Socalled Sings with Strings
yiddish folksongs
“Powerful, beguiling, haunting and uplifting all at the same time.”
— Dancing about architecture
Project Description
Socalled (Josh Dolgin), “the mad wizard of Yiddish Hip-Hop”, goes back to his roots on this ground-breaking, heartbreaking program, Socalled sings Yiddish with Strings. Featuring a string quartet, the program presents songs from the Yiddish Theatre, Hassidic melodies, Klezmer, folksong, songs from the Holocaust, from Israel, and even some original new songs.
Through song, so much history and culture can be exposed and given new life. The quartet arrangements give the music the harmonic respect it deserves, an integral and often overlooked element in presenting this material.
The program is funny, sad, beautiful, and dark with a diverse range of styles, colours, keys, modes and moods. The Yiddish revival is over, it’s the Yiddish era again; so let’s dig deep, let’s celebrate and explore the riches of this extraordinary culture.
North American Representation in collaboration with MGAM.INC
Reviews
“The marriage of voice in performance with quartet arrangements is so profoundly affecting. Impassioned urgency, thrusting back and forth in voice and gesticulation is matched with vivid plucked strings and light bow strokes creating an added heart beat to the dramatic, emotional, yet clearly cerebral lyrics.”
— David O’Brien,
June 2019
“These songs ... are delightful, introspective, playful and uplifting.”
— Bob Becker,
June 2019
“Socalled’s Di Frosh seems proof that the living,
breathing Yiddish culture is here to stay.”
— Shira Gilbert,
October 2018
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