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Imagination Inspiration Innovation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Motl Didner [email protected] Phone: (212) 213 – 2120 x211 December 8, 2014 National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents From Rosenfeld to Robeson Starring Elmore James and Zalmen Mlotek Thursday March 19, 2015 at 7:30 PM Temple Beth El, 350 Roxbury Rd, Stamford, CT This concert is presented free of charge to the community by the Holocaust Memorial Committee and the UJF Levy Romanowitz fund, as a tribute to Hesh Romanowitz z''l. ADL, Chavurat Aytz Chayim, Congregation Agudath Sholom, Jewish Historical Society, Selah, Temple Beth El, Temple Sinai, UJA/ JCC Greenwich,UJF, Union Baptist Church and Young Israel are co-sponsors. (New York, NY)— Now in its 100th Season, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene [NYTF] brings a dynamic new concert to Temple Beth El of Stamford, CT. From Rosenfeld to Robeson debuted this summer at the Singer festival in Warsaw, Poland. Broadway and international opera star, Elmore James and Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene take you on a musical journey through the repertoire of both Morris Rosenfeld, the famous Yiddish poet of the Lower East Side sweatshops, and Paul Robeson, the great African American singer, actor and civil rights activist. Together, they explore the pathos inherent in love ballads, songs of the sweatshop and slavery, melodies of spirituality, protest and hope. This new concert breathes fresh life into its interpretations of classics Yiddish songs, songs of revolutionary poets, Holocaust era partisans and Broadway favorites. IMAGINATION ● INSPIRATION ● INNOVATION 90 John Street ● Suite 410 ● New York, NY 10038 Phone 212-213-2120 ● Fax 212-213-2186 ● www.nationalyiddishtheatre.org ELMORE JAMES - is a veteran of five Broadway Shows. He sings in nine languages and first sang in Yiddish at Town Hall’s, Yiddish in America, a Gala Concert Celebrating the Centennial of the Workman’s Circle in New York City Elmore James co-starred in the last show to perform at the Harold Clurman theatre on Theatre Row, Hip, Heymish and Hot, the whimsical Yiddish/Jazz concert with Eleanor Reissa. As one of Broadway’s most versatile artists, Mr. James’ operatic performances include appearances at the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and the opera houses in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Verona, Sicily, Sweden and Norway. ZALMEN MLOTEK is the Artistic Director of The National Yiddish Theatre- and is an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theatre music . Mr. Mlotek brought Yiddish-Klezmer music to Broadway and off-Broadway stages. His shows , Those Were the Days, The Golden Land, and On SEond Avenue have received Tony nominations, Drama desk awards and nominations. He has helped Michael Tilson Thomas, Mandy Patinkin in their research and work and has produced numerous CDs , including Ghetto Tango with Adrienne Cooper z’l. He has served as music director for theatrical productions at the Williamstown Theater Festival, the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the Westchester Light Opera, the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, the American Musical Theater Festival in Philadelphia and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Zalmen, Bryna and the staff of the NYT-F are busy at work planning the historical Festival of Jewish Performing Arts in New York which will take place in June 2015 to celebrate the Folksbiene’s centennial year. PAUL ROBESON (1898 – 1976) was an American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. At Rutgers University, he was an outstanding football player, then had an international career in singing, as well as acting in theater and movies. He became politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, fascism, and social injustices. His advocacy of anti- imperialism, affiliation with communism, and criticism of the United States government caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era. In the 1940’s his anti-fascist activism led to friendships with the Soviet Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer and theater director Solomon Mikhoels. Robeson added many Yiddish songs to his repetoire as the result of this relationship. MORRIS ROSENFELD (1862 – 1923) was a Yiddish poet born in Stare Boksze, Poland. His work sheds light on the living circumstances of emigrants from Eastern Europe in New York's sweatshops. He worked as a tailor in New York and London and as a diamond cutter in Amsterdam, and settled in New York in 1886, after which he was connected with the editorial staffs of several leading Jewish newspapers. In 1904 he published a weekly entitled Der Ashmedai. In 1905 he was editor of the New Yorker Morgenblatt. He was also the publisher and editor of a quarterly journal of literature (printed in Yiddish) entitled Jewish Annals. He was a delegate to the Fourth Zionist Congress at London, and gave readings at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Wellesley and Radcliffe colleges. American novelist Upton Sinclair referred to Morris Rosenfeld as “The true voice of the sweatshop worker.” For more information about The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene visit www.nytf.org. ### IMAGINATION ● INSPIRATION ● INNOVATION 90 John Street ● Suite 410 ● New York, NY 10038 Phone 212-213-2120 ● Fax 212-213-2186 ● www.nationalyiddishtheatre.org .
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