Sarah Lazarus Memorial Concert with Sarah Gordon and Yoshie Fruchter

This concert is free to the public, but we ask that you please RSVP. 

In this special concert, fourth generation Yiddish singer, Sarah Mina Gordon is joined by remarkable guitar player, Yoshie Fruchter to present an intimate concert of Yiddish song and poetry. In Yiddish, the word for both poem and song is lid, and the line between Yiddish poem and song has always been more bridge than border. This concert celebrates the brilliance, beauty, and lasting resonance of Yiddish poetry in song, with works by Itsik Manger, Celia Dropkin, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, and Avrom Sutzkever, among others.

Sarah Mina Gordon is a fourth generation Yiddish singer. She fronted the rock band Yiddish Princess and has recorded and performed with Daniel Kahn, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars, The Klezmatics, Sharabi, and others. Daughter of legendary Yiddish singer and scholar Adrienne Cooper, Sarah grew up immersed in innovative Yiddish culture. Dedicated to making new Yiddish art, she has collaborated with Michael Winograd, Alicia Svigals, Frank London, and The Klezmatics to pen original Yiddish songs which are sung around the world. Her song, Ekhod/Who Knows One, is internationally known and has been taught and performed at festivals from California to Krakow. Sarah is also an educator– teaching third grade at Brooklyn Friends School for over fifteen years and designing and leading Yiddish culture programs for children and adults. She is one of the founding organizers of Yiddish New York and regularly teaches Yiddish song at KlezKanada.

Yoshie Fruchter is a guitar, bass and oud player whose playing and composing combines a unique blend of rock, jazz, experimental, and Jewish styles. Fruchter is notable for his work in composing, performing, and interpreting Jewish music, and has constantly forged new directions with his work, regardless of genre. His latest project, Sandcatchers  explores the sounds of the Middle East combined with Americana and atmospheric folk. He has also released two albums on John Zorn’s Tzadik records with his band Pitom and played on several others. His interest in early Jewish cantorial music also led him to do a project called Schizophonia, which recorded arrangements of music by cantors Yossele Rosenblatt, Gershon Sirota and others in a unique style heavily influenced by progressive rock and jazz.