Caravan Orchestra and Choir. Weimar, Germany
2024-07-26 - 2024-08-07 | MN
26 July – 11 August. (7-11 August will be concerts.)
Weimar. Part of Yiddish Summer Weimar.
PROJECT WEB SITE
Caravan is now in its 7th year in bringing together young musicians from different traditions and backgrounds with the common goal of the exploration of East European Jewish, East Mediterranean and Middle Eastern music traditions. Every year, we build a learning community that relies on curiosity, transcultural experience and a general understanding of friendship and partnership. All instrumentalists and singers who live in Germany or Israel (independently of your nationality) are invited to apply.
What to expect from your participation in Caravan? In the summer of 2024, we will look at the connection between Yiddish (East-European Jewish) music and musics that derive from the Ottoman heritage of Greece and Turkey. We have found a wonderful shared repertoire (instrumental melodies, songs, dances) of these traditions and will study their common heritage and their own musical live in different cultures in Europe and Asia minor. We will learn a lot of music by ear and improvisation will play a major role in our music making. The faculty consists of renowned practitioners of Yiddish, Turkish, Greek and Ottoman traditions with decades of teaching expertise in projects like Caravan.
Concerts

Saturday, August 3d, 2024 Germany, Essen, Alte Synagoge Essen, Edmund-Körner-Platz 1, 45127 Essen, time TBA
Thursday, August 8th, 2024 Germany, Leipzig, Marktplatz, Leipziger Markt Musik, 8 PM, free admission
Friday, August 9th, 2024 Germany, Eisenach, Wandelhalle, 8 PM, ticket link
Saturday, August 10th, 2024 Germany, Weimar, Herderplatz, 6:30 PM (with many other bands), ticket link
Sunday, August 11th, 2024 Germany, Erfurt, Western fassade of the „Alte Synagoge,“ 7 PM (with other bands) free admission

Read more here
Part of Yiddish Summer Weimar.
The 2024 Caravan Orchestra and Choir will take place from July 26 in the morning to August 11 in the evening (beginning date is approximate, end date is definite; stay tuned for updates). We will spend the entire time together in Weimar during Yiddish Summer Weimar.
While we will sing in many languages, English will be the main language of communication.
We will ask a 200 EUR fee for participation in Caravan Orchestra & Choir. In return, we will cover your travels, tuition with great teachers, some food, and we will – hopefully with your help – find accommodation for participants.
For participants living in Weimar: please get in touch if you can offer accommodation for fellow band members from Haifa or Germany. In these cases, we can waive the participation fee for you.
Polina Shepherd (Russia/UK; artistic director) leads choirs, collaborates with bands, orchestras, soloists, ensembles and performs internationally. Her compositions, including music for choirs, theatre, song settings for Yiddish poems are performed all over the world. She taught Caravan Choir in 2021 and was the artistic director for Caravan Orchestra & Choir in 2022 and 2023. She will again serve as artistic director of Caravan Orchestra & Choir in 2024.
Mehmet Ali Orman (TR; artistic co-director) was born in the small seaside town of Gemlik, Turkey. He grew up immersed in his own culture and with a strong interest in other cultures as well. He began dancing at the age of 7 and started playing clarinet at the age of 15. He attended the İstanbul Technical University Turkish Folk Dance department to in order to make music and dance his profession. He has participated in folk dance and music festivals in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Japan, Lithuania, Denmark, France as both a dancer and a musician.

Zoë Aqua (USA; artistic co-director) is a violinist, educator and composer. She was awarded a Fulbright research grant for the 2021-’22 and 2022-’23 academic years to study Transylvanian folk music pedagogy in Cluj, Romania. In 2022, she released an album of original compositions recorded with Eastern European musicians entitled “In Vald Arayn” (Into the Forest). Zoë is a co-founder of klezmer bands Tsibele and Farnakht, and served as the full-time understudy for the Klezmatics’ Lisa Gutkin in the Broadway production of “Indecent”. An in-demand teacher known for her warm and accessible style, she holds two degrees in music education.

Eftychia Mitritsa (GR; artistic co-director) is a singer/songwriter who moves between the genres of traditional music, rebetiko and contemporary, greek, popular music. She has recorded three albums under her own name as well as participating in many different artists‘ recording projects. At the beginning of her career she studied with composer Nikos Mamagakis. Ever since, she has collaborated on stage with distinguished Greek singers, instrumentalists, and composers.
She studied classical piano, voice performance, advanced theory and harmony and holds a Master’ s degree in Musicology (National University of Athens). For the last 20 years, she has been teaching piano and singing at Secondary Music Schools and since 2021 she also teaches voice lessons to actors.

If you have any questions please get in touch with project managers Andreas or Anna:
andreas.schmitges@othermusicacademy.eu
or +49 177 6017686 (WhatsApp/Telegram)
anna.gruenhardt@othermusicacademy.eu
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