Acclaimed klezmer-rock band Mostly Kosher has been described as delivering a musical feast that explodes into a global food-fight of jazz, Latin, rock, and folk.  The Ferguson Center at Christopher Newport University will welcome their radically reconstructed Judaic and American cultural music, filled with what have been called “ravishing klezmer beats and arresting Yiddish refrains,” on Sunday, December 1st at 3:00pm. All seats are just $43, with an additional discount if you use promo code “UJCVP.”

Led by frontman Leeav Sofer, one of Jewish Journal’s “30 under 30” most accomplished professionals in the Los Angeles Jewish diaspora, Mostly Kosher includes violinist Janice Mautner Markham, drummer Eric Hagstrom, bassist Adam Levy, trombonist Mike King, and Will Brahm on guitar, with guest artists Aníbal Seminario and Anderson Quintero.

The music of the Jewish people from Eastern Europe, Klezmer grew to popularity in the 1800s and has enjoyed an American resurgence in recent decades. As Markham said in an interview last year, Mostly Kosher fits comfortably under the World Music tent. “Jews have lived all over the globe. Our music is far from a one-size-fits-all,” she said. “But the common denominator is that it comes from the core of the Jewish cultural heritage; we just pick it up from whatever country of origin we find it, and then drive it to a whole new destination.”

Along with leading the Mostly Kosher band, Leeav Sofer is on faculty at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and he is dedicated to progressing cultural folk music of Judaic heritage. He is the founder of The Urban Voices Project, a program that provides music workshops for men, women and families suffering from homelessness in Skid Row and around Los Angeles County.

Violinist Janice Mautner Markham is on faculty at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, and is associate band leader of Mostly Kosher. She is Artistic Director of Vox Box Arts Collective, a non-profit supported by numerous organizations including The Alaska Mental Health Trust, The NEA, and the James Irvine Foundation. Janice is involved in boots-on-ground activism as a volunteer canvasser through The Leadership Lab at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. She earned a Masters in Social Justice/Human Rights at Arizona State University and is a Doctoral Researcher at Birmingham University, UK, for her thesis, Women Composers Impacted by the Holocaust.

In advance of the December 1st concert at the Ferguson Center, Leeav and Janice will be making an advance visit to the UJCVP on November 3rd to share a taste of what is to come. In the morning, they will lead an interactive workshop for kids and families to learn all about klezmer music while stomping, clapping, stamping and snapping to Old World beats and New World rhythms! Participants will learn joyous Freylekh beats and Yiddish niguns while incorporating body percussion, “call and response” singing and yai dai dai-ing!

In the afternoon on November 3rd, they will lead an exploration for adults on the history of Klezmer and Yiddish music with Mostly Kosher band leaders Leeav Sofer and Janice Mautner Markham. Mostly Kosher has relished their genre mixing and mash-ups of Judaic folk music and modern genres - get an inside look as they deconstruct their process.

More information about both these offerings can be found HERE.

The UJCVP is proud to partner with the Ferguson Center in bringing these opportunities to the community.