YSW Team

is the recipient of the prestigious Weimar Prize in 2016, co-founder and chair of othermusic e.V. and creator and artistic director of Yiddish Summer Weimar and Winter Edition. He is a composer/arranger, pianist, accordionist, educator, cultural activist and philosopher.
In 2017, Bern was honored with the Thuringia Order of Merit.

He is co-founder and director of "Brave Old World," founder and director of "The Other Europeans" and "Diaspora Redux," and he also performs with Bern, Brody & Rodach and with Guy Klucevsek.
His education included classical piano with Paul Badura-Skoda and Leonard Shure, jazz with Karl Berger, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton and others, contemporary music with John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, Joel Hoffman and others, and philosophy and cognitive science with Dan Dennett. He received his master's degree in philosophy and his doctorate in music composition. 

In 2009, he was given the Ruth Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a musician and educator and achievement with "Brave Old World".

>> www.alanbern.net

Foto: Yulia Kabakova

Katrin Füllsack



Foto: Pierre Kamin

Andreas Schmitges

Andreas Schmitges is a musician, dance leader, cultural manager, artistic consultant, workshop instructor and researcher, primarily in the field of Yiddish music culture. He studied jazz guitar at the Cologne University of Music before taking up the mandolin, and has authored several scientific essays on Yiddish music and dance. Andreas has been affiliated with Yiddish Summer and the Other Music Academy since the very beginning, and is happy and proud to be able to contribute to the development of other music e.V. as a member of the board. He is the curator of YSW 2018 and the project manager and initiator of both the KADYA youth choir and the Caravan Orchestra; he also leads and coordinates the Yiddish Dance Workshop and teaches the Yiddish Children's Song workshop.

Foto: Adam Berry

Johannes Paul Gräßer



Foto: Pierre Kamin

Sabrina Rostek

 

Foto: Pierre Kamin

Katrin Petlusch



Foto: Jörn Ziller

Hannah Schäfer

Sayumi Yoshida

studied Visual Communication and worked in a Tokyo design agency before coming to Berlin, where she studied at the Hochschule der Künste (today the Universität der Künste). After obtaining her degree in 1993, she worked as an artist on sound and site installations and also as a freelance graphic designer.


Since 2010, she has been responsible for the visual image of Yiddish Summer, Other Music Academy and othermusic e.V., including internet presence, posters, t-shirts and more. 
She has long been interested in Yiddish dance and has given workshops on the subject in Japan at "Osaka University" and "Japanese‐Jewish Friendship and Study Society in Kobe."

Since 2006, she's been a member of the Berlin-based dance ensemble "TarantaScalza" (Tarantella – traditional Southern Italian dance) with whom she has performed at many festivals.

www.talkingsine.de
www.tarantella-scalza.de

Photo: Shendl Copitman