A radio program by the European Institute of Jewish Music hosted by Hervé Roten
MUSIQUES JUIVES D’HIER ET D’AUJOURD’HUI – December 17, 2013, JUDAÏQUES FM (94.8), 21H05. Radio program in French
Klezmer music is today a commonly accepted appellation to designate the instrumental music performed in the shtetl (villages), the ghettos and all the pales of settlement of the Ashkenazi Jews, since the Middle-Ages until the middle of the XXth century.
Often linked to weddings – in particular to the dances – this music evolved through the centuries, the customs and the lands of residency.
Today, klezmer music has become a distinct genre that speaks to everyone. Stage music, often associated to Yiddish songs, klezmer music makes us plunge into the universe – often reconstituted – of the Shtetl from the Yiddishland.
And in this reconstitution, various bands – or artists – pull away in their own manner to perform this repertoire.
Such is the case of the violonist Richard Schmoucler, founder of the Sirba Octet, which reinvents with this ensemble a genre between classical music, klezmer music and Yiddish songs. By abolishing the frontiers, Richard Schmoucler sets his project in an original musical universe, called “Classic World”.
This program, with Richard Schmoucler, inaugurates a new serie entitled « The routes of klezmer ».
Officer of the Ordre of Arts and letters, PhD in musicology at Paris University Sorbonne, prize-winning graduate from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Hervé Roten is the director of the European Institute of Jewish Music since its creation in 2006.
Ethnomusicologist, he quickly developed an interest in the safeguard and digitization of archives, subjects he taught for several years in Reims and Marne-La-Vallée universities.
Author of many articles, books and recordings related to Jewish music, producer of radio programs, Hervé Roten is recognized today as one of the best specialists of Jewish music in the world.
