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How hundreds of forgotten klezmer tunes have been rescued from oblivion

JL;DR SUMMARY An extensive collection of over 1,000 historic klezmer tunes, long dormant in Kyiv's Vernadsky National Library, has been revitalized by the Klezmer Institute through the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

KlezmerVernadsky National LibraryCultural RediscoveryKlezmer InstituteMusical HeritageChristina CrowderKiselgof MakonovetskyHannah OchnerDigital Manuscript ProjectSheet Music

Places mentioned

Kyiv, Ukraine
"More than one thousand klezmer tunes, some dating back to the late 19th Century, are being performed and recorded after sitting in a library in Kyiv for years."
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
"This increases European klezmer music by fourfold over what was accessible before, Christina Crowder, the New Haven-based accordion player who heads the institute, told me."
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
"The German klezmer clarinetist now lives in England and fronts a klezmer ensemble called Hop Skotshne."
United Kingdom
"Susi Evans and Szilvia Csaranko, a klezmer duo based in the UK and Germany, have taught the newly-digitzed tunes at Shtetl Berlin jam sessions and Yiddish Summer Weimar."
Weimar, Thuringia, Germany
"Susi Evans and Szilvia Csaranko, a klezmer duo based in the UK and Germany, have taught the newly-digitzed tunes at Shtetl Berlin jam sessions and Yiddish Summer Weimar."
Bologna, Italy
"Angelo Baselli in Bologna, Italy, teamed up with the accordionist Gianluca Casadei to record Fun a Velt Vos iz Nishto Mer, Of a World That Is No More."
California, United States
"Two klezmer trios in the Bay Area of Northern California have Kiselgof-Makonovetsky tracks on their most recent albums, both on the Borscht Beat label."
Munkacs, Zakarpattia, Ukraine
"Her mother grew up 45 miles away in the town Munkacs, where the Munkacher Hasidic sect began."
New York, United States
"Lyudmila Sholokhova, curator of the Dorot Jewish Collection at the New York Public Library, told me."

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Retrieved 2025-12-24 05:31:09 UTC
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