Discover a rare treasure trove of previously unknown Ashkenazic musical heritage in this very special concert featuring accordionist Christina Crowder, joined by violinist Keryn Kleiman and tsimbler Daniel Kunda Thagard. The musicians will perform repertoire from a unique corpus of musical manuscripts unearthed from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in 2017. Over the last few years, volunteers around the world have worked together to digitally notate and translate these manuscripts as part of the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP). This international project has connected participants with the work of important klezmer musicians from late-19th and early-20th centuries, allowing this rare repertoire to be brought back to life. The project and this concert also explores legendary ethnographer S. An-ski’s radical vision that the folklore of the Jewish people is an oral Torah as important as the Talmud of the sages. An-ski hoped that the Jewish people would become Zamlers (collectors) who would continue to engage with Ashkenazic folklore as a living, breathing legacy. This concert, and the preceding lecture (7pm), bring that bold vision to life.

Presented as part of “Ignite,” a community celebration of Hanukah featuring a choose-your-own-adventure menu of arts-based workshops, performances and study sessions curated by a dozen different organizations.