PUTNEY, Vt. – Next Stage Arts is thrilled to present an extraordinary evening of klezmer and Yiddish music featuring Jake Shulman-Ment and Abigale Reisman: Two Strings, and Ira Temple & Michael Winograd, on Friday, April 17. Doors open at 6:45 p.m., with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are available discounted at www.nextstagearts.org.
This double bill brings together two of the most exciting ensembles in contemporary klezmer and Yiddish music. Each draws on a distinct branch of the klezmer tradition, one rooted in old-world European string band aesthetics, the other inspired by the clarinet-led sound of mid-20th-century New York. Together, they bridge eras of Ashkenazic musical history, offering a fresh and original soundtrack of the diaspora.
Violinists Jake Shulman-Ment and Abigale Reisman are celebrated as two of the most virtuosic klezmer musicians working today. Their collaboration, Two Strings, is a string band project that blends breathtaking technique, deep grounding in Yiddish and Eastern European traditions, and a fearless spirit of improvisation. With longtime collaborators Pete Rushefsky on tsimbl and Raffi Boden on cello, Two Strings weaves original compositions, newly set early-20th-century radical Yiddish poetry, and rediscovered works from forgotten manuscripts into music that is simultaneously haunting, ecstatic, and timeless.
Ira Temple and Michael Winograd are central figures in New York City’s vibrant klezmer scene. Accordionist and songwriter Temple is the founder of the radical Yiddish project Tsibele and a longtime director of the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee Purimshpil. His upcoming solo album, “Strange Tongue – Mistame-Loshn,” reimagines traditional Yiddish songs through queer and trans-inflected English-language expansions, bringing Yiddish culture alive in contemporary Brooklyn.
Clarinetist Winograd has performed with leading figures in Jewish music, including Itzhak Perlman, Frank London, and the Klezmatics, and brings klezmer to global audiences with his band The Honorable Metnshn. His upcoming release, “TANZ! Live in New York City,” recreates the iconic 1956 klezmer album “TANZ!,” celebrating the clarinet-led sound of midcentury klezmer masters.
This concert is presented with the generous support of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.