Yiddish Song Brushstrokes. Online. 4
2025-11-26 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Yiddish Song Brushstrokes.
A mini course (five sessions) for The Workers Circle.
BOOK HERE

Wednesday 1:30 – 3:00 PM ET: Oct. 29, Nov. 12, 19, 26, Dec. 3

This class invites you to sing Yiddish songs that paint vivid pictures—like the graceful flight of the Golden Peacock, the twinkling stars above, the lush green gardens of our childhood days. Picture the cozy shtetl streets, with their charming, weathered houses, all woven into the fabric of these melodies.
This course is a warm invitation to share in the joy of these timeless tunes. We’ll chat about the different styles and colors of the music, and most importantly, we’ll sing together, letting the spirit of the songs fill the air.
All are welcome to join. We will learn both by ear and with sheet music, discuss style, theory and history of the songs and sing, sing, sing…

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Yuletide concert. Slavic Voices. Lewes, UK
2025-11-29 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Church of St John sub Castr, Abinger Place, Lewes, BN7 2QA, United Kingdom
Join us for a captivating Yuletide concert by Slavic Voices London & Brighton choir presenting rich musical traditions of the Slavic world in a festive programme.
BOOK HERE
Hear Orthodox chants, iconic classics by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schnittke, refined Art songs and gritty folklore from the far corners of Siberia to the banks of the Black Sea. The choir’s repertoire is sung mainly in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belorussian, sometimes even Yiddish or Romanian.
Slavic Voices perform in a way that is rarely encountered in the choral world. There is freedom and spontaneity in their approach to folklore as well as precision and deep focus in their classical repertoire, performed with great attention to cultural context, history and style.
The choir opened in September 2023 and now has around 90 singers coming from many cultural backgrounds. They have performed joint concerts with a Macedonian Folk Duo Filip Arilon and Stojan Stojanov (Macedonia), Maspindzeli Georgian choir (London), Heartwood Chorus in Bristol, Bulgarian dance group Vezanitsa (Brighton) and even collaborated with a UK Klezmer-Punk Carnival Chaos Band Buffo’s Wake. The non-auditioned choir warmly welcomes new singers and aims to share their music through concerts across England, with their most recent performance held at the iconic St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol.
Led by Polina Skovoroda-Shepherd, granddaughter of a Cossack, an internationally acclaimed performer, educator and cultural activist.
Organised by Lewes Live Literature, www.leweslivelit.co.uk. LLL is a promoter of art and literature events, running spring and autumn seasons and one-off events, with a reputation for inventive, eclectic programming.
This Yuletide concert in Lewes promises to be an enchanting evening, celebrating the essence of Slavic culture through music that transcends borders.
“A mesmerising sonic journey through Eastern Europe’s rich musical heritage, the concert was a vibrant blend of heart-warming, uplifting, and classical tunes. Every singer poured their soul into the performance, creating an unforgettable experience. At the heart of it all, Polina’s brilliance and passion drive this exceptional ensemble, turning music into pure joy for both performers and audience alike.” – G.S, audience member in Brighton, March 2025.
“In the current geo-political climate, culture and humanity are more important than ever, and these are qualities close to the heart of Polina Shepherd…I highly recommend the choir to anyone with the slightest interest in music.” – DG, audience member in London, February 2025
“I was totally captivated by the harmonies and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I was particularly taken with Polina’s style of conducting which I felt drew the audience deeper into the music. An absolute pleasure to listen to.” – L.R, audience member in Brighton, March 2025.
“‘A beautiful mix of voices, uplifting harmonies and moving Slavic melancholy.” – audience member in London, February 2025.
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Yiddish Song Brushstrokes. Online. 5
2025-12-03 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Online

Christmas concert with Söngfjelagið. Reykjavik. Iceland.
2025-12-06 - 2025-12-07 | Langholtskirkja, Sólheimum 13-15, Reykjavik, 104, Iceland
For the forth time Polina will be working with a Reykjavik choir Söngfjelagið .
BOOK HERE

Read more here – in Icelandic.
Söngfjelagið is a mixed choir that was founded in the fall of 2011 and has long been known in the musical scene of the capital of Iceland. Regular items on the choir’s program are the annual Advent concert, where a new work written especially for the choir is always premiered, and the summer celebration in Iðnó on the last day of winter. In between, the choir performs jazz, klezmer, folk songs and whatever the spirit inspires the choir. However, one thing can always be said for sure; the joy of singing is paramount.
The choir was formed due to the group’s interest in performing high-quality choral music under the direction of Hilmar Arnar Agnarsson, who is among the most experienced and leading choir directors in the country and has received international attention and recognition with the Southern Iceland Chamber Choir.
Icelandic info:
Jólatónleikar Söngfjelagsins eru fyrir löngu orðnir fastur liður hjá fjölmörgum á aðventunni. Hilmar Örn Agnarsson er stofnandi og stjórnandi kórsins frá upphafi en tónleikarnir í ár verða sérstakir að því leyti að þeir verða kveðjutónleikar hans með Söngfjelaginu. Að þessu tilefni flytur kórinn úrval af jólalögum Söngfjelagsins, en það eru lög og verk sem samin hafa verið sérstaklega fyrir kórinn af ýmsum tónskáldum og textahöfundum, eitt á ári hverju allt frá stofnun hans haustið 2011. Flutt verða m.a. verk eftir Hjörleif Hjartarson, Daníel Þorsteinsson, Úlfar Inga Haraldsson, Olgu Guðrúnu Árnadóttur, Georg Kára Hilmarsson og Hróðmar Sigurbjörnsson.
Í ár verður frumflutt Jólalag Söngfjelagsins 2025, Stundvísu jól, eftir Karl Ágúst Úlfsson, sem er meðlimur í Söngfjelaginu. Sérlegur útsetjari Söngfjelagsins í gegnum tíðina er Haraldur V. Sveinbjörnsson. Með kórnum leikur hljómsveit Kjartans Valdemarssonar ásamt strengjasveit Hjörleifs Valssonar.
Sérstakir gestir verða Björg Þórhallsdóttir og Pálmi Gunnarsson ásamt hinni heimsþekktu Polinu Shepherd, þjóðlaga- og Klezmersöngkonu.
Sem fyrr munu gleði, kærleikur og friður svífa yfir vötnum á þessari uppskeruhátíð Söngfjelagsins og kórstjórans, sem líta yfir farinn veg og fagna frjóu og góðu samstarfi.
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Slavic Voices at King's College Chapel, London.
2025-12-10 19:00 - 21:30 UTC | King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
Pre-Christmas concert at King’s College London Chapel
BOOK HERE
Join us on the journey to explore and share the culturally unique and musically diverse repertoire of the wide Slavic world and beyond: Orthodox chants, beautiful classics by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schnittke and others, refined XVIII-XIX centuries Art songs and gritty folklore from the far corners of Siberia to the banks of the Black Sea.
The repertoire of Slavic Voices London & Brighton choir is sung in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belorussian, sometimes even Yiddish or Romanian. Slavic Voices perform in a way that is rarely encountered in the choral world. There is freedom and spontaneity in their approach to folklore as well as precision and deep focus in their classical repertoire, presented with great attention to cultural context, history and style.
The choir opened in September 2023 and now has around 90 singers coming from many cultural backgrounds. They have performed joint concerts with a Macedonian Folk Duo Filip Arilon and Stojan Stojanov (Macedonia), Maspindzeli Georgian choir (London), Heartwood Chorus in Bristol, Bulgarian dance group Vezanitsa (Brighton) and even collaborated with a UK Klezmer-Punk Carnival Chaos Band Buffo’s Wake.
The non-auditioned choir warmly welcomes new singers and aims to share their music through concerts across England, with their most recent performance held at the iconic St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. Led by Polina Skovoroda-Shepherd, granddaughter of a Cossack, an internationally acclaimed performer, educator and cultural activist.
This pre-Christmas concert in London promises to be an enchanting evening, celebrating the essence of Slavic culture through music that transcends borders.

– A mesmerising sonic journey through Eastern Europe’s rich musical heritage, the concert was a vibrant blend of heart-warming, uplifting, and classical tunes. Every singer poured their soul into the performance, creating an unforgettable experience. At the heart of it all, Polina’s brilliance and passion drive this exceptional ensemble, turning music into pure joy for both performers and audience alike.
G.S, audience member in Brighton, March 2025.

– In the current geo-political climate, culture and humanity are more important than ever, and these are qualities close to the heart of Polina Shepherd…I highly recommend the choir to anyone with the slightest interest in music.
DG, audience member in London, February 2025

– I was totally captivated by the harmonies and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I was particularly taken with Polina’s style of conducting which I felt drew the audience deeper into the music. An absolute pleasure to listen to.”
L.R, audience member in Brighton, March 2025.

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More information about Slavic Voices here.

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The Stranniki in Wheeling (Chicago), USA
2026-01-18 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | KRUG, 1400 S Wolf Rd Ste 100, Wheeling, IL, 60090
BOOK HERE
The Stranniki is a collaborative project by Psoy Korolenko and Polina Shepherd, two multilingual, cross-genre artists and authors, prominent in the Yiddish music scene for over two decades. Following their initial mini-tour and presentation at the Mediating a New Cold War in the Digital Age conference at Dartmouth College in 2015, the duo embarked on a US tour in 2016, which was succeeded by more international concerts in 2018, including the JetLAG Festival, featuring the program Schlepping the Steppes and the Shtetl. Central to this repertoire is the concept of the ‘strannik’ (wanderer; literally ‘wandering stranger, strange-nik’), roughly translatable into Yiddish as ‘navenadnik’ (vagabond), and the associated archetype of ‘doroga’ (Russian for road, path). The Stranniki draw upon, feature, and/or fuse elements of poetry and songs from Yiddish and Russian literature, folklore and popular culture of 19 and 20 centuries, organically weaving in their own original material. Their first mutual album unveils a distinctive continuity of texts, melodies, paths and destinies, inspiring and informing in the peculiar 2020s as much as it ever has—if not more so.
PSOY KOROLENKO (vocals & some piano): Pavel Lion, a.k.a. Psoy Korolenko, is a Moscow based singer/songwriter, translator, scholar and journalist. Picture a jetlagged Allen Ginsberg hopped up on a double espresso: a polyglot people-pleaser, a born performer, a half-serious shaman…. a practitioner of what he calls “spell art,” which is to say art that casts a spell on its befuddled, bemused, blissed-out audience. (“Forward”). He has been referred to as a ”wandering scholar” and an ”avant-bard”. His multilingual one-person cabaret-esque show balances folk and klezmer music, free-style poetry and intellectual comedy. Psoy writes and sings in English, Russian, Yiddish, and French. On stage since 2000, he has published one book of selected essays and song lyrics ”The Hit Of The Century”, and 14 CDs – some of them in collaboration with active Jewish and Klezmer musicians (“Opa!”, Daniel Kahn, Igor Krutogolov, “Oy Division”). Psoy is a member of the organizing committee for a Russian American music festival JetLAG, a guest of many klezmer music festivals, and an ex-artist in residence at the Trinity College (Hartford), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). An author of insightful and sophisticated Russian sung poetry, Psoy is also known for his keen and explorative vision of the art of translation, “tradaptation” and what he calls Spell-Art (i.e. playing with foreign text, emphasizing linguistic distances, multilingual songs etc).

POLINA SHEPHERD (vocals, piano): “The Robert Plant of klezmer” (Seth Rogovoy, The Essential Klezmer), performs an explosive mixture of songs of the Steppes and the Shtetl spiced up by Tatar Bazaars and washed down with an Odessa fisherman’s tune: Russian and Yiddish, folklore and fakelore, the powerful and the profound.
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The Stranniki in Portland, OR
2026-01-23 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Denver) | Eastside Jewish Commons, 2420 NE Sandy Blv, Portland, 97232, United States
BOOK HERE
The Stranniki (The Wanderers) is a collaboration between Polina Shepherd and Psoy Korolenko, renowned multilingual artists in the Yiddish music scene for over two decades. Together, they have toured the U.S. and internationally, performing programs such as “Schlepping the Steppes and the Shtetl.” Their work centers on the themes of the wanderer and the road as a path, blending Yiddish and Russian poetry, folklore, and music from the 19th and 20th centuries with their own compositions. The project reveals a unique continuity of texts, melodies, roads, and destinies—still inspiring and meaningful today, perhaps more than ever.
All Ages $25 Adv/$30 Door
Polina Shepherd, a Siberia-born, UK-based composer and singer, specializes in Yiddish and Russian music, blending East European Jewish, Slavic, and Turkic influences. She has collaborated with artists such as Merlin Shepherd, Lorin Sklamberg, and Psoy Korolenko. During the pandemic, she launched the online project Yiddish Song: Step Forverts, featuring Yiddishists from around the world, and co-produced the CD Undzer Yiddishkayt, showcasing new songs by Eurasian artists. Her work spans choral direction, improvisation, and theatre, promoting Jewish music globally.
Psoy Korolenko (Pavel Lion) is a multilingual singer-songwriter, translator, journalist, and scholar, and a Visiting Lecturer at Dartmouth College. A former artist-in-residence at several U.S. universities, he has released numerous albums and books. His eclectic style combines Soviet urban folk, Yiddish theater songs, French chanson, and more. A Recording Academy voting member, he co-organizes the JetLAG Festival in New York and co-created the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory, reviving WWII-era Yiddish songs from Ukraine in collaboration with historian Anna Shternshis.

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Icelandic Choir of London and Slavic Voices in Brighton
2026-02-28 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | St Luke’s Church Brighton, Queens Park Rd, Brighton, East Sussex, Queens Park Rd, BrighBN2 9ZB, United Kingdom
Welcome Spring with The Icelandic Choir of London and Slavic Voices
BOOK HERE
Slavic Voices Brighton and London choir will perform a joint concert with the Icelandic Choir of London at St. Luke’s Church. Doors: 2.00pm, concert – 2.30 – 4.30pm.

Songs from thousands of miles away will be brought to your doorstep by two British choirs – The Icelandic Choir of London and Slavic Voices (Brighton and London). Experience compelling and complex repertoire from several musical cultures and styles to welcome this year’s sunshine.
The Icelandic Choir of London (Íslenski Kórinn í London), founded in 1984, performs a varied Nordic programme and travels regularly. The group’s main focus is to perform Icelandic choral music but it also performs folk music, pop music arrangements and other Nordic choral repertoire. The choir has travelled to and performed in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and The Netherlands, as well as London, Manchester, Brighton and Hull. Collaborators include the Reykjavik Chamber Choir, London Nordic Choir, the German Choir of London, Cecil Sharp House Choir, Southbank Centre London, other Icelandic choirs from across Northern Europe and many more. Since 2012 the choir has been directed by Helgi R. Ingvarsson, Icelandic-British composer, teacher and lecturer.
Slavic Voices London & Brighton choir perform in a way that is rarely encountered in the choral world. There is freedom and spontaneity in their approach to folklore as well as precision and deep focus in their classical repertoire, presented with great attention to cultural context, history and style. The choir presents music of all styles from the Slavic world: Orthodox chants, beautiful classics by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and others, refined XVIII-XIX-centuries Art songs and gritty folklore from the far corners of Siberia to the banks of the Black Sea. The repertoire is sung mainly in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belorussian, sometimes even Georgian or Romanian. The choir is led by Polina Skovoroda-Shepherd, granddaughter of a Cossack, an internationally acclaimed performer, educator and cultural activist. It was founded in September 2023 and now has around 90 singers with all kinds of backgrounds. SV have performed joint concerts with a Macedonian Folk Duo Filip Arilon and Stojan Stojanov (Macedonia), Maspindzeli Georgian choir (London), Heartwood Chorus in Bristol, Bulgarian dance group Vezanitsa (Brighton) and even collaborated with Buffo’s Wake – a UK Klezmer-Punk Carnival Chaos Band.

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WeltMusik Chorwoche. Germany.
2026-03-06 08:00 - 2026-03-14 17:00 UTC
A residential week of singing and community fun in a rural place in Germany not far from Hamburg with WeltMusik Choir led by Nathaniel Damon and Polina Shepherd.
More information and booking link coming in Autumn 2025. See our 2025 event information here.
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KlezNorth. Youlgrave, Derbyshire, UK
2026-04-17 - 2026-04-19 | Youlgrave Village Hall, Holywell Lane, Youlgrave, Bakewell, DE45 1UT, United Kingdom
KlezNorth is an annual festival of Klezmer music, dance and song welcoming both Jewish and non-Jewish people to the wonderful world of Klezmer. KlezNorth is based in Derbyshire, but in this context, “North” regularly includes the Midlands, the Southwest, Wales and Scotland, the North East, East Anglia, and, dare we say, London and the South East. We have a few overseas participants as well.
Read more and book here.
Led by brass player Frank London, all the way from the USA, and singer Polina Shepherd we have Gica Loening on fiddle, Avia Moore teaching dance, Sanne Möricke on accordion and the always amazing Michael Alpert.
The full range of workshops and workshop leaders in 2026 will be announced as the programme is finalised.
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