Toronto Summer season Music: Schmaltz & PepperEric Abramovitz, clarinet; Drew Jurecka, violin/bandoneon; Rebekah Wolkstein, violin/voice; Jeremy Ledbetter, piano; Michael Herring, bass. Walter Corridor, July 16, 2025.
My first week of attending the 2025 Toronto Summer season Music Competition (July 10 – August 2) ended on a excessive. I’m referring to a superb Klezmer efficiency I noticed final night at Walter Corridor, given by the chamber ensemble Schmaltz & Pepper.
Klezmer
I’ve TSM to thank for introducing me to Klezmer. My first style of this style was six years in the past within the 2019 Competition. Performing then was the Montreal-based chamber ensemble by the title of Kleztory. I used to be awestruck by its effervescent spirit and complete pleasure of their music making. I heard Kleztory once more within the 2022 TSM, and I used to be hooked!
For these unfamiliar with the historic origin of the Klezmer style — it’s the Yiddish people music of the Ashkenazi Jews of central and japanese Europe. It additionally attracts inspiration from Roma people dances, the folks music of Germanic and Slavic peoples, plus components of North American jazz and pop. The rhythm of this style is toe-tappingly infectious.
The ensemble final night was Schmaltz & Pepper, a comparatively new troupe that shaped simply a few years in the past. All are classically educated musicians, led by Eric Abramovitz, who occurs to be the Principal Clarinet of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Each Rebekah Wolkstein and Drew Jurecka are glorious violinists. Jurecka additionally performs the bandoneon. Jeremy Ledbetter is the terrific pianist, and Michael Herring gives the rock-solid bass.
I heard them for the primary time on the 2023 TSM, in addition to a present at Moses Znaimer’s Zoomer Corridor, and a noon-hour gig on the 4 Seasons Centre this previous spring. The present final night was a really beneficiant, 90-minutes program. The sold-out viewers within the 495-seat Walter Corridor was handled to a enjoyable, excessive vitality efficiency, interspersed with loads of Jewish humour — that Abramovitz certain has reward of the gab.
The Music
Judging by the response, the viewers was blown away, merely put. Loads of highlights — I cherished the hilarious “Mozart the Mensch,” a bit created by Abramovitz. You gained’t hear Mozart the identical method after this! Beethoven received equal therapy, with excerpts from Ode to Pleasure, right here “Klezmerized” as “Ode to Oy”! Want I say extra…
One other enjoyable piece was “I’m Sorry Mama,” with vocals by Wolkstein, who additionally wrote the textual content. It’s a enjoyable if barely politically incorrect jab at a Jewish mom wanting her daughter to marry wealthy. Nicely, the daughter sings: “I’m Sorry Mama” — as a result of she finally ends up marrying a poor musician!
I feel fairly a couple of of the viewers members — together with yours actually — walked into the nice and cozy night time air afterwards with a smile on our face.
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Joseph So is Professor Emeritus at Trent College and Affiliate Editor of Opera Canada.He’s additionally a long-time contributor to La Scena Musicale and Opera (London, UK). His curiosity in music journalism focuses on voice, opera in addition to symphonic and piano repertoires. He seems commonly as a panel member of the Massive COC Podcast.He has co-edited a ebook, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, printed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
