SHEMA: What Jewish Culture Sounds Like presents

Jewlia Eisenberg
Founder and lead singer of the nerdy, sexy, commie, girly band Charming Hostess
April 7 – May 10, 2008

"Eisenberg pushes harder, musically and intellectually…”- New York Press

“A musical rabble-rouser.”- The New Yorker

SHEMA: What Jewish Culture Sounds Like continues our year-long project at the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies, which explores the orality of Jewish culture through the media of music, poetry, theatre and languages of Jewish culture. Join us for our final quarter in this series as we explore Sound and Spirit with cantor, lead singer and founder of Charming Hostess, Jewlia Eisenberg.

Jewlia Eisenberg is a composer, extended-technique vocalist, cantor, and founder of Charming Hostess. Her work focuses on the emotional, erotic and spiritual terrains that the voice can traverse while exploring the intersection of text and the sounding body, pushing for translation strategies between verbal and non-verbal languages. Collaborators include poet Fantom Slobode, choreographer Jo Kreiter and filmmaker Lynn Sachs. Commissioned work includes Harmonices Mundi, an opera about Kepler’s mother, and Red Rosa, a song cycle based on the letters of Rosa Luxemburg. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at MIT and has studied with sozanda Muna Nissimova, Fred Frith and Daniel Boyarin. Brooklyn born and bred, she now calls San Francisco home. For more information on her work, visit their website at http://charminghostess.us/

Public Lecture & Launch of “The Bowls Project” with Jewlia Eisenberg
Babylonian Incantation Bowls
Join Jewlia for the premiere event and the launch of “The Bowls Project”. A geodesic structure built on the campus of DU that will be used to host an entire series of events and intimate salons during Jewlia’s time as an artist-in-residence with the Center for Judaic Studies.

The Bowls Project – a performance installation based on sex, magic and the apocalypse in Babylonian Jewish amulets – is drawn from the female body, the rich traditions of the Babylonian Jews, and other diaspora sources, both Jewish and African. This specially designed performance dome echoes the sonic space of Babylonian incantation bowls themselves and its warm interior evokes the domestic concerns of the bowl texts. Spiraled Aramaic inscriptions from the same time and place as the Talmud open up a larger discussion of the connections between material and literary culture, between canonized and marginalized voices, between ritual power and popular practice and how music mediates these relationships. Images projected on walls are drawn from footage of communities along the Tigris River, where most of the bowls were found – taking you back in time 1500 years ago! Enter, enjoy and relax.

Monday, April 14 2008, 7:30 p.m.
University of Denver
Nelson Hall Room 192 (1st floor)
2222 S. High Street
Denver, CO 80210

Free but reservations are required as space is very limited. Please call 303.871.4633 or email marlene.tolman@du.edu

Please watch this website for a schedule of Salon’s and other events that will take place in “The Bowls Project” throughout April and May.

Charming Hostess Takes the Stage
Nerdy, sexy, commie, girly! A whirl of harmony, hot rhythm and radical braininess from San Francisco known for their bold and eclectic vocal performances. Their music explores the intersection of text and the sounding body—complex ideas expressed physically, based on voice and vocal percussion, handclaps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. Living where Diasporas collide, incorporating piyyutim and Pygmy counterpoint, doo-wop and niggunim, work songs and Torah chanting. Charming Hostess was founded by Jewlia Eisenberg to make ambitious music for voices and rock out at the same time. Charming Hostess CD’s produced under the Tzadik label include Sarajevo Blues, Trilectic and Eat & Punch.

“Charming Hostess makes music like no other…Thrown in with lively North African wedding songs and Eastern European folk songs are originals that display a proudly feminist, radical-Jewish, pro-sex sensibility. The blend lets listeners discover whether they can think and dance at the same time.” – The New York Times

Denver Performance:
Saturday, May 10 2008, 9:00 p.m.
Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret
1601 Arapahoe Street Underground Denver, CO 80202
Performance at 9 p.m., reception and cash bar at 8 p.m.

$25/general public
$15/DU faculty and staff
$5/with a University student ID
Thanks to support from our sponsors, tickets are offered at a reduced price.

Tickets available from Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret at www.lannies.com or by calling 303.293.0075.

Boulder Performance:
Co-sponsored by Menorah: Arts, Culture and Education at the Boulder JCC and Shalhevet Productions
Sunday, May 11, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
The Rock N’ Soul Cafe
5290 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, CO 80303

$18/general public
$10/University faculty and staff
$5/with a University student ID
Thanks to support from our sponsors, tickets are offered at a reduced price.

Tickets available from The Rock N’ Soul Cafe at the door or in advance by calling 303.443.5108.

Persons with disabilities needing accommodations for any of the above programs, please contact Pat Larsen at 303.871.3020

SHEMA: What Jewish Culture Sounds Like continues

with St. Petersburg born, Berlin-based pianist and ethnomusicologist Jascha Nemtsov for an exploration of Russian Jewish Sound

Presented in conjunction with the exhibit, On the Road: Photography of the Soviet Empire on display at DU’s Victoria Myhren Gallery.

April 28 – May 1, 2008

"...pianist Jascha Nemtsov...has devised a brilliantly imaginative program, presenting the angst-riddent Shostakovich with other works that betray a similar influence from Jewish folk music..."- BBC Music Magazine

Jascha Nemtsov is a Russian Jewish pianist and ethnomusicologist born in Magadan, Russia in 1963. He attended the college of music at the Leningrad Conservatory. He continued his musical education at the piano department of the Leningrad Conservatory and graduated with distinction in 1986. In 1992, Jascha Nemtsov moved to Germany. He has recorded 22 CDs, featuring numerous world premiere recordings.

Dr. Jascha Nemtsov has been a member of the School of Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam in Germany since 2002. In 2004 he earned his doctorate with a dissertation on The New Music School. He also authored a postdoctoral thesis in 2007 entitled Zionism in Music: Jewish Music and the National Idea. For additional information on his work and recordings, visit http://www.musica-judaica.com/jne.htm

Public Lecture
Recovering Lost Sounds: The New Jewish Music School of the Early 20th Century
The New Jewish School was an association of composers formed at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia to develop a nationally oriented Jewish style, which integrated elements of Eastern European Jewish folklore and Jewish liturgical music. Dr. Nemtsov has reconstructed the first worldwide systematic history of this school entirely based on rare documentary materials and contemporaneous press. This lecture will focus on the public activities and aesthetic principles of the New Jewish School, on the institutions and organizations connected with the school, and Nemtsov will present several pieces of music from these composers.

Monday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
University of Denver
2000 E. Asbury Avenue, Sturm Hall 286
Denver, CO 80208

Rimon:Master Classes in Judaic Studies
Between Folkore and Modernity: The New Jewish Music School as part of “Jewish Renaissance”
The history of the New Jewish School started in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1908 the Society for Jewish Folk Music was founded in St. Petersburg. Later Moscow, Berlin and Vienna became the most outstanding centers. Important composers, such as Joseph Achron, Michail Gnesin, Alexander and Grigori Krejn, Joachim Stutschewsky, Alexander Weprik and others belonged to this group. In a short period of time, numerous works of all classes were written by these composers. This movement, which was strongly influenced by Zionist ideas, will be discussed as a part of the Jewish cultural renaissance of that time.

Tuesday, April 29 & Wednesday, April 30 from 4-6 p.m.
University of Denver
2000 E. Asbury Avenue, Sturm Hall 286
Denver, CO 80208

Both the public lecture and the Rimon: Master Classes in Judaic Studies arefree and open to the public but reservations are required as space is limited.

Our free Rimon: Master Classes in Judaic Studies revolve around readings pre-selected by our visiting scholars and artists. To make reservations and obtain a copy of the readings, please contact Marlene Tolman at marlene.tolman@du.edu or call 303.871.4633. Classes are limited to 35 to maintain an intimate learning environment so reserve your space early! Donations to support this free program are welcome and encouraged.

DU Students can earn credit for the Rimon:Master Classes in Judaic Studies. To learn more, contact Professor Sarah Pessin at spessin@du.edu

Master Class with Lamont School of Music
New Jewish School in Music: From A Scientific Discovery to the Concert Repertoire
This master class is focused on the so-called New Jewish School in music (1908-1938). This group of composers created for the first time in music history a distinctive Jewish style in art music. Most of their works fell into oblivion after World War II and they were rediscovered only a few years ago. The performance of this music which combines traditional Jewish music elements with modern forms would significantly enrich the concert repertoire. The participants will also get a chance to listen to newly released recordings.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 from 2-3:30 p.m.
University of Denver
Newman Center, Hamilton Recital Hall
2344 E. Iliff Ave.
Denver, CO 80208

Free and open to the public. No tickets or RSVP’s required.

Recovering Lost Sounds: Piano Recital with Jascha Nemtsov
Featuring Jewish composers that span three centuries Nemtsov will perform works by Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Juliusz Wolfsohn, Lazare Saminsky, Joseph Achron, Sarah Nemtsov, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Alexander Weprik and Viktor Ullman.

“…Jascha Nemtsov has been making a name for himself both as pianist and scholar, mainly for his work with little-known music by Jewish composers. … he is fully the equal of his better-known partners, displaying an admirably clean technique and a sensitive but never self-indulgent temperament. “- The Gramophone, June 2006

Thursday, May 1, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
University of Denver
Newman Center, Hamilton Recital Hall
2344 E. Iliff Ave.
Denver, CO 80208

$18/general public
$10/DU faculty and staff
$5/with a University student ID
Thanks to support from our sponsors, tickets are offered at a reduced price.

Tickets are available through the Newman Center Box Office M-F 10 am – 4 pm or through Ticketmaster at ticketmaster.com. For more information, call the Newman Center at 303.871.7720.

Russian Jewish Culture…in Russian:
Meet Drs. Jascha Nemtsov and David Shneer
In conjunction with the American premiere of Semyon Fridlyand’s photographs, the Center for Judaic Studies proudly sponsors a brunch to meet Jascha Nemtsov and to have a private tour of the Fridlyand exhibition, On the Road: Photography of the Soviet Empire in Russian with co-curator David Shneer. If Fridlyand, the Soviet Jewish photographer, shows how integrated Russian Jews became under the Soviets, the Russian Jewish musicians featured in this special week-long program show that acculturation did not mean assimilation. This event will allow attendees the opportunity to bear witness to the many ways Russian Jews engaged with Russian culture.

Friday, May 2, 2008, 9:30 a.m.
University of Denver
Victoria H. Myhren Gallery
2121 East Asbury Ave.
Denver, CO 80208

Free and open to the public but reservations are required as space is limited. Please RSVP to Marlene Tolman at 303.871.4633 or via email at marlene.tolman@du.edu

The Center for Judaic Studies brings you these and other programs with generous support from community members, departments and academic units at the University of Denver, the Posen Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Hillel at the University of Denver, DU Lofts, Menorah:Arts, Culture and Education at the Boulder JCC and Shalhevet Productions.