbean rhythms.
Touré is a Malian desert blues guitar maestro whose 2010 World Cup performance before a billion people in South Africa garnered him recognition as one of the most celebrated African guitarists in history.
Raichel and Touré forged a deep friendship, and embarked on a ground-breaking collaboration that has resulted in the The Touré-Raichel Collective. The band includes in-demand Israeli bassist Amit Carmeli and Malian djembe and calabash player Souleymane ‘Souley’ Kané. In the spirit of promoting peace and cross-cultural harmony, Raichel and Touré open ears and hearts in this unique acoustic project and create some of the world’s most sublime and transcendent music.
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THE SWAY MACHINERY
Saturday February 18h @ 9pm(ish)!
A new performance venue for Chutzpah! on Main Street!
Electric Owl
928 Main Street
(2 blocks north of the Science World Sky Train Station)
Calling all globalistas! Announcing a band whose combination of potent folklore and rhythmic power is generating a massive buzz on the world music scene and beyond.
The Sway Machinery comes to one of Main Street’s newest and funkiest dinner clubs – Electric Owl – to deliver a unique, brilliantly-realized music that’s firmly rooted in tradition, yet crosses, blends, synthesizes…and shines! On stage Sway seamlessly melds prayer poems and modern beats, ancient Jewish Cantorial music with blues, afro-beat, desert rhythms and rock. An influence of the band can be traced to leader Jeremiah Lockwood’s legendary grandfather, Cantor Jacob Konigsberg.
Sway boasts a highly accomplished line-up of musicians: guitarist Lockwood, formerly of Balkan Beat Box (with BBB at all three of their Chutzpah! concerts), drummer John Bollinger of Barbez, bass saxophonist Colin Stetson of Arcade Fire and Tom Waits’ band, and Jordan McLean and Stuart Bogie, the trumpet and tenor sax horn section of the band Antibalas.
“Brookyln’s The Sway Machinery…have somehow managed to reconcile the disparate influences of contemporary Islamic African blues and ancient Jewish spiritualism into a magically charged-up sound all their own.” Perlich Post
“The latest indie supergroup has a sound that. . . well, you just have to hear to describe. Listen now!” spin.com
Adults $26
JCC Members & Seniors $22
Students $16
Plus HST & nominal service charge
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DON’T CALL US, WE’LL CALL YOU!
A musical journey of life in the theatre starring Warren Kimmel
One performance only!
Sunday February 26 @ 7:00 pm
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
An eclectic, funny and bitter-sweet music cabaret-style show chronicling Warren Kimmel‘s remarkable theatrical career and journey from South Africa to BC. Kimmel and music director/pianist Wendy Bross Stuart return to the Chutzpah! stage with vocalist Tess Neff, percussionist Phil Belanger and bass player Alison Dalton.
“My career as a theatre performer has been an incredible journey spanning three continents and forty years. Come with me on this musical safari as I revisit the music that got me hooked and the songs I dreamed of singing; The roles I almost got to play and the ones I never will; The highs and the lows, the triumphs and disasters.”
Born in Johannesburg, Kimmel trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His eventful career has included leading roles at prestigious theatres and renowned companies in England and Canada. He has played everything from Dan Goodman in Next to Normal to Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
Wendy Bross Stuart is an ethnomusicologist, music director, composer/arranger, piano accompanist and vocal coach with four CDs and numerous musical and theatrical credits.
Travel with the performers from Africa to Canada, with many stops along the way, as Warren tries to answer his mother’s eternal question: “Why couldn’t you have studied medicine? You had the grades!”
“Kimmel is simply breathtaking in his breadth and range. I look forward to hearing that every artistic director of every theatre company from here to Newfoundland and Labrador hears about this guy and wants to work with him.” Peter Birnie, Vancouver Sun
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North American Premiere
LENKA LICHTENBERG & YAIR DALAL
Lullabies from Exile
Sunday February 12 @ 7pm
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
Toronto-based vocalist Lenka Lichtenberg channels the diverse soundscapes of her city, taking Yiddish-based music into the world of global roots and rhythms. This award-winning artist blends styles and crosses borders with music that draws on Eastern European, classical Indian and Egyptian, South and North American traditions.
Israeli composer, violinist, oud player and singer Yair Dalal is a prolific musician who plays an important role in the global world music scene. His Iraqi and desert roots are embedded in his musical work. He interweaves the traditions of Iraqi and Jewish Arabic music with influences as diverse as the Balkans and India.
Together, these two globally-inspired artists offer a glimpse into ancient and transcendent beauty, melding Dalal’s Iraqi/Babylonian traditions and Lichtenberg’s Yiddish/Ashkenazic roots.
The pair are backed by Lenka’s band FRAY, a who’s who of Toronto musicians.
“[Of Yair Dalal and his music] It is Arabic, it is Iraqi, and it is Jewish and Israeli. And there is no contradiction, either musically or culturally—this is simply what he is, and what he creates.” globalrhythm.net
“It takes a few moments of listening to get past the pleasure and feel amazed at what you’re hearing. It’s Lenka Lichtenberg‘s crystalline voice singing to a Middle Eastern beat in Mizrachi style. But the words are in Yiddish. This world music fusion sound is astounding and makes you feel as though you have stepped onto a new planet.” Heather Solomon, CJ News, Montreal
