Gebirtig's Notebooks

Concert POSTPONED This program will be rescheduled. Please stay tuned for details.

Join YIVO Sound Archivist and the Klezmatics’ lead singer Lorin Sklamberg for his first-ever concert of the ballads of the beloved legendary Yiddish bard of Krakow, Mordkhe Gebirtig (1877-1842). The program will focus on the lyrics contained in the precious set of Gebirtig’s hand-written notebooks acquired by the YIVO Archives in 1976. Sklamberg will accompany himself on accordion, piano and guitar in a repertoire including original, contemporary and new musical settings created for this performance. The songs will be presented as written in Gebirtig’s Krakow Yiddish dialect with projected English supertitles.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About the Performer

Lorin Sklamberg has served as YIVO’s Sound Archivist since 2000. He previously worked at YIVO from 1987-1994, as the aide to the then-Assistant Director Adrienne Cooper, and as YIVO’s in-house Yiddish typesetter, graphic designer and coordinator of KlezKamp: the Yiddish Folk Arts Program, which he administered for 14 years. Lorin is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Yiddish-American roots band the Klezmatics and has been heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration with such diverse artists as Itzhak Perlman, Jane Siberry, Chava Alberstein, Ehud Banai, Yoni Rechter, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer, Neil Sedaka, Natalie Merchant, Tony Kushner and Theodore Bikel. He has composed and performed for film, dance, stage and circus and has produced a number of recordings of world and theater music. He also teaches Yiddish song from São Paulo to St. Petersburg. Lorin’s work in the field of Yiddish music draws extensively on the unsurpassed wealth of materials held in YIVO’s library and archives.