Meet Chicago's finest pre-college classical musicians.

Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Ensemble

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Today we heard music performed by the Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Ensemble, a program of the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band's Klezmer Music Foundation.Since 1994, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band has been teaching the traditional music known as klezmer to young musicians. Over the past decade, Maxwell Street’s Junior Klezmer Orchestra has trained over 200 young musicians. These Junior High and High School students perform at concerts for music festivals, libraries, religious schools, senior residences and not-for-profit organizations.

Program:

1) Chusn-Kalleh Mazl Tov (Congratulations, Bride and Groom) Folk song, folk melody

2) Tosca po Rodinye (Longing for the Homeland) Alexey Vertovsky, composer

3) Flatbush Waltz by Andy Statman segue Chassidic Dances (Traditional folk dances)

4) Zol Zayn Gelebt (Gotta be Lively) by Dave Tarras

5) Sheyn vi di Levone (Lovely as the Moon) Lyrics by Chaim Tauber, Music by Yosef Rumshinsky

6) Crimean Sketches (By the Andreyev Balalaika Ensemble, in an arrangement loaned to us courtesy of the University of Illinois Balalaika Orchestra)

7) Sammy's Freilechs by Giora Feidman

8) Reb Itzik's Nign (Reb Isaac’s Melody) (Itzhak Perlman/Alan Bern)

9) Metelitza (Snowstorm) Trad. Russian Folk Song

10) Freitog Noch’n Tzimmis (Friday night after the fruit stew) by Lt. Joseph Frankel