Chassidic Songs touring Slovakia (source: Jamrila Uhlíková)
The 2017 album More Chassidic Songs by Bratislava rabbi Baruch Myers and famous Slovak musicians – namely violinist Miloš Valent, accordionist Boris Lenko and cellist Jozef Lupták – will be introduced live to audiences around the country.
Starting on May 28 in the Nová Cvernovka venue in Bratislava (at 19:00), they will embark on a tour that goes on to Žilina (New Synagogue, May 29), Lučenec (June 24), and Banská Bystrica (Robotnícky Dom, June 26).
Chassidic Songs is a project that started 10 years ago, when this ensemble of musicians made an album. Now, they have reunited to continue the project and issue a new album, organisers wrote.
Chassidic or Hasidic music is the expression of Jewish religious groups who lived in parts of central and eastern Euope, from Poland and the Ukraine through Slovakia all the way to Hungary, cultivating their own culture, especially music. The recent album give it a new, more modern and artistic form.
“After almost 10 years of the Chassidic Songs project, the strongest moment for me is still meeting with my friends - Boris, Miloš and Baruch – when rehearsing and playing,” cellist and organiser Jozef Lupták of the Konvergencie group says. “My personal liking towards this music is as strong as it was in the beginning when I first learned about it – if not stronger.”
The combination of music and communication we experience together is exceptional, Lupták also noted, adding that the Chassidic songs capture a big part of historical connections within the central-European region “which we are part of”. This concerns not just the Jewish community but the culture at large.
