7.3.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
July 3-5, 2009
6.25.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
June 26-July 1
6.20.09
The return of Jew-hatred, now disguised as anti-Zionism
by Walter Reich in the Baltimore Sun
6.19.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
June 19-25
6.17.09
Rogovoy to headline Klezmer program
at Hevreh, Tuesday, June 23, 7:30 pm
6.16.09
Remembering Joel Librizzi
Late great Berkshire Eagle photographer and personality
6.13.09
Sol LeWitt's System explained
from the Wall Street Journal
6.11.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights, June 12-14
Your guide to the top events
6.4.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
June 5-7
9.27.08
A critic's dismissal raises questions of conflicts of interest
from the WALL STREET JOURNAL
6.1.09
[THEATER REVIEW] Shirley Valentine at Shakespeare and Company
Review by SETH ROGOVOY of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magzine
5.31.09
[MUSIC REVIEW] Close Encounters with Felix Mendelssohn and Eduard Franck
Review by SETH ROGOVOY of BERKSHIRE LIVING magazine
5.28.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
May 29-31, 2009
5.24.09
[EAGLE WATCH] Blaming the victim
If Israel is to blame for Hamas, is U.S. to blame for Al Qaeda?
5.22.09
Merce Cunningham to be honored by Jacob's Pillow
[PRESS RELEASE] Legendary choreographer to receive cash award at June 20 gala
5.22.09
Merce Cunningham to be honored by Jacob's Pillow
[PRESS RELEASE] Legendary choreographer to receive cash award at June 20 gala
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[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
2.18.08
SARAH AROESTE
Club Helsinki
February 17, 2008
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
(Great Barrington, Mass., February 18, 2008) -- Last night at Club Helsinki, Sarah Aroeste demonstrated why Yiddish music's overlooked cousin, Ladino music, is getting short shrift and is worthy of as much attention as its Ashkenazic relative.
Stemming herself from a Sephardic family with roots in Greece (to where many Jews fled from the Spanish Inquisition), Aroeste and her acoustic trio took listeners on a journey through the Sephardic diaspora on a program of traditional folk songs and several original compositions.
Accompanied by the masterful Dan Nadel (flamenco guitar & oud) and Liron Peled (percussion), Aroeste boasted a lovely and alluring stage presence -- literally drawing listeners in with her subtly inviting gestures of her hands and swanlike arms.
But it was Aroeste's voice that kept the full-house crowd enraptured, as she utilized her classically trained instrument and her fluency in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and Spanish to cross linguistic barriers and paint a portrait of life in the Sephardic diaspora. She's like a funkier, hipper Joan Baez of the Ladino world.
Aroeste is still a relatively young, green performer, but she has all the tools -- in terms of performance and originality -- to revive interest in this wonderful tradition and to take it to the next step, much as groups like the Klezmatics have done with Yiddish music.
Seth Rogovoy is the author of THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER: A MUSIC LOVER'S GUIDE TO JEWISH ROOTS AND SOUL MUSIC.
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