23 January 2020: POLIN Vol. 32: ‘Jewish Musicians and Jewish Music-Making in Polish Lands’

Thursday 23rd January 2020

A One-day Conference to Launch Polin: Studies in Polish-Jewry Vol. 32:

Jewish Musicians and Jewish Music-Making in the Polish Lands

 

 

Organized by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and the Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL.
Co-organized and supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, and the Polish Cultural Institute, London, with the support of Ślipaczek Chartered Financial Planners

 

The astounding variety of music of all genres and styles produced by musicians of Jewish heritage in Europe since 1750 has been examined almost entirely in the context of German-speaking Europe, usually in reference to the infamous Wagnerian polemic and its many echoes, or as an aspect of so-called Jewish Public Culture or Jewish Popular Culture, or in very narrow studies of a group of composers who strongly self-identified as Jews.

In five thematic sections, this pioneering multi-disciplinary volume presents rich coverage of the main genres produced by musicians of Jewish origin in the Polish lands.

Conference presentations from contributors to the volume include: Popular music in the interwar period: Polish, Jewish, shared; The Jews in the Band: Anders Army’s Special Troupes; Gimpel’s Theatre, Lemberg: The sounds of a popular Yiddish theatre preserved on gramophone records 1904 – 1910; Klezmer for all occasions. The consumption of ‘Jewish music’ in contemporary Poland.

And there will be music! The conference includes a recital of cantorial music by Cantor Benjamin Matis, spiritual leader of the Agudath Achim Congregation, Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA, and concludes with a concert of Polish-Jewish songs from the interwar period, by Katy Carr, an award winning British recording artist who has made a career performing Polish popular songs from the interwar period and from World War II.

POLIN Vol. 32’ is published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization/Liverpool University Press.

Volume Editors: François Guesnet, Benjamin Matis, and Antony Polonsky.

It will be available to purchase at the conference at a 25% discount.

Conference tickets: £15/10 concessions + booking fee. Includes tea-coffee and a kosher lunch.

Full programme details (download)

Registration is essential.
Registration, full programme and tickets at https://jewishmusicians.eventbrite.co.uk

Venue: Embassy of the Republic of Poland

            47 Portland Place, London W1B 1JH