ANNOUNCING Philly In Eynem (Philly all together) a night of Yiddish Learning, Creativity and Community, coming very soon to Kol Tzedek Synagogue in West Philly! Hot off the heels of our emerging scene’s media debut last month on WHYY, I and many of my West Philly Yiddish Culture co conspirators invite you to join us for a heymish evening celebrating all things Yiddish! We’re announcing it very close to the actual event date on May 17th, and we’re hoping you’ll register (link in bio) and join us! You don’t even have to be from Philly to come! Just look at this amazing flyer by @_feygele_
If you’ve ever been curious about klezmer music or Yiddish culture this is the perfect place to start! We’ll have workshops on Yiddish Language, klezmer music, Yiddish art, a film about Jewish resistance in the Holocaust, and of course, lots of joyous sound and dancing. Inspired by the peer-led teaching and community building of @shtetl_philly , Philly Yid, the recent community theater productions of the Dybbuk and Fidler Afn Dakh, I am bringing together a whole bunch of these incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated people to share our love and our passions with you.
Last year, Kol Tzedek (where I lead the inimitable Simcha Band) and I were awarded a grant from the National Yiddish Book Center’s Yiddish Arts And Culture for Jewish Communities program. In January, we gathered a bunch of the folks making Yiddish culture and growing new communities around it in West Philly and Beyond for a chat that is available on the Radiant Others Klezmer Podcast. Now we are sharing our love for the sounds, movements, histories and more of this culture with you.
What is happening with our beloved music and culture in West Philly (and throughout the city) today is amazinng and unprecedented in my decades of experience playing, teaching, and organizing. The opportunity to build or discover a home for yourself in this culture, this world, right here at in our home is greater than its ever been. Please, join us with your excitement and your koyekh (spirit).
Registration link in my bio. Zayt gezunt and see you there!
We are incredibly excited to be joined by Zimyl & The Philly Shmeerkatz for our upcoming Philly show on February 18. It'll be an unforgettable evening - spread the word, and hope to see you there!
Tickets are sliding scale at the door.
So much klezmer music and Yiddish culture is happening in the city of Philadelphia RIGHT NOW. I’m now in my 3rd decade of performing, teaching, and sharing this music and culture and I’ve never ever seen so much being done by so many cool people! So I want to throw a little party for us that will also be a live taping of my Radiant Others Podcast - Philly addition! It’s happening at Kol Tzedek Synagogue (my West Philly base of community operations) on Saturday Jan 10th at 7:30 PM!
I’ll be joined by a whole bunch of people I’ve known for a while or longer who are making Yiddish things HAPPEN here. We’re talking monthly meetups to speak Yiddish in the park, locally sourced productions of The Dybbuk and Soon, Fidler Afn Dach, lots of peer-led learning and sharing with Shtetl Philly, and of course, rocking klezmer music! I’m bowled over by the dedication and output of all these folks! It makes buoys me and all the work I do in exciting ways I couldn’t have imagined even 5 years ago.
So come join me, Miryam Coppersmith, Daniel Stern, Isy Abraham-Raveson, Maddie Rabin, Sofie Rose Seymour, and Elliot Beck and let us introduce our awesome Philly scene to you! We’ll cover our successes, challenges, hopes and dreams, and how you can be a part of it all.
Saturday, Jan. 10th, Doors at 7, live taping at 7:30! Maybe some music and dancing if we’re lucky…?
This event is the first in a series that is made possible by the Yiddish Book Center’s Yiddish Arts & Culture Initiative that I and Kol Tzedek were awarded this past year. Hooray for their support!
Hope to see you there, and stay tuned for lots of awesome performances coming soon.
Lucky #13 on our Year-End Top 20 is multi-instrumentalist DANIEL STERN who played an EP release show with Koof Ibi this summer. When not playing pop songs with his own band, Daniel can be heard in the horn section of the West Philadelphia Orchestra or giving fiddle lessons to kids in the neighborhood. Studio 34 is looking forward to having Daniel back in 2026!
Our year-end countdown is here to highlight some of our favorite artists and also urge you to support them all with a donation—big or small—to our year-end fundraiser! We were able to get TWO new sound systems this year and stage lights are next in our agenda. Link in bio, of course.
@ddsternn@koofibi #top20 @wpobrass #bestmusicif2025 #phillymusic #westphilly
I’m playing an 🌸EP Release show🌸 with @koofibi on 🪻Sunday, May 11 @studio34philly 🪻
More info and tickets at link in bio. Excited to play and sing for/with you:)
I am excited to release a new collection of songs! Link in bio (get yrself a CD on Bandcamp with beautiful art and design by @s.lammer )
If you live in or near Philly, I am playing an 🌸EP Release Show🌸 with @koofibi on 🪻Sunday, May 11 @studio34philly 🪻, and I would love to see you there. More info soon in a separate post.
These are songs about moving through heartbreak, and how heartbreak can be a gift. (Joanna Macy: “The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”) But a heart can break open only when it has enough trust and safety around it. I suspect that heartbreak was not an option for many of my ancestors; they just had to power through, even after surviving unimaginable horrors and loss. When placed in this context, as part of an intergenerational process, I am grateful to experience heartbreak in my lifetime, and grateful to the people who have held me through it.
I decided to name this album Two because the number kept showing up in my excavations and adventures in healing. The title track was inspired by a home video of my older brother at age two, the age when I think we both experienced our first big loss. I am the second born, and there are two years between me and both of my brothers. Two is the basis of dialectical thinking, where there is a recognition of the interrelation of all things, and that contradictions are the drivers of life and history.
I wrote these songs to sing to myself—lessons, findings, mantras, prayers. Folk singer Michael Hurley, who recently passed, said in a 2020 interview, “Make what you like…If you don’t like it, then nobody else is going to like it. If you like it, probably other people will like it, too.” I like these songs; they’ve carried me through the past few years of life. I hope you like them too.
WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT: Learn Tunes by Ear with Daniel Stern and Brian Dolphin
In this workshop, we will learn new instrumental klezmer tunes by ear, one per session. We’ll start by singing the tune in its simplest form; moving to the music to get it into our bodies; and gradually adding stylistic complexity as we start to play on our instruments. We’ll spend some time listening to source recordings for insights into style, ornamentation, groove/feel, and chords/harmonic accompaniment. We'll also talk about playing for dancers, with an eye toward collaborating with our dance workshop peers!
Daniel Stern @ddsternn is a music educator and multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, violin) interested in Klezmer and Balkan folk music traditions. He is a member of West Philly Orchestra @wpobrass and @zlatneuste , and he writes and records his own music (d-stern.bandcamp.com).
Brian Dolphin @brianddolphinandyou is an ethnomusicologist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. He has studied and performed folk and original music all over the world. He is founder of Ukrainian Village Voices and Philly Folk Choir, and he delights in playing Klezmer and Old Time music. He just released an album of original and collaborative songs: briandolphinandyou.bandcamp.com.
#yiddish #klezmer #philly #yiddishculture #jewishart #musicworkshop #philadelphia #instrumentalmusic
as with many of my songs, i didn’t really know what “coming back” was about when i wrote it in 2019-20. and also like many of my songs, its meaning has continued to reveal itself over time.
this song’s release just before the jewish high holidays wasn’t planned either, but there is clearly resonance with themes of reflection and repair, and tshuva (return). i think this song is about the way a hurt that has not fully healed will continue to rear its head until it gets the attention and care it needs, until there is radical acceptance and love to hold it. i think it’s also about how lost love and connection can circle back after periods of space and growth, even across lifetimes.
thanks @s.lammer for the beautiful album art, @zacksegel for recording drums, and @gmervine for mixing. link to listen in bio.
catch me and my band at Mt Airy Porch Fest next sunday 9/18 at 5pm at 131 W Mt Airy Ave!
swipe for a snippet w some 🎺 and photos by @bob_davidson from our last show at Rigby Mansion
i’m playing an outdoor show on sunday at rigby mansion in germantown with @portarthurofficial@koofibi@aka.dot.dot.dot ! thank you @hkaplanet for the amazing flyer! swipe for some surveillance footage from our last backyard show, sorry @smellioosh that it made me crop you out :’(
I’m releasing two songs from the past year (link in bio)! They’re in the same key/funky guitar tuning, and I think they speak to each other in other ways too.
“Sunday Afternoon” is about a recent encounter with my Grandma Jadzia's video testimony that she recorded for South Carolina Educational Television in the early 1990s, which I stumbled upon online while researching her life for a Polish citizenship application. In it she says,
"I want to say something to my dear, beloved children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When there are no more Holocaust survivors to testify of the evil of the Jewish Holocaust—because in Auschwitz, the best of humanity were murdered by the Nazis—you will make me proud, dear children, if you will stand up to any form of defamation of Jewish people. And there’s one more thing; I know I’m asking a lot. While you’re at it, speak also for other minorities because I believe in you, and we come from a decent and rich heritage, and we believe in justice and brotherhood for all people. And if you remember this, I will smile at you.”
It’s about receiving her offering, which she gave me before I was even born, and which I was only ready to receive well after her life ended.
“All Around Us” was written during and after a ~trip~ with some lifelong friends. It’s about letting ourselves be held, and noticing what’s always already there, all around us.
I hope you will receive this musical offering and find something in it :)
I’m honored to have beautiful album art by @s.lammer — thank you <3 And I’m excited to have a lil band to bring these songs and others to life this summer.
31st bday photo dump
1. belated bday present from my 3rd grade students
2. block party w @wpobrass
3. *two* beautiful cakes
4. garlic and lots of chickweed greeting me at the garden
