INNA BARMASH & SHOKO NAGAI | YIDDISH SONGS OF LOVE AND LOSS

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 Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin 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. 

SHOKO NAGAI 

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.

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. 

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, as well arrangements for the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alondra de la Parra, songwriters Natalia Lafourcade and Carlos Vives, composer/guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla and Osvaldo Golijov. 

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

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbIPvwt2YdFnnV4tm8lPvrO3SFADI1bFG 

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