Klezmer act to play folk inside Frick

Sing Your Soul Jewish Studies Program Tonight at 7:30 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium Free for Pitt… Sing Your Soul Jewish Studies Program Tonight at 7:30 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium Free for Pitt students

For a taste of multiculturalism and traditional music, swing by the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium tonight at 7:30 to hear Sing Your Soul. The German klezmer band will perform traditional folk music of Eastern European Jews.

Clarinetist Susanne Ortner heads the quartet, which is dedicated to appreciating the music of a culture and religion not shared by its members. The band’s mission statement includes breaking down barriers by encouraging an intercultural dialogue through music.

As a part of Ortner’s year-long stay in the United States, Sing Your Soul is spreading its message of diversity through numerous performances – some will be joint efforts with Holocaust survivors.

Including Manfred Heisler on guitar, Johannes Gretz on accordion and Franz Mayr-Musiol on double bass, Sing Your Soul has received praise in Germany, Israel and Switzerland for its renditions of Chassidic nigunim – an improvisational form of singing that’s often without lyrics – Argentinean tangos, Israeli melodies and the music of Yiddish theater. The internationally acclaimed band will perform a lively, toe-tapping selection of its extensive repertoire this evening.

Sing Your Soul’s performance is co-sponsored by Pitt’s Jewish Studies Program and the Yiddish Club.