YIVO is Participating in Carnegie Hall's Festival, United in Sound: America at 250

(New York, NY) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is delighted to announce its participation in Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. The festival highlights the extraordinary musical riches that have evolved and flourished in the United States throughout the country’s history. This spring, YIVO will host four festival events, celebrating the amazing contribution American music has made to world culture, and its impact across a wide range of genres.

YIVO Events:

What:            Klezmer and Other Displaced Musics in America
When:           Monday, April 6, 2026 at 1:00pm ET
Where:          On Zoom
Cost:              Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Displaced-Musics

Scholar and performer Walter Zev Feldman explores the vibrant, yet largely concealed, musical culture of the klezmer revitalization in New York, Philadelphia, and other American cities in the 1960s.

What:            The Cantorial “Golden Age” in America
When:           Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 1:00pm ET
Where:          On Zoom
Cost:              Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Cantorial-Golden-Age

Scholar-musician Jeremiah Lockwood discusses some of the major stars of the cantorial “golden age” in America.

What:            Yiddish Theater, George Gershwin, and the Birth of an American Sound
When:           Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 1:00pm ET
Where:          On Zoom
Cost:              Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/George-Gershwin

Ronald Robboy explores the idea that George Gershwin’s internalization of Black Americans’ music was influenced by his early immersion in Yiddish theater.

What:            Khantshe in Amerike — An Operetta by Joseph Rumshinsky
When:           Monday, May 18, 2026 at 7:00pm ET
Where:          On Zoom and in person at YIVO, Located in the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011)
Cost:              In person: Admission: $15/Members and Students: $10
                       On Zoom: Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Khantshe

Join YIVO for a special performance of the music of Khantshe in Amerike, a 1912 operetta exploring themes of love, gender, women's suffrage, and the changing social status of women in turn-of-the-century America. Reconstructed from a variety of archival materials housed at YIVO—including newly donated materials from the Thomashefsky Archive, gifted by Michael Tilson Thomas—the operetta will be performed by students of the Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program. This concert is part of the Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series, made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum.

All four events are co-sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum.

For more information contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry worldwide. For over a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our global outreach and enable us to share our vast resources. The YIVO Archives contains more than 24 million original items, and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for such study in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story