Last year, the artistic director of Caravan Orchestra and Choir, Polina Shepherd, introduced her new musical setting of Meyer Kharats’ Yiddish poem Mir farshidene, mir nemen zikh arum (We, who are different, embrace each other).

There could hardly be a more fitting motto for Caravan Orchestra & Choir. Recipient of the Shimon Peres Prize in 2018, it brings together young musicians with very different backgrounds from Germany and Israel for three weeks, during which they discover and come to value their many differences, as well as what they have in common.

Guided by internationally renowned musicians, the Caravan Orchestra & Choir dives into a centuries-old exchange among diverse musical cultures, including Yiddish, Sephardic, Arabic, Ottoman and Greco-Turkish instrumental and vocal music. Over three weeks of rehearsing and traveling together, the young musicians come to recognize these great traditions as a shared heritage and a living source of new musical creativity. 

• Concerts:
  14 August Gugend- und Kulturzentrum Mon Ami. Weimar. Book here.
  15 August – Eisenach, Wandelhalle. Book here.
  16 August – Erfurt, Zughafen. „Mir farshidene, mir nemen zikh arum” concert. Book here.
  17 August – Weimar. Marktplatz (part of a bigger programme): 25 Years Yiddish Summer Weimar celebration. Book here.

The Caravan Orchestra was founded in the summer of 2017, as an exchange project between Yiddish Summer Weimar (Germany) and the Department of Music of the University of Haifa (Israel), in cooperation with the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar (Germany).

Related Images: