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OZ Benefit Concert: Fun Yener Velt (From Another World): Jessica Kate Meyer, Hankus Netsky and Itay Dayan
May 16 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
We’re pleased to welcome our recent visiting clergy member Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer (vocals) and Boston-based musicians Hankus Netsky (piano) and Itay Dayan (clarinet). Their trio is called Fun Yener Velt” (“From Another World”).
Join us for a spirited performance to benefit OZ’s Full Circle Preschool.
Soulful Jewish melodies rescued from a Carpathian farming village
Joyfully raucous Klezmer and Yiddish theater tunes
and a few surprises…
Join us beforehand for a wine & cheese benefit art show reception at 6:30 pm.
More about the concert: The trio’s first set will feature a collection of Yiddish folk songs, theater tunes & spiritual nigunim (wordless melodies) that were brought to the Boston Area in 1967 by Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Morris Hollender, one of just a few surviving residents of a Carpathian village in Czechoslovakia. (Our evening’s pianist Netsky had the privilege of recording many of Hollender’s works.)
The second set will include a variety of songs and stories including music of Leonard Cohen and Thelonious Monk.
Event proceeds will benefit Full Circle Preschool.
About the Musicians
Jessica Kate Meyer is the Rosh Tefillah & Artist-in-Residence of Hebrew College, where she was ordained in 2014. Jessica is a prayer leader, storyteller, vocalist, and rabbi, who served as rabbi-hazzan at Romemu in NYC, and most recently, at The Kitchen in San Francisco. She has studied sacred Jewish music with masters from Ashkenazi and Mizrahi traditions and has performed as a vocalist with ensembles in the United States and Israel. In a previous life, Jessica appeared in film, theater, and television projects in Europe and the United States: most notably, as a principal role in the Oscar-winning film, The Pianist.
Hankus Netsky is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist. He is co-chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Musical Arts Department and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. He has composed extensively for film, theater, and television, collaborated closely with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Brustein, and produced numerous recordings, including 10 by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He received the Yosl Mlotek Award and a “Forward Fifty” award for his role in the resurgence of traditional Eastern European Jewish ethnic musical culture. He was also awarded a New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni award, along with the school’s Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Itay Dayan is an Israeli clarinetist currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. Itay played with various ensembles spanning different musical worlds, such as the Klezmer Conservatory band, Meitar Ensemble and the Israel Klezmer Orchestra. His most recent endeavor, Hoffman’s Farewell, is a new and unique klezmer album drawing inspiration from traditional and contemporary sources. Currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory, Itay won scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Ronen Foundation, Ima Foundation, and the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Foundation. Itay is also a recipient of the Siday Fellowship for Musical Creativity by the Jerusalem Institute of Contemporary Music.
About Morris Hollender
A survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, Morris Hollender came to the Boston area from Czechoslovakia in 1967. A child from a renowned musical family in the Munkacs/Beregsacz region, he learned nusach (musical style) and melodies from his Uncle Shloyme, Yiddish folk songs from his mother and extended family, and nigunim (wordless melodies) from his father and his Uncle Berl. Hollender’s role as Ba’al Tefile and Ba’al Koreh at Temple Beth Israel in Waltham, MA became the cornerstone of his musical legacy in the United States and across the world. His repertoire is a rare gift among the contemporary musicians, contributing to the international resurgence of Eastern European Jewish musical culture.
