Percussionist

The GRAMMY-winning Jewish klezmer superstars return to celebrate the Festival of Light, performing seasonal music from their acclaimed holiday album Happy Joyous Hanukkah that set lyrics by the late Woody Guthrie to their delightful original compositions.

Formed in the New York’s East Village in 1986, the Klezmatics led the resurgence of the nearly forgotten klezmer tradition and contemporized it with an irreverent dose of punk rock attitude, and since their inception, have been one of most visible faces of today’s Yiddish culture.

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The Klezmatics

SFJAZZ Center

The series concludes on March 2 with another local debut by the Oscar Peñas Quartet, featuring Oscar Peñas on guitar, Sara Caswell on violin, Motohito Fukushima on electric bass, and Richie Barshay on drums. Barcelona-native Peñas has released four jazz albums with Grammy winners Esperanza Spalding, Gil Goldstein, and Paquito D’Rivera. His latest recording, yet to be released, features legendary bassist Ron Carter. Downbeat wrote, “Oscar Peñas is a poet,” celebrating his “ability to bring together the strands of a broad cultural education—one encompassing classical studies as a teenager in Barcelona and jazz degrees at both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory—in a seamless synthesis of musical idioms.” Esperanza Spalding commented, “Oscar is a beautiful player with a totally unique sense of sound and color in his writing.” And Gil Goldstein wrote, “Oscar Peñas has found a way to merge traditional Spanish music with jazz in a way that seems totally natural and fresh.” This concert is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Oscar Peñas Quartet

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

A Glezele Tey (Yiddish for “a very little glass of tea”) invites audiences into a warm, intimate, and enthralling performance of klezmer, Yiddish folk song, and tkhines (traditional Ashkenazi prayers centering the experiences of women, trans, and gender non-conforming people, set to new melodies). Rooted in the music of the Eastern European Jewish diaspora, their performances are soulful, spontaneous, and deeply personal. A Glezele Tey will have the audience dancing, singing along, and experiencing the full range of human emotions!

Richie Barshay

Percussionist

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 23, 2025

A Glezele Tey · BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity

Past events

Dec 14, 2023

The Klezmatics · San Francisco Jazz

Mar 2, 2022

Oscar Peñas Quartet · Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

About

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