SPECIAL EVENTS

The Jewish Community Center is known for presenting many arts and culture events, many with long histories attached to them.

With the success of last year's Festival, the Jewish Community Center is pleased to present another series of lively concerts that are sure to entertain at their 3rd Annual Jewish Music Festival, February 8 through March 8.

The 3rd Annual Jewish Music Festival ushers in Jewish Music Month with A Book and Music Afternoon with Yale Strom, the Sephardic music of Brio Ensemble, a book and music presentation by Roger Bennett and a performance by Grammy Award winners, the Klezmatics. 

Event Schedule:

A Book and Music Afternoon with Yale Strom
Sunday, February 8 • 4:00 p.m.
Kaplan Theatre - IW Marks Theatre Center

Yale Strom, an accomplished klezmer musician and ethnographer, will delight us with his newest children's book, The Wedding that Saved a Town. In this delightful story for children ages 5-8, Yiske and his band of klezmer musicians must find a groom to participate in a very unconventional wedding. Join Yiske and his clever horse Fairdy in this delightful tale presented with live klezmer music by Yale himself.

Also an accomplished photographer, Strom's photographic exhibit, Klezmorim: The Jewish and Roma Musicians of Eastern Europe,will be displayed at the Deuster Art Gallery from January 2 - February 13. Klezmorim documents the history and personalities of Klezmer musicians from Eastern Europe.

Tickets for a Book & Music Afternoon with Yale Strom
$8 JCC Member & Patrons of the Arts / $12 Public
$28 Family of Four Special Member Price / $44 Family of Four Public Price

To purchase tickets in advance, please call the Box Office at 713-551-7255 or you may purchase at the door. 

Let's Go Plant Today: Tu B'Shevat at the JCC
Following the Yale Strom Concert • JCC Lobby
After Yale Strom's book reading and performance, kids are invited to celebrate Tu B'Shevat with some planting, arts & crafts and kid-friendly Tu B'Shevat treats.

For more information, contact Jonathan Fass at 713-729-3200 ext. 3257.

Brio Ensemble
Saturday, February 21 • 8:00 p.m.
Kaplan Theatre - IW Marks Theatre Center

The music of Brio Ensemble is influenced by the exquisite melodies that have come down through oral tradition from the Sephardic Jewish culture of early Spain. This group enlivens the audience with particular sounds made by period instruments encompassing medieval, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

The 3rd Annual Jewish Music Festival begins on February 21 with Brio Ensemble, featuring music of the medieval, baroque and Renaissance periods. The acclaimed music group makes its Houston debut with the program, Romance.

The group features the singing of the young Brazilian countertenor, Jose Lemos and performs with period instruments reflecting the cultural sounds of the West and Near East.

Their colorful array of instruments includes rebec and viols played by Mary Anne Ballard. Recorders, krummhorn, gemshorn, and Renaissance and Baroque guitars played by Steve Rosenberg. Danny Mallon, percussionist extraordinaire, rounds out the quartet with a smorgasbord of Mediterranean hand drums, tambourines, wood block, castanets, and other exotic ideophones.

The Sephardic Jewish culture of early Spain might be considered a very early example of musical crossover. The Sephardic Jews who lived in Spain from Roman times until the expulsion of 1492 had their own culture but soaked up those of their surroundings wherever they were. Cultures from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East came into Spain and when the scattering of the Iberian Jews occurred, they mixed their musical culture with those of their new neighbors. One of their beloved forms was a type of ballad influenced by the early songs of the medieval troubadours. It was called the Romance, and this debut of the quartet known as Brio concentrates on their exquisite interpretations of this traditional Sephardic music. One hears the influence of Moorish musical practice and the melodic richness which will eventually evolve into Flamenco.

$18 JCC Member & Patrons of the Arts / $25 Public
$15 Senior Adult and Student
Brio Ensemble concert is underwritten by the Maurice Amado Foundation.

Roger Bennett
Wednesday, March 4 • 8:00 p.m.
Kaplan Theatre - IW Marks Theatre Center

A Book Talk with Co-Author Roger Bennett On His New Book:  And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as
Told By the Records We Have Loved and Lost

The relationship between vinyl and American Jewish households begins with sacred songs and finishes as the folk movement in the early ‘70s begins to wane. Along the way there are the superstars who crossed over into mainstream pop culture - Barbara Streisand, Neil Sedaka, and Barry Manilow - and the ones who were stars of another caliber, from cantors singing Jewish songs and Christmas tunes, girl bands and Yiddish language records. There were the artists who saw an eager audience and crossed from the pop world into this specialized market - Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole and Eydie Gormé, born Edith Gormezano to Sephardic Spanish parents in the Bronx.

With great affection and a great deal of sly wit, the authors introduce not only some of the near-forgotten stars of the vinyl age and mine the impact these artists had on their listeners. And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl is a rich record of artists and an often-hilarious examination of how packaging and messaging strove to launch careers, sell records-and shape a new notion of Jewish life and its place in the American dream.

$6 JCC Member & Patrons of the Arts / $8 Public

The Klezmatics
Sunday, March 8 • 8:00 p.m.
Congregation Beth Yeshurun • 4525 Beechnut

Back in Houston for another night of music revelation are the Klezmatics (pictured), rocking the stage of the Kaplan Theatre. This group erupted out of New York City's East Village in 1986 and revitalized Klezmer for the new century. Their music is steeped in Eastern European Jewish tradition and spirituality, while incorporating contemporary themes such as human rights and anti-fundamentalism. Having eclectic musical influences including Arab, African, Latin and Balkan rhythms, jazz and punk, their music has been recorded into six albums in the course of nearly 20 years.

$18 JCC Member & Patrons of the Arts / $25 Public
$15 Senior Adult and Student