Yiddish glory

The Lost Songs of World War II
Koerner Hall, Toronto. (August 28, 2018.)

The story:

Yiddish Glory features anti-fascist songs and music documenting Nazi atrocities that were discovered in a former Soviet archive in Kiev. The songs have been resurrected by Yiddish Glory in a jaw-dropping new recording of music written by Holocaust victims and survivors in the Soviet Union during World War II.

Many of the songs are grassroots accounts of Nazi atrocities in Ukraine at sites such as Babi Yar, Pechora and Tulchin, while others are explicit descriptions of resistance and revenge. Most of the songs were written by women and children, perspectives rarely seen in music of this period. The songs were collected by a team of Jewish Soviet ethnomusicologists led by Moisei Beregovsky during the war, but shortly afterwards, during Stalin’s anti-Jewish purge, the collectors were arrested, their work confiscated, and they died thinking the music was lost to history.

On stage:

Yiddish Glory features an elite ensemble comprising world class musicians and led by

Psoy Korolenko: Singer-songwriter
Loyko: The world-renowned Gypsy trio from St. Petersburg, Russia, led by virtuoso violinist Sergei Erdenko with Artur Gorbenko (violin) and Mikhail Savichev (guitar)
Sasha Lurje: vocalist (Yiddish singer from Latvia)
Julian Milkis: Widely considered among the world’s greatest living clarinetists
David Buchbinder: Juno Award-winning Trumpetist
Sergiu Popa: Virtuoso Roma Accordionist
Beth Silver: Multiple Award-winning Cellist
Isaac Rosenberg – Vocals
Anna Shternshis – Historian and Researcher (Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto)

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHskHhVtWJ