Sharon Bernstein teaches Yiddish Song Rarities for KlezCalifornia’s 2010 Yiddish Culture Festival.
Take a stroll down a cobble-stoned street, peer through the window of a strange house, take flight with bees and angels, and discover new worlds in lesser-known Yiddish songs.
Biography:
(Berkeley) Sharon Jan Bernstein (voice, piano) lived in New York, Jerusalem and Italy before returning home to the Bay Area, where she serves as the Cantor of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. She has presented her rare Yiddish repertoire in Europe, Israel and the U.S. in venues including the Ancona Jewish Music Festival, RAI National Italian Radio, Yung Yidish, Habimah Theatre Jerusalem, Berkeley Jewish Music Festival, World Congress of Jewish Studies, Makor, Center for Jewish History and the 92nd Street Y. She has taught Yiddish song in Jerusalem, Vilnius Summer Yiddish Program and at previous KlezCalifornia events. Her repertoire mixes less known or never performed songs (most notably from the Noy Collection) with new compositions such as those by Beyle Schaechter Gottesman, organized according to subtle and captivating themes. Her “delightfully clear voice” (J. Pinnolis, jmwc.org) can be heard in Beyle Schaechter Gottesman’s Af Di Gasn Fun Der Shtot (2003).
