Seattle Yiddish Fest

We highly recommend attending as many of the workshops as possible to get a truly immersive experience. Each workshop is meant to work both as a standalone session or as part of a whole weekend course giving an overview of Yiddish culture to the beginner while highlighting ways to dive deeper into the nuances and subtleties for the more experienced. 

 

Participants don't register for specific classes so that they can also jump between different subjects as needed and be empowered to choose the combination of sessions that best fits their interests and availability. For this reason we offer workshop passes for the whole weekend, just one day as well as single-session options. As with all of our tickets, for all of these options there are four price tiers to chose from, including pay-what-you-can.

 

We are thrilled offer a full weekend of visual arts programming with both hands-on workshops and lecture/discussions, as well as a language & culture series investigating aspects of Ashkenazi history, linguistics and culture.

 

 

Instrumental workshops are open to musicians of all abilities and familiarity with Yiddish music as long as you can play your instrument well enough to find your place in a diverse group! We will work mostly by ear but also occasionally from scores.

 

Topics addressed in our musical workshops include:

 

 

• Standard as well as more unique repertoire

 

• Stylistic details for solo and group performance

 

• Traditional performance techniques and ways to integrate them into your playing

 

• Understanding of rhythmic patterns and dances for various klezmer genres

 

• Phrasing, interpretation, improvisation, harmony playing

 

• Playing for dancing, non-dance style and repertoire

 

• Vocal program covers solo songs, group songs, Labor songs, nigunim

• ​​