Instrumental Music Workshop
July 23 – 29 @Musikschule
Intermediate & Advanced Level
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. & 3 – 6 p.m.

With Deborah Strauss, Nora Thiele, Alan Bern (Co-Coordinator), Yair Dalal, Christian Dawid (Co-Coordinator), Yagel Haroush
Artists-in-Residence: N.N.



Academic credit for this workshop!

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student at a university or conservatory? If so, you can probably get 1-3 academic credits for taking this workshop, thanks to our new cooperation with the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, Germany. Please send an email to for more details.

The instrumental music workshop is full as of today, June 18, 2018. If you'd like us to put your name on the waiting list, please send an email to 


You might also want to consider the following workshops:
> The Song Workshop, from July 30 to August 5, which is not only for singers but for accompanists, arrangers and composers as well. If that describes you, this is your chance to explore new horizons of song accompaniment with artists such as Alan Bern, Susan Ghergus and Yair Dalal.
> The Hasidic Music Workshop, from August 6-9, led by the iconic Israeli musician, Moussa Berlin, and his daughter, Odeleya. Hassidic music is deeply connected to many different genres of Ashkenazic music, including klezmer music, and learning it directly from the leading Israeli musician for more than 50 years and his path-setting daughter is very special.
> The Dance Orchestra, from August 13-18, led by Ilya Schneyveys, Alan Bern, among others, which is so much fun, you'll be shocked at the end to realize how much you've also learned!
> If you have little or no experience with Yiddish instrumental music, or you simply want to deepen your understanding of it, nothing could be better than the Introduction to Klezmer & Yiddish Song Workshop, from July 30 to August 3, taught by Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer, who have created their own, unique, integrated way of teaching that brings students into the heart of Yiddish music and culture.

An exquisite variety of musical discoveries awaits you in this year's Instrumental Music workshop. Dive into a rich, intercultural exploration of repertoire, rhythm, mode, maqam, instrumental techniques, performance style, theory and history, guided by masterful musicians who are equally skilled and charismatic teachers. The high artistic quality and intensity of this workshop is nourished by an atmosphere that is cooperative, open, non-competitive and simply fun! Participants of all ages, ethnic, national, gender and religious identities are very welcome.

This year's faculty represents a diverse but interconnected mixture of traditional and contemporary musical styles. We are delighted to welcome back vocalist, oud and violin master Yair Dalal, whose pioneering exploration of his Iraqi Jewish musical heritage helped inspire a re-evaluation and revival of all Jewish heritages in Israel with origins in Arabic cultures (mizrahi). Also returning to Yiddish Summer from Israel will be Yagel Haroush, a virtuosic kamancheh and ney player as well as a vocalist, deeply steeped in Persian, Arabic and Moroccan traditions. Klezmer fans will be very happy to learn that New York-based Deborah Strauss, an internationally celebrated pioneer and teacher of contemporary klezmer violin and Yiddish music, will be joining the Instrumental Workshop faculty this year. We welcome for the first time to our teaching team Berlin-based Nora Thiele, one of the finest performers and teachers of percussion in Europe today. Rounding out the faculty for Yiddish and other European musical traditions is Berlin-based Christian Dawid, a virtuosic clarinetist, trombonist and bandleader who has helped create the soundscape of contemporary Yiddish music with his own projects and with other eminent bands. Coordinating the workshop together with Dawid will be Yiddish Summer Artistic Director Alan Bern, pianist, accordionist, composer, bandleader and a leading light of the klezmer and Yiddish music revival since the mid-1980s.

Together with you, the participants, we will work in plenary sessions, ensembles, coaching sessions, lectures and jam sessions. We will also reflect on how our different traditions resemble and differ from one another, musically and socially, and how they contribute to issues of Jewish, non-Jewish and Israeli identities. We will not only discover the spaces that already exist for historically informed music-making, we will create some new spaces of our own! We hope you can join us!

This workshop is for instrumentalists with intermediate to advanced experience in Yiddish or Middle Eastern music. We will work both by ear and with written music. If you'd like to discuss whether this workshop is right for you, please contact the workshop's co-coordinator, Christian Dawid:

SPECIAL TIP! This year’s Song Workshop, which directly follows the Instrumental Music Workshop, will be especially interesting for instrumentalists, too, including topics such as accompaniment, vocal/instrumental ornamentation and work in ensembles. Especially relevant for instrumental styles that are closely modeled on vocal styles!

Workshop fee: Standard 460 € / Reduced 355 € / Supporter 635 € / Under 18: 180 €
For information about the Standard, Reduced and Supporter fees >> read about