Sunday, July 20, 2008

Ruby The Knishman: The Audio


from the love and knishes
Love and Knishes is a trio that provides a mixture of traditional, contemporary and original songs in Yiddish and English, plus instrumentals from the klezmer tradition. Singer-songwriter Bonnie Abrams has won awards in national songwriting competitions, and was a "New Folk" finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. She has recorded three albums of original songs, and her fourth CD, A Sudenyu of Yiddish Song, has been featured at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Violinist Glenna Chance trained at the Eastman School of Music and has been a member of orchestras and chamber groups in America and Europe. I have been playing with Bonnie as a duet for a dozen years; we worked with Glenna in a local klezmer band, and decided to form a group that would present music from the Jewish vocal and instrumental repertoire and showcase Bonnie's songwriting ability as well.
Love and Knishes has played at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA), at Rochester's Jewish Community Center, at community concerts in Brighton and Brockport, and at many local private and public events. Our instrumental lineup features Bonnie's guitar, Glenna's violin, viola, and recorder, and my mandolin, mandola, mandocello, concertina, and banjo (with a few miscellaneous other instruments). We play traditional Yiddish folk and cabaret songs, klezmer dance tunes, some general folk material, and a large helping of Bonnie's original songs. We also feature "Voice of the Second Generation," a commemoration of the Holocaust in song and story, based on the experience of Bonnie's parents as concentration camp survivors. Love and Knishes has performed "Voice of the Second Generation" at schools and education centers in New York and New England.

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