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MUSIC & MUSIC THEATRE AT CHUTZPAH! From ancient melody to cabaret to cutting edge beats – “Music at Chutzpah! always surprises,” says Festival Artistic & Managing Director Mary-Louise Albert, “and our festival audiences thrive on the joys of new discovery. In 2012, I’m proud to announce that the line up of artists, groups and musical productions is even more diverse and exciting than ever before. The world premiere of the musical-theatre adaptation of Joseph Skibell’s A Blessing on the Moon, featuring Poland’s Warsaw Village Band promises an extraordinary multi-layered theatrical encounter that melds music and story in imaginative and evocative new ways. Canada’s Lenka Lichtenberg and Israel’s Yair Dalal’s Lullabies from Exile unites two artists with the unique ability to meld different musical roots across time and borders in a fearless and scintillating convergence of cultures. Their show is not to be missed. We welcome one of Vancouver’s most talented and popular actors back to Chutzpah! to share his fascinating life story in a bitter-sweet musical diary, when Warren Kimmel’s Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You hits the stage. And, we think we’ve got three of the hottest concerts going in the New Year. We’ll welcome daring Israeli supergroup Hadag Nahash with opening guests Santa Lucia to the Commodore Ballroom; world music phenomenon The Sway Machinery to the Electric Owl – and then as a follow up to this exceptional roster of musical performances will be a Chutzpah! Plus presentation of the incomparable Idan Raichel and Vieux Farka Touré Quartet in April. For us at Chutzpah!, it’s all about creativity, excellence, risk-taking, connection, engagement – and the music at festival 2012 hits every note.”
— A Blessing on the Moon – The Colour of Poison Berries World Premiere – Music Theatre Chutzpah! 2012 opens with 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 cabaret-style score that brings Skibell’s daring and original story to surreal life. Andy Teirstein’s composition joins with Poland’s Warsaw Village Band and a cast of five accomplished singer/actors under Jim Calder’s direction. A Blessing on the Moon – The Colour of Poison Berries is the 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 Chaim’s travels, he is sometimes accompanied by his Rabbi who is now in the form of a crow. This mystical story is a haunting evocation of the Holocaust experience and a journey towards peace and wisdom. The piece is scored for cabaret instrumentation based on the performers of The Warsaw Village Band: 2 Alto Women’s Voices; Violin; Cello; Tsimbl (hammered dulcimer); Percussion. In keeping with the location and cultural milieu of the book, musical interludes for a wordless chorus are drawn from Polish folk roots. Andy Teirstein’s work is inspired by the rich and diverse folk roots of modern culture. His music has been described by The New York Times and The Village Voice as "magical," "ingenious," and "superbly crafted”. In 2004 the six-member Warsaw Village Band received the prestigious BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music as "best newcomer" – and that same year won the European Broadcasting Union Award for the best folk recording and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the world music category. The New York Times has described WVB as one of the most important bands on the World Music stage. 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. “Joseph Skibell has created a fantasia both hideous and beautiful, a combination of mysticism, nightmare, and even humor…Though the phrase tour de force has been much abused, A Blessing on the Moon is exactly that: a daring fiction that shouldn't succeed on any level yet works on many.” Amazon.com "Daring in its haunting, often painful honesty, dense in thoughtful observation and unsparing incident, the novel is confirmation that no subject lies beyond the grasp of a gifted, committed imagination." New York Times Book Review “part Holocaust memoir, part ghost story, part Hebrew folklore, part surrealistic road epic.” The Bloomsbury Review “Poland's Warsaw Village Band may be a folk music sextet, but that doesn't mean it employs polite strumming and quaint melodies…the glorious timbres, galloping percussion, the driving pings of the dulcimer and the dissonant staccato stroking of the cello deliver plenty of drama.” Washington Post Performances: Saturday February 11 @ 8pm; Sunday February 12 @ 2pm; Monday February 13 @ 8pm www.ablessingonthemoon.com www.warsawvillageband.net www.josephskibell.com www.andyteirstein.com
— Hadag Nahash Vancouver Premiere Bursting out of Jerusalem, Hadag Nahash is one of the most successful acts in Israeli popular music today, with hot-selling and #1 recordings, and a string of awards to their credit. Lately they’ve been busy taking the international music scene by storm. This powerhouse sextet performs music that is a 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 lyrics of political protest. Hadag Nahash’s music has become part of the soundtrack for the progressive struggles within and even outside of Israel. Hard to pigeon-hole musically, Hadag Nahash has frequently been compared to Philadelphia’s The Roots because of their incorporation of live instrumentation. 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-successful game “The Sims 3″. The band has released their fifth studio album, 6, with internationally-acclaimed producer Yossi Fine at the helm. Performing in English and Hebrew, the band's name literally means "the fish-snake", which relates to an eel in Hebrew. It is also a Hebrew spoonerism. In Israel, people who have only recently gotten their driver's licenses place a tag on their back window with the words "Nehag Chadash" or “new driver". The anagram "HaDag Nachash" therefore indicates the group's ambitions: a voice for the youth in Israel. The band members are: Shaa’nan Streett (lead vocals), Guy Mar (vocals, turntables (DJ)), David (Dudush) Klems (keyboards), Moshe “Atraf” Asraf (drums), Yair (Yaya) Cohen Harounoff (bass) and Shlomi Alon (saxophone, flute, vocals).
Opening the night, 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. www.hadagnahash.com www.santaluciamusic.com
— Lullabies from Exile North American Premiere Two extraordinary global musicians come together in a musical dialogue that transcends boundaries and time. Lullabies from Exile is collaboration between Toronto– based Lenka Lichtenberg and Israeli Yair Dalal, backed by Lenka’s six-piece ensemble Fray. Together they create a one-of-a-kind musical “interchange”, a brilliant convergence of Dalal’s Babylonian traditions and Lichtenberg’s Ashkenazi roots. Toronto-based vocalist Lenka Lichtenberg channels the diverse soundscapes of that vibrant and diverse city, taking Yiddish-based music into the world of global roots and rhythms. This Prague-born and award-winning artist blends styles and crosses borders with music that draws on Eastern European, classical Indian and Egyptian, South and North American traditions. She is a 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards world music solo artist of the year nominee and the 2011 winner in the world music category for Songs From the Heart. 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 family moved to Israel from Baghdad in the 1950s, and 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, in their first Vancouver appearance, these two globally-inspired artists offer a glimpse into ancient and transcendent beauty, melding Yair Dalal’s Iraqi/Babylonian traditions and Lichtenberg’s Yiddish/Ashkenazic roots. The concert is the North American premiere of Lullabies from Exile, which has been performed internationally in Kosice, Slovakia and Prague as well as at various new music concerts and festivals in Europe. The pair are backed by Lenka’s band Fray, comprised of a who’s who of Toronto musicians. This group regularly includes Ravi Naimpally (tabla, doumbek), John Gzowski (oud, electric and acoustic guitars), Alan Hetherington (percussion, pandeiro, drums), Ernie Tollar (sax, ney, clarinet, cane flutes, bansouri), Chris Gartner (bass), Roula Said (voice, qanun, percussion). “[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
www.yairdalal.com www.lenkalichtenberg.com
— Warren Kimmel Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You – A Musical Journey of Life in the Theatre Don’t Call US, We’ll Call You is an eclectic, funny and bitter-sweet music cabaret-style show chronicling actor Warren Kimmel’s remarkable theatrical career and personal journey from his birthplace of South Africa to his adopted homeland of BC. Kimmel and music director/pianist Wendy Bross Stuart return to the Chutzpah! stage with vocalist Tess Neff, percussionist Phil Belanger and bassist Alison Dalton. Together they trace Kimmel’s journey in story and song. As Warren explains, “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.” Travel with the performers as they follow Kimmel’s life from Africa to England 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!” Warren Kimmel was born in South Africa and trained at the Royal Academy Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. His broad and varied career at some of the world’s most prestigious venues and companies, both in England and Canada, includes leading roles with prestigious companies including Dan Goodman in Next to Normal to Danny in Grease to Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Warren arrived in Canada in 2003. Wendy Bross Stuart (music direction / piano)is an ethnomusicologist, music director, composer/arranger, piano accompanist and vocal coach, with four CDs and numerous musical and theatrical production credits.
—The Sway Machinery The Sway Machinery (USA) The Sway Machinery is a hip Brooklyn-based blues-world beat-Chazzanus (cantor) ensemble who has somehow managed to reconcile the disparate influences of ancient Jewish spiritualism and contemporary Islamic African blues. They’ve created a magically charged-up sound all their own, one that bursts with an electrifying blend of modern rhythmic power and ancient folklore. The band is known for having brilliant music chops and a passion for musical and cultural exploration. The all-star group is led by former Balkan Beat Box guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood, the grandson of the legendary Cantor Jacob Konigsberg. Lockwood’s musical and personal roots in the cantorial tradition combined, at an early age, with the influences in the world around him, especially blues and African music. Gathering like-minded musical friends around, Sway Machinery was formed. For Lockwood, the band is about excavating cultural history as a spiritual catalyst. Travelling to Mali and delving into the Tuareg musical and spiritual traditions (the band was the first Jewish group invited to Mali’s Festival of the Desert), they noted the parallels between their own lost Jewish traditions and the transmission of cultural knowledge amongst the Tamashek and Songhai people they lived, performed and travelled with while at the edge of the Sahara. While in Africa, the group recorded a new album featuring collaborations with luminaries of Malian music, including Vieux Farka Touré and Khaira Arby. The album that resulted from this remarkable intersection of worlds is called The House of Friendly Ghosts, released in March 2011. The Sway Machinery’s members include Lockwood (on guitar and vocals) who has performed with Balkan Beat Box at all three of their Chutzpah! concerts, Stuart Bogie (tenor saxophone, Antibalas), Jordan McLean (trumpet, Antibalas), John Bollinger (drums, Barbez) and Colin Stetson (bass saxophone, Arcade Fire & Tom Waits). “Sway Machinery [is] inspired as much by the entrancing guitar scorch of desert blues Tinariwen as the historic Chazzanuth recordings of majestic bass-baritone belting Cantor Zawel Kwartin from the 20s”. Perlich Post
— Idan Raichel and Vieux Farka Touré Quartet Vancouver Premiere Malian guitar master meets Israeli superstar! Pianist/composer Idan Raichel and guitarist/songwriter Vieux Farka Touré are two virtuosic artists from very different musical traditions: one hailing from Israel and the other from Mali. These music maestros have, however, found common and very fertile music ground upon which to create some of the world's most sublime and transcendent music. Vieux Farka Touré is a virtuosic guitarist hailing from Mali. His 2010 World Cup performance before a billion people in Johannesburg, South Africa propelled Touré to become one of the most celebrated African guitarists in history. With international acclaim still pouring in from his second full-length album, Fondo, Touré has not only distinguished himself from his famous bluesman father, Malian legend Ali Farka Touré, but begun to transcend the limitations of the world music genre itself. Dubbed "The Hendrix of the Sahara," Touré released his latest album in spring 2011. The Secret includes collaborations with Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield and Ivan Neville. Idan Raichel is credited with changing the face of Israeli popular music with his pioneering blend of Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms, Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Caribbean rhythms and sophisticated production. He garnered international acclaim when his debut album The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli music scene in 2002. Both his spectacular live show and ground-breaking recordings firmly establish Raichel as a new type of world pop star. After a fortuitous meeting in Spain, Raichel and Touré forged a deep friendship. The two musicians arranged a single recording session at a Tel Aviv studio that resulted in a brilliant collection of improvised, acoustic recordings. The Idan Raichel and Vieux Farka Touré Quartet was born. The quartet also includes bassist Amit Carmeli and Malian percussionist Souleymane ‘Souley' Kané, who was drafted as a young man into L'Orchestre de Niafunke, quickly rising to the role of featured djembe and calabash player. With a much-anticipated album due out in February 2012, the Chutzpah! Festival is amongst the lucky stops on this powerhouse group’s April CD release tour. “Idan Raichel makes music that is an ambitious celebration of multicultural diversity…an ambient journey that thrillingly bridges the traditional and the modern.” The Times (London) “Malian singer-guitarist Vieux Farka Touré plays desert blues with a personal charisma and technical finesse that have led some reviewers to dub him the North African Jimi Hendrix.” The LA Times
TICKETS Tickets will also be available in-person starting January 9, 2012 at the Chutzpah! Box office at the JCCGV: Tickets for Hadag Nahash can be purchased only through Ticketmaster 1.855.985.5000 / ticketmaster.ca Single tickets are available for all shows or you can purchase Chutzi Packs and see 4 different shows of your choice for just $72 (not valid for music productions Idan Raichel and Vieux Farka Toure Quartet & off-site productions at the Commodore and Electric Owl, with the exception of the River Rock Theatre & Firehall). Student tickets prices available only with valid ID. Ticket prices do not include HST or service charges. |
