The Last Horrah

Join us for a summer-ending, family-friendly community celebration outdoors at Sherman Campus in North York. Presented in partnership with Prosserman JCC, The Last Horrah includes food, crafts and family-friendly activities, along with multiple musical performances and the world-renowned Ashkenaz Parade. Bring your instruments and play along, all are welcome to participate! Click HERE to access resources to learn the Parade music and participate in the jam session. Passes are only $8 a person or $25 for families up to 5 members. End your family’s summer with a community celebration rooted in cultural sounds, flavours and tradition!

Click HERE to register for the event. Note that there will be some seating provided for the musical performances, but attendees are also permitted and encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets to sit on the grass. There will be food and drink for purchase at the event.

Event opens at noon with music beginning at 1pm.

1pm – Ariane Morin and Yoni Kaston

Saxophonist Ariane Morin and accordionist Yoni Kaston are among the most active musicians in Montreal’s thriving world music scene. As a duo and individually, their eclectic palette encompasses Klezmer, Yiddish tango, Balkan and Turkish music. They have each studied with many renowned teachers, and have performed at numerous festivals and concert venues across North America and Europe, with their own ensembles and as guest artists with various groups and outstanding musicians.

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2pm – Adrian Gross & KlezGrass

Adrian Gross & KlezGrass are four of Toronto’s most sought-after roots musicians, playing a special high-energy set of classic bluegrass songs and Klezmer tunes. Blurring the lines of rugged string-band traditions from Appalachia to Bessarabia, this band tackles the Klezmer and bluegrass songbooks with chutzpah to spare. Featuring Adrian Gross on mandolin (of The Slocan Ramblers), James McEleney on bass, Adam Shier on guitar (both of The Tone Rangers), and John Showman on fiddle (of Lonesome Ace Stringband)

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3pm – Ashkenaz Parade

One of the signature events of the Ashkenaz Festival since its inception in 1995, the Ashkenaz parade is a joyous precession of klezmer music and giant puppets. Third Wheel Theatre Company will animate and direct the procession, joined by musicians from the Toronto Klezmer Society. Musicians and community members of all ages, abilities and background are invited to participate in this massive work of community art. If you‘d like to play along with the band, contact Toronto Klezmer Society for resources, or just show up and wing it! 

4pm – Yosl and the Yingels

Yosl and the Yingels are a Yiddish swing and folk band who fuse together classic Jewish European folk songs with Yiddish big band and theatre music. Formed in the summer of 2021 as a pandemic busking project, their repertoire spans across the wide Ashkenazi Diaspora, with music originating from America to Turkiye. The band is the project of lead singer and accordionist Joseph ‘Yosl’ Landau, who is one of the only Canadian writers of Yiddish music in the ‘fray veld’ today.

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