Vilna-born vocalist Inna Barmash is bringing new, old, treasured and forgotten Yiddish songs in a program featuring Shoko Nagai on piano and accordion and Ljova on the fadolin. The program traverses Soviet era anthologies of songs collected in Ukrainian shtetls, Yiddish theater and art songs, all set to Shoko's twinkling, ethereal and haunting piano improvisations.

Inna first started singing in Yiddish back in her home city of Vilnius, Lithuania as a child in the late 80s. After immigrating to the US with her family in 1991, Inna has continued singing in Yiddish, Russian and other languages with numerous klezmer and folk groups in the NY area. She is the vocalist of the chamber folk band Ljova & the Kontraband and co-leads the gypsy dance party band Romashka.

Shoko Nagai is a versatile musical artist who improvises and performs with world-renowned musicians on piano and accordion and composes original scores for films and live performances. As a teenager in her native Japan, Nagai was trained on Yamaha's electronic organ, the "Electone," to perform popular music. Since moving to the U.S. from Japan and studying classical, jazz music, and compositions at Berklee, she has adapted her mastery of the keyboard to prepared piano, accordions, and other keyboard instruments, often inspired by the minimalist approach of composer Toru Takemitsu. Whether she is performing Klezmer, Balkan or experimental music, Nagai is a charismatic presence onstage, who hypnotizes audiences with her intense focus and virtuoso sound.

LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) was born in 1978 in Moscow, Russia, and moved to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and writer Irena Ginzburg, in 1990. He divides his time between composing for the concert stage, contemporary dance & film, leading his own ensemble LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND, performing with and composing for TRIO FADOLÍN, as well as a busy career as a violist, fadolínist & musical arranger. Among recent projects are commissions from the City of London Sinfonia, The Louisville Orchestra, a new work for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, a string quartet for Brooklyn Rider, a clarinet quintet for Art of Élan, and works for The Knights, Sybarite5 and A Far Cry, as well arrangements for the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, tenor Javier Camarena, conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alondra de la Parra, songwriters Ricky Martin, Natalia Lafourcade and Carlos Vives, composer/guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla and Osvaldo Golijov. Ljova frequently collaborates with choreographers Aszure Barton, Damian Woetzel, Christopher Wheeldon, Katarzyna Skarpetowska (with Parsons Dance).

AUDIO: https://innabarmash.bandcamp.com/album/yiddish-lullabies-love-songs

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc5FGo415o8&list=PLbIPvwt2YdFnnV4tm8lPvrO3SFADI1bFG

"...At Joe’s Pub, Inna Barmash led an excellent band ... through a set of frequently spellbinding, emotionally rich new arrangements of old Jewish folk tunes from the Ukraine and points further west. In this performance, Barmash built a warmly personable rapport with the audience, sharing her passion and erudite knowledge of obscure treasures brought to light by both Dmitri Shostakovich as well as legendary pre-Holocaust archivist Moishe Beregovsky. . . . As nuanced a singer as [Inna] Barmash is in the studio – her new album, Yiddish Love Songs and Lullabies, many of which she played this evening – is fantastic, but live is where her heart is...." - New York Music Daily

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