Work to Date

The Klezmer Gourmets have performed at many venues throughout the UK for both daytime and evening events.

July 2007 saw their entry into the "Klezmer Idol" competition - their Klezmer Gourmets image was featured as the main article photograph in The Jewish Chronicle item about the competition.

Earlier in 2007 they gave classes in the community on different aspects of the music, including its History, Style & Interpretation, Melody and Ornamentation.

Towards the end of 2006, they performed a full-length concert programme at a tribute given to the well-known Jewish author and commentator Bernard Kops who had just celebrated his 80th birthday. This was funded by the ENJOY organisation, based in Nottingham.

Other projects completed in 2006 included the NSFI sponsored Memories Project, which took place over several months at a large Residential Home, in the North West. They visited the Home on several occasions, spending time talking with the residents about their memories, playing music to them informally and also performing a more formal concert for them too.

Some of the conversations they had with the residents were recorded; the culmination of the project was a professionally produced CD, presented to the Home, of music recorded by the Klezmer Gourmets, interspersed with clips of some of the residents speaking about their 'memories', hence the project name.

December 2005 saw us performing at a Klezmer Tea-party in North Manchester, at the Nicky Alliance Centre, with the Klezmer Gourmets performing Yiddish tunes taught to them by the audience!

In June 2005, the Klezmer Gourmets were invited to perform at the Garden of Delights festival, in the Turquoise Tent, a major Manchester International Arts event, which attracted more than 15,000 people over three days.

May 2005 saw a series of Klezmer dance workshops with music provided by members of the larger Klezmeruk ensemble.

Michael and Ros ran a monthly practical workshop series on Klezmer music, for instrumentalists of all levels from 2004 - 2006.

They received substantial funding from the Performing Rights Society given for their commissioning of a new work. The world premiere of 'Three Discourses' composed by Ray Kohn, took place in November 2004, as part of a major Klezmer concert, featuring many of the North West's Klezmer and East European music players.