Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, along with famed klezmer trio Veretski Pass, will perform CONVERGENCE, the sold-out hit of the 29th annual Berkeley Jewish Music Festival, on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at 7 p.m., at Anodyne Coffee Walker’s Point, 224 W. Bruce St, Convergence brings together 100 years of Yiddish folk music and African-American spiritual music. This exciting musical collaboration joins elements from classical, jazz, blues, and gospel music with Jewish folk songs, synagogue music, and Negro spirituals.
Anthony Russell is an African American classically- trained vocalist and composer. Raised in a Christian family, Russell is now Jewish, married to Rabbi Michael Rothbaum, and a world-class Yiddish singer. His work explores the connections between his identities, drawing on themes of hope, spirituality, exile, and redemption. (https://www.anthonyrussellbass.com/)
In addition to Convergence, Anthony Russell will perform on Thursday, April 12, 2018, at 7 p.m. at the Ovation Jewish Home (1414 N. Prospect Ave.,
“The Sidor Belarsky Songbook.” When Anthony Russell first heard Sidor Belarsky, on the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ film, A Serious Man, he thought he was listening to Paul Robeson in Yiddish. Now he is bringing Belarsky’s music to a wider audience.
On Friday, April 13, 2018, at 6 p.m. at the Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, 2020 W. Brown Deer Rd. “Written in Breath.” Anthony Russell will perform a musical conversation between classic Jewish texts and Yiddish songs.
