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Judy Kadar
Harpist. Specializes in the history of the harp. Judy Kadar was born in New York and attended the High School of Music and the Arts. She received the B.A. in Psychology and Music at New York University. She studied harp with Lucille Lawrence at the Mannes College of Music and the masters at Sarah Lawrence College. She has lived in Berlin, Germany since 1979. In 1984, she helped establish the Historical Harp Conference in conjunction with Amherst (MA) Early Music, serving as the first director. She's continued to be active in organizations for historical harp playing and plays harps from concert harps to Psalter to Spanish baroque harp. She plays music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as Yiddish and Jewish pieces. She also plays modern Jewish music. She has several CDs which contain Jewish music, including Jiddisches und Jüdisches with Elisabeth Neiman on Bestell-Nr.: Melisma 3051-2 label.
Hagar Kadima
Israeli composer who founded Israel Women Composers' Forum (2000). Faculty at Levinsky College in Tel Aviv, Israel. Born in 1957. Studied music in Israel and in the United States. She has written many works for female voice. For more information, view a brief biography and list of publications from the Israel Music Center.
http://www.geocities.com/israelcomposers/kadima_hagar.htm
Pola Kadison
American. 1920s-1981. Pianist, arranger, and composer. Papers held at YIVO in New York. Also toured in Yiddish theater, such as mentioned in the article: "The Yiddish Theater in Omaha, 1919-1969" by Leo Greenbaum and Oliver Pollak, in Studies in Jewish Civilization, 9.
Rachel Kam
Violist. Born in Haifa, Israel. Studied viola with Zvi Rotenberg and Oeden Partos. Master degree, University of California, San Diego, 1973. Joined San Diego Symphony and La Jolla Chamber Orchestra. Joined Israel Chamber Ensemble in 1975 and Israel Philharmonic, 1978. Member, Tel Aviv String Quartet and Israel Piano Trio. Teaches in the KeyNote program of Israel Philharmonic. Frequently appears in IPO ensembles.
Shira Kammen
American. Vielle player. Born in 1961, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Degree in music from UC Berkeley. Studied vielle with Margriet Tindemans. Member for many years of Ensemble Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, and has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, and the King s Noyse. She has performed and taught in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Morocco and Japan. Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several new groups, including the medieval ensemble Fortune s Wheel, the new music group Ephemeros, the world music cover band Panacea, and also Trouz Bras, a band devoted to the dance music of Celtic Brittany. She is also the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips, and has performed and taught on the Colorado and Rogue rivers.
http://www.shirakammen.com/index.html
Rebecca Kaplan
American. Boston-based Yiddish singer. CD with Pete Rushevsky "On the Paths: Yiddish Songs with Tsimbl". The "Isa Kremer of our time" Kaplan has an expressive voice and soulful singing style.
Photo credit: Bob Blacksberg
Rita Karin Karpinovitsh
Lithuanian singer from a well-known theater family in Europe. Recorded songs from the Vilna ghetto. Preserved and collected songs from the ghettos and the DP camps and after. Sang A Yidish Kind. If someone has information regarding this singer, please contact JMWC. Thanks.
Judith H. Karzen
American. Conductor. Singing coach. Pianist. Teacher. BM from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University. MA in Choral conducting from DePaul University. Studied at Anshe Emet synagogue with Hazzan Moses J. Silverman. 1962-1997, served as Director of Music at Temple Beth Israel. 1984 to present, Artistic Director/Administrator of halevi Choral Society, the only proefessional ensemble in US devoted exclusively to Jewish choral repertoire. Founding member of the Guild of Temple Musicians, serving as President. Founder of the Guild Newsletter and editor for 11 years. Wrote monthly column for American organist Magazine. Selected jewish Chicagoan of the Year, 1996. Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council, 1999. Taught Jewish music for board of Jewish Education Music Institute; lectured at DePaul and Northwestern University; presented numerous lectures, workshops and seminars. Presented special concerts honoring major Jewish and Israeli musicians.
Cantor Deborah Katchko (Gray)
American cantor. Currently serves Temple Shearith Israel, Ridgefield, CT. Newest CDs, are Jewish Soul and Sacred Spirit. Cantor Katchko states: "As a fourth generation cantor and the second female in a conservative pulpit (1981), I am passionate about sharing the love of Jewish music I grew up with. In l982 I founded the Women Cantors' Network to share that love with others- we have grown to over 300 members with annual conferences, newsletters, online discussions, and web site: www.womencantors.net. In addition, I credit my mentor, Prof. Elie Wiesel, for instilling in me a profound love of Jewish culture and sense of responsibility in sharing it. As a mother of four sons and full time cantor since l981, I have tried to instill a sense of Jewish pride and love of music in everything I do." Cantor Katchko has a discography which includes In Celebration of Israel Independence Day on cassette; Spirited and Soulful on cassette;
Jewish Soul, a CD(also available digitally online); and KinderSongs, a CD. Both CDs are available through Tara Music. She can be contacted through CantorDKG@aol.com
Ruth Katz
Israeli. Musicologist. Professor Emeritus of Musicology, The Hebrew University. Author with Dalia Cohen of Palestinian Arab Music: A Maqam Tradition in Practice. This project "presents the results of a major research effort to determine the parameters of the stylistic variability of Arab folk music in Israel." She is also author of The Lachmann Problem: An Unsung Chapter in Comparative Musicology and many other books and articles over a long career. She also completed, along with Carl Dahlhaus, a four volume series Contemplating Music: Source Readings in the Aesthetics of Music for Pendragon Press-- Vol. I: Substance (1987); Vol. II: Import (1989); Vol. III: Essence (1992) and Vol. IV: Community of Discourse (1994). "Her research interest include stylistic vs. paradigmatic change in the history of music; aesthetics of music and other arts; non-European musical traditions; musicological and ethno-musicological methods; theory and history of notation and music and cognition."
Joy Katzen-Guthrie
Singer. Tours widely. Website includes bio, recordings, merchandize and information about her tours.
http://www.joyfulnoise.net/JoyBio.html
Barbara Kaufman
aka Daniela Dor. Born in Hungary in 1912, Kaufman is a prolific songwriter.
Ruth Kaye
Musical theatrical actress and mezzo-soprano. Native of New Jersey. Tours widely in two one-woman shows "My Grandmother, My Mother and Me", which includes Jewish material, including Yiddish and Hebrew songs, and in "Broadway's Fabulous Females". She has often had roles in off-Broadway productions. Her website includes information about recent bookings and reviews.
http://www.ruthkaye.com./main2.html
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Professor of Judaic Studies and Performance Studies at New York University, Dr. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett researches performance practice and has published on klezmer music and other topics of Jewish culture, as well as general American culture, aesthetics of everyday life, cookery and performance, "ethnography, world's fairs, museum, theater and tourist productions." From 1988 to 1992, she was President of the American Folklore Society. In 2001, she was at University of Pennsylvania as a fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies. She wrote such books as: Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (1998) and Image Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland, 1864-1939 (1977) with Lucjan Dobroszycki.
Betty Klein
American-born, Israeli singer, guitarist, pianist harpist, accordionist and music therapist. She studied with Martha Schlamme at Mannes College, graduated with a BS from Boston University, MS from Columbia University and continued studies at Hunter College and Montclair State College. She performed throughout the New York area until moving to Israel. She participated in the Akko Music Festival, Folk Festival at Horshat Tal and the Llangollen Eisteddfod, Wales in 1990 where she won 2nd prize in the solo folk singing competition. Ms. Klein has appeared on the BBC, Belgian TV and radio programs and on Israeli TV and radio. Her Ladino and Yiddish concerts have been broadcast as well as recorded in albums. She has performed extensively in Europe in both Jewish and general venues, including festivals, universities, and the Vatican. She is well known also for her Ladino, and also performs as an accompanist to Shuly Nathan and with the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra. In 2003 she received the prize for music composition with the FestiLadino (International Ladino Song Festival). Klein has several recordings released of Yiddish, Ladino and Hebrew music. Contact information is email: betyk@012.net.il
Fran Kleiner
American. Yiddish singer and music teacher. Born, Brooklyn, NY. Fran studied at Hebrew School of the Hebrew Educational Society, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. She received a BA degree in Education and Psychology from Brooklyn College in June 1947, and a Masters in Social Work from Boston University in May l953. She married Robert Kleiner in 1948. Fran started teaching Yiddish songs in camp settings. In the early 1950s, she worked for a time at Camp Kingswood, but moved to the Philadelphia area in 1953. Fran has been singing Yiddish songs for young and old alike, and has spent over 30 years teaching Yiddish, Hebrew, Jewish and folk music to students in Philadelphia. Fran's website includes a bio, concert schedules and contact info.
http://www.franmusic.com/
Mathilda Koen-Sarano
Israeli folklorist and ethnomusicologist, teacher and preserver of Ladino language and culture.
Born, Milan, Italy, 1939 to a Sephardic family. Her mother Diana Hadjes and father Alfredo were from Aydin, Turkey. She studied at the Jewish Community School and the University in Milan. Married Aharon Cohen, now the Director General of The National Authority for Ladino and its Culture, in 1960. She received a B.A. in Italian Literature, Judeo-Spanish and Folklore in 1987 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1974-1994 made a living as a records specialist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. Since 1996 has been on the faculty of Ben Gurion University in the Negev as a Judeo-Spanish language instructor, and also teaches at Midreshet Amalia Jerusalem (since 1991). Since 1998 she has taught a course for Ladino Teachers, organized by The National Authority for Ladino and its Culture, in Jerusalem. Mathilda has been instrumental in bringing Ladino music and tales to wide audiences in Israel through radio, through appearances in concerts and events, and through the establishment of Ladino clubs. She writes for the Judeo-Spanish Review Aki Yerushalayim and Review Los Muestros in Brussels. In addition to many publications and recordings of folk tales,courses in Ladino language and a Ladino dictionary, Matilda has also published numerous Ladino anthologies of folk songs, including Vin kantaremos, (Collection of Judeo-Spanish traditional Songs) Koleksin de kantes djudeo-espanyoles, Edisin de la Autora, Yerushalyim, 1993; and CDs Matilda Koen-Sarano & Hayim Tsur, Nostalja, kantigas nuevas djudeo-espanyolas, (New Ladino Songs), Hataklit, Ramat-Gan, 1995 and Matilda Koen-Sarano & Hayim Tsur, Sefarads de dor en dor, (The Musical Comedy "Sepharadis from generation to generation - Judeo-Spanish Songs.) Musical Comedy in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish [Ladino] Songs), Hataklit, Ramat-Gan, 1999. Her latest publication of songs is due out 2005. For a more complete bibliography see: http://www.princeton.edu/~rsimon/koen.html
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/sarano.html
Kimberly Komrad
American Cantor. Vocal training in classical opera, University of Miami. Studied in Midreshet Yerushalayim in 1989. Master of Sacred Music and Diploma of Hazzan from the Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1994. Currently works in Kehilat Shalom, in Montgomery County, MD. First cantor in Conservative pulpit in Baltimore. Featured as one of twelve "leading cantors of our time" in Chicago in 1997 at the Cantors Assembly. Executive Council of the Cantors Assembly from 2000-2002. Chair of the Cantors Assembly Seaboard Region since 1995. Website and CDs of music: Voice of the Lioness and also now working with Hazzan Emanuel Perlman, of Chizuk Amuno Congregation, in Baltimore, MD, as "Manny and Kim" with first CD, "Love is All Around," released in 2002.
Mindy S. Kornberg
Born in Brooklyn, 1955, living in Jerusalem, Israel since 1978. Wrote the music and English lyrics for all the songs in the CD "Music from the Mountain: a Jewish Holiday Jam with the Soultune Singers". (2000) which utilizes sounds of American country, klezmer, jazz, reggae and other styles. Available at
www.cdbaby.com/soultune. 1st prize winner of the 5th AACI English Song Festival held in Jerusalem for her song "How do you get to Carnegie Hall (or who the heck is Gerard Bechar?)". She won 3rd prize for song "Echoes of Memories" which was performed by Judith Paul Litov and Rachel Jaskow at the 4th AACI Festival held in Beersheva. At the 2001 Voices (English poets in Israel) Song Competition her song "Daughter Voices" won first prize (accompanied by Rachel Jaskow, Judith
Litov and Naomi Attias). For more information, email:
kornberg@inter.net.il
Ellen Koskoff
Ethnomusicologist. Born 1943. Known for her studies of music in Hasidic life, spending some twenty years researching hasidic women and the role of music in their lives, as written in her book Music in Lubavitcher Life (2001). Professor of Ethnomusicology and Director, World Music Certificate and Ethnomusicology Diploma Program at Eastman School of Music the University of Rochester. BM, Boston University; MA, Columbia; PhD, University of Pittsburgh. Music in Lubavitcher Life, 2000, winner of ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music Scholarship 2001. Editor, Music Cultures in the United States, 2004. Ethnomusicology advisor for The New Amerigroves. General editor, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 3: United States and Canada. Editor and contributor, Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Publications in Ethnomusicology, Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Yearbook, Worlds of Music, and The Journal of Women and Music. Book review editor, Ethnomusicology (1983-86). President, Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) (2001-2003); Secretary, SEM (1990-); Council Member, SEM (1984-87, 99-); Chair, SEM Editorial Advisory Commitee (1998-); Local Arrangements Chair, SEM National Conference (Eastman, 1986), and Feminist Theory and Music II Conference (Eastman, 1993); program chair, SEM (1997). Director, Ethnomusicology Programs; University Diversity Officer; Director of the Eastman School's Balinese Gamelan Lila Muni (1992-). Radio host, What in the World is Music?, WXXI-FM (NPR). Visiting faculty, Syracuse University (1981-88), UCLA (1986), New York University (1988). Faculty, Eastman (1980-).
Miriam Kramer
Born in Connecticut. Violinist. Lives in Great Britain. Named United Kingdom's Jewish Performer of the Year 1995. Her grandfather was a Cantor and two of her uncles were concert violinists. Graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the Performers Certificate for Exceptional Young Artists. Studied violin with Charles Castleman and chamber music with Zvi Zeitlin. Studied with Yfrah Neaman on the Advanced Solo Studies Course at the Guildhall School. Won the National Federation of Music Clubs First Prize, the Stillman Kelley Prize and the Artists International Young Artist award. In November 1999, her disc of the music of Josef Achron was released. In her latest CD, Miriam and British pianist Nicholas Durcan have recorded for Naxos the violin and piano music of the great 20th century Polish composer Karol Szymanowski.
http://www.miriamkramer.com/
Isa Kremer
Born in Beltz, Bessarabia. 21 October 1887. Died Cordoba, Argentia, 7 July 1956. Possibly the first women to bring Yiddish song to the concert stage in Russia, was known as an international balladist. Married Israel Heifetz and had one daughter, Toussia, 1917. Yiddish singer and opera star. She studied in Italy, and came to US. Operatic debut in La Boheme in 1902. Joined a group of intellectuals in Odessa with her husand and began to sing Yiddish songs. Due to the Russian revolution, escaped to Poland and then to America. Represented by Sol Hurok for her American debut at Carnegie Hall 29 October, 1922. Sang also in vaudeville Palace Theatre debut in 1927. "Mein Shtetle Belz" was written for her by Olshanetsky and Jacobs for the show "Song of the Ghetto." Traveled throughout Canada and US on concert tours. In a tour of Argentina in late 1930s met Gregorio Bermann. In 1938, moved to Argentina. Isa Kremer sang on the stage in many languages, including Yiddish. She was widely covered by the press; both English and Yiddish reviews of her concerts appeared all over the US, Europe and South America. Her papers are held in Buenos Aires Jewish Center. To read a more complete essay on the life and work of Isa Kremer, open this pdf file.