Tom Tom Founders Festival

Music:

Presented by te U.Va. McIntire Department of Music

Under the direction of Director of Music Performance and acclaimed clarinetist and ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin, the U.VA. KLEZMER ENSEMBLE focuses on the music of the klezmorim, the Jewish professional instrumentalists of Eastern Europe. Now in its seventh year, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble has rapidly become a vital part of the musical community of Virginia.

Klezmer was brought to North America by immigrants around the turn of the last century. Since the 1970's, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place in America and beyond. Klezmer's recent popularity has brought it far from its roots in medieval minstrelsy and Jewish ritual and into the sphere of mainstream culture.