Well folks, it's just about time to be heading to KlezKanada. As I have recently tweeted, just one more sleep and a 6+ hour car ride with my parents to KlezKanada!
What is KlezKanada you ask? Well, it's a 6 day residential workshop that celebrates Eastern-European Jewish music and culture. It includes music classes, dance classes, Yiddish language classes, lectures, concerts, and a whole lot more. It (and most other klezmer workshops) was modeled after KlezKamp and takes place at Camp B'nai Brith near Ste. Agathe-des-Monts, about an hour north of Montreal.
KlezKanada is a place where people from all over the world come to make music and friends in this small, close community that we call the klezmer scene. It's filled with heymishe (Yiddish for home-y) touches that would make my Bubbi proud, and some of the best people you can meet. I have been attending since 2006 (making this my 6th consecutive year), and many of the people who attend have become like a world-wide family that sees each other at simkhes (Yiddish for celebrations).
So my last few days have been filled with preparations, particularly for the ensemble that I will be leading this year. KlezKanada is a curious place to teach music, because of the extremely wide range of skills amongst both adults and youngsters. The goal is to allow people of all abilities to enjoy the workshops while still challenging the more advanced players, and letting the not-so-advanced players do what they can and still feel that they are getting something out of the experience.
I don't know what else to tell you right now, but it will be great to see everyone again. Since spending last summer travelling the European klezmer circuit (read about it in my previous blog!), I got used to seeing these klezmer people everywhere. It's been a year since I've seen most of them, and that's what I'm looking forward to most this year.
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