An-sky Yiddish Heritage Ensemble

The An-sky Yiddish Heritage Ensemble -- renowned Yiddish folk singers Michael Alpert and Ethel Raim, tsimblist (hammered dulcimer player) Pete Rushefsky and violinist Jake Shulman-Ment -- celebrates the hundredth Anniversary of the historic An-sky Expedition. This 1911-1914 ethographic expedition systematically documented the Jewish folk culture of dozens of communities in Ukraine and White Russia. It is named for its leader, Yiddish writer and folklorist Semyon An-sky, pen name of Shloyme Zaynvl Rapoport (1863-1920), who is best known as the author of the groundbreaking play The Dybbuk. The An-sky materials, located at the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, stand as an unparalleled record of a lost, preindustrial Jewish society that was carried out in the Yiddish language. Inspired by An-sky's work, and affiliated with the New York-based Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the An-sky Yiddish Heritage Ensemble is a supergroup of four leading performers and researchers of Yiddish music who present a diverse program of rare Yiddish folksongs and exciting klezmer instrumentals collected through field and archival research. The ensemble also performs original music rooted in the tradition, and in doing so keeps the flame of Yiddish culture alive.