Polina will be taking part in Yiddish Summer Weimar Festival Week as a performer and composer presenting her specially commissioned by YSW compositions for Yiddish poems from 1920-1930.

In 2019 we recognize the 100th anniversary of the beginnings of the Weimar Republic. To celebrate the almost unimaginable outpouring of creative energy throughout Europe in that era, our special topic next year will be “The Weimar Republic of Yiddishland” – an encounter between the Weimar Republic and the politically virtual but culturally very real Republic of Yiddishland.

Thanks to a generous grant from the German Federal Cultural Foundation, we will draw on this extraordinarily creative phase in Yiddish cultural history to create an impressive array of brand-new projects with a superb roster of international artists.

31 July – Weimar, Germany
Pleytim tsuzamen (Refugees Together) – A new Joshua Waletzky Song Cycle. Concert. Sveta Kundish, Dan Kahn, Polina Shepherd, Efim Chorny, Sasha Lurje, and Waletzky himself, with instrumental accompaniment by Jake Shulman-Ment, Deborah Strauss, Ilya Shneyveys, Aleksey Rozov and others. More info here.

AUGUST
2 August – Weimar, Germany
Shaydveg (Crossroads). Crossing the frontier into Yiddish modernism then and now Crossing the frontier into Yiddish modernism then and now. An evening of new songs composed and performed by three of today’s most important Yiddish songwriters – Daniel Kahn, Polina Shepherd and Efim Chorny. Other Music Academy, Ernst-Kohl-Straße 23. More info

3 August – Erfurt, Germany
Shaydveg (Crossroads) performance in Erfurt. Naye Lider – An Evening of New Yiddish Song.8 p.m. @Rathausfestsaal. More information here.

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