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June 07, 2012 - Image 38

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Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2012-06-07

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arts & entertainment

Klezmer At The Ark

Heartland Klezmorim is ready for Ann Arbor debut.

Allan Nahajewski

Contributing Writer

Ann Arbor

0

ne of the premier folk music
venues of the Midwest, the Ark
in Ann Arbor will be the place
for klezmer on Sunday, June 10. The East
Lansing-based Heartland Klezmorim will
be making its Ann Arbor debut in the leg-
endary 400-seat folk club.
"Everybody knows klezmer these days:'
says band member David Klein. "It's very
accepted — like any other folk form. You
hear a lot of it. People are buying record-
ings, and everyone loves it. It's fun to play
for a lot of different kinds of audiences:'
Klein says the band takes a unique
approach to its music.
"There aren't too many bands that do
what we do the way we do it. We don't
electrify anything. We don't add other ele-
ments," he says. "It's pretty much what you
would have heard perhaps in the 1920s
— the way klezmer musicians may have
been playing when they first arrived in
America."
Since 2006, the group has been per-
forming at weddings, bar mitzvahs,
Chanukah services, dances and concerts

throughout Michigan.
The group's repertoire consists of popu-
lar, traditional klezmer songs. The instru-
ment lineup is violin, trumpet, banjo, string
bass and drums, with members alternating
on dobro, mandolin and classical guitar.
Klein and his wife and bandmate,
Susanne Garber, are the only Jewish mem-
bers of the five-person group. They were
inspired to learn the music and form the
band after attending a Yiddish conference.
The couple met while attending Michigan
State University. He is originally from
Connecticut, and she is a Wisconsin native.
Klein plays trumpet, cornet and flugel-
horn and has experience performing in
a wide variety of genres, including sym-
phonic, jazz, big band, musical theater
and klezmer. He also teaches trumpet and
cornet. For three years, Klein has been an
instructor at the Wheatland Traditional
Arts Weekend near Remus, Mich.
Garber has been playing violin for more
than 30 years. She has performed in many
symphony orchestras and has a doctorate
in musical performance. She is currently
head of strings and Suzuki program direc-
tor at the MSU Community Music School
and a member of the Lansing Symphony. A
world traveler, she has performed in Europe
and Korea.

The others member
of Heartland Klezmorim
are friends of the couple
and talented music
instructors who enjoy
playing all kinds of
music.
Heartland Klezmorim: Ben Godoshian, Chris Hamilton,
Ben Godoshian has
Drew Howard, Susanne Garber and David Klein.
been honing his musical
craft as a percussion-
winner and has contributed to dozens of
ist for more than 24 years. With formal
CDs and performed live across much of the
training in jazz studies at MSU, he is in
United States and Europe. He is a member
demand as a percussion instructor. He has
of the Michigan-based Earthwork Music
performed and recorded alt-country, funk,
collective.
fusion, musical theater, rock, and African
Two years ago, Heartland Klezmorim
drum and dance and has worked as a key-
recorded a CD titled, Gut Morgn (Yiddish
boardist in many groups.
for "Good Morning").
Chris Hamilton has been playing music
"We're very proud of it," says Klein. "It
for nearly 30 years. He has performed and
captures what we're all about." The CD
recorded with a variety of ensembles on
is available through the group's website:
piano, bass, guitar and ukulele. Currently, he www.heartlandldezmorim.com .
teaches at Elderly Instruments in Lansing
On a scale of serious to fun, Klein
and at the MSU Community Music School.
describes the band as "serious fun." E
He received his bachelor's degree in music
from MSU, studying piano, double bass and
Heartland Klezmorim performs at 8
composition.
p.m. Sunday, June 10, at the Ark, 316
Drew Howard is a multi-instrumentalist
S. Main St., in the heart of downtown
with decades of stage, session and music
Ann Arbor. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
production experience, ranging from local
Tickets are $15. (734) 761-1451; www.
media to national TV and radio ad cam-
theark.org .
paigns. He is a 2010 Detroit Music Award

ews

Nate Bloom

S

Special to the Jewish News

c

m

Tony Time

u . The Tony Awards, for excellence on the
%a Broadway stage, will be broadcast live
maw
on CBS from 8-11 p.m. Sunday, June 10.
The high number of Jewish nominees
prevents me from providing much bio-
graphical detail (check tonyawards.com
for more info; I've listed ages where
available), but here are the Jewish
nominees – and Jewish-related con-
nections – in all but the technical cat-
egories:
• Best Play: Other Desert Cities
by Jon Robin Baitz (nominated as
playwright), 50, and Peter and the
Starcatcher by Rick Elice (nominated
as playwright), 55.
• Best Revival of a Play: Death of a
Salesman by the late Arthur Miller.
• Best Direction of a Play: Mike
Nichols, 80, Death of a Salesman; and
Nicholas Hytner, 56, One Man, Two
Guvnors.
• Best Musical: Leap of Faith, with
music and lyrics by Alan Menken, 62,
and Glenn Slater 44; Newsies, Menken
(music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics); and

Nice Work If You Can Get lt, a show that
weaves a new plot around classic songs
by the late Ira and George Gershwin.
• Best Revival of a Musical: Follies by
Stephen Sondheim (words/music), 82;
and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, by
the Gershwin brothers.
• Best Original Score (music and/
or lyrics written for
the theater): Bonnie
and Clyde by Frank
Wildhorn (music),
55, and Don Black
(lyrics), 74; Newsies,
with nominations for
Menken and Slater;
Elice
and Peter and the
Starcatcher (lyrics by
Elice).
• Best Book of a Musical: Newsies,
Harvey Fierstein, 59.
• Best Lead Actress
in a Play: Linda Lavin,
74, in The Lyons, a
play about a Jewish
family penned by
Nicky Silver, 52.
• Best Featured
Actress in a Play:
Judith Light, 63,
Kaye

Other Desert Cities.
• Best Featured Actress in a
Musical: Judy Kaye, 63, Nice Work If
You Can Get It.
• Best Lead Actor in a Musical:
Danny Burstein, 47, Follies; and Jeremy
Jordan, 27, Newsies. Jordan, who says
he is "spiritual, not religious," has
Jewish heritage on his mother's side.
• Best Featured Actor in a Play:
Andrew Garfield, 28, Death of a
Salesman; and Jeremy Shamos,
Clyburne Park.
• Best Featured
Actor in a Musical:
Josh Young, as
Judas in Jesus
Christ Superstar, a
role he originated
at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival.
Garfield
Here are just a few
notes of interest:
Don Black, a British
Jew, has been penning
hit song lyrics since
the '605; his tunes
include the Oscar-
winning "Born Free."
Andrew Garfield also
Young

is a Brit (with an American mother).
Next month, he'll star as the superhero
in the reboot of the Spider-Man movie
franchise.
Last year, Playbill asked Glenn Slater
about his religious background because
he wrote the lyrics for Sister Act, the
mega-hit musical about nuns. Slater
replied: "I'm Jewish. This is a show
about nuns in which two of the book
writers and the composer (Menken),
the lyricist and the director were all
Jewish. So we bring a slightly skewed
point of view!"
Phillip Seymour Hoffman is very
likely to win the Tony for Best Lead
Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Willy
Loman in Death of a Salesman. On May
18, the New York Times ran an in-depth
article, "Is Willy Loman Jewish?" that
addressed this longstanding debate.

New Flicks

Opening on June 8 is the animated
film Madagascar 3, the third install-
ment in the series about escaped zoo
animals. Once again, the animals are
trying to get back to their home in New
York City – and once again, major voice
roles are performed by

Celebrity Jews on page 43

38

June 7 • 2012

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