Klezmer Starts Here

Benefit for Amara with Seattle Fiddlesticks and the Music of Herman S. Shapiro
5/17/26 at 7:30pm (at Royal Room, 5000 Rainier S www.theroyalroomseattle.com)
Klein Party, https://thestranger.boldtypetickets.com/events/183437520/klezmer-starts-here
 
The Klein Party has been providing Yiddish music concerts at the Royal Room for the past few years. This series is coming to a head with a special concert featuring the music of Herman S. Shapiro on Sunday May 17 at 7:30 pm.
 
A search for rarely played early 20th century music for The Klein Party led to three scores at the Library of Congress. Copyrighted between 1902 and 1906 in the United States, they were the compositions of one Herman S. Shapiro. All three, but particularly The European Jewish Wedding, were clearly derived from the music we call klezmer.
 
The European Jewish Wedding combines traditional tunes and original composition to evoke a Jewish marriage celebration in “the Old Country.” It may be the earliest published record of klezmer music, predating the famous Kostakowsky International Hebrew Wedding Music by a decade and a half. This suite of 17 short pieces was performed at least once by Shapiro and a “small, non-descript orchestra” in Louisville, Kentucky in 1899.
 
The Louisville Courier Journal described it as “genuine Hebrew music...of more than ordinary interest,” and that “The whole tragedy of Israel found utterance in the eloquence of music, every feast of gladness, every day of sorrow and oppression... Not a man who sat down in that gathering and who heard the plaintive cry of his own people in distress but who felt a sympathetic in response in his own heart.” So far known, it has not been performed in its entirety since then.
 
The concert includes two other Shapiro pieces. Kisheneff Massacre is a powerful “programmatic” piece that commemorates a notorious 1903 pogrom in the Russian Empire (in what is now Moldova). Dr. Herzl Elegy was written on the death of the Hungarian Jewish journalist who articulated and laid the groundwork for what turned into modern Zionism.
 
These pieces have survived only as piano reduction scores. Laurie Andres (who plays with Kesselgarden and Tzepl) and Mark Lutwak, organizer of the Klein Group, have arranged them for an ensemble that includes Carl Shutoff (clarinet), Sabrina Pope (clarinet), Marc Gavin (violin), Duncan Weiner (trombone), Aaron Harmonson (contrabass), Laurie and Mark will also share accordion and piano duties.
 
Seattle Fiddlesticks will open the show. They’re an ensemble of young, talented string players led by Shulamit Kleinerman.  Founded and directed in 2022, Fiddlesticks has performed with Scottish fiddle champion Brandon Vance and klezmer violin master Steven Greenman. They will be joined by guest soloists Mae Kessler (violin) and Nick Chrisman (cello).
 
All proceeds from this concert go to Amara, “an open and affirming nonprofit working to improve the well-being of kids and families experiencing, or at risk of entering, the foster care system.”
 
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