Klezmer-in-George VI Park

If you enjoyed Klezmer at Broadstairs Folk Week, there is  a chance to listen to more of this emotive music at the Ramsgate Summer Squall next bank holiday weekend.

On Monday 25 August, at 3pm, Ramsgate Montefiore Heritage presents Klezmer-in-George VI Park  a musical afternoon, featuring Shir, the complete Jewish music group. They will perform beside the Italianate Greenhouse where an al fresco tearoom will provide refreshments. The event is free.

Coming from different musical backgrounds (classical, jazz and gypsy folk), the five musicians of Shir perform Klezmer, Yiddish, Sephardi and Ladino music. Formed by

Maurice Chernick in 1997, the group has become a major force on the UK Jewish music scene, performing concerts and fulfilling the original function of the Klezmorim - entertaining at Simchas, Jewish parties.

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews originating in the 'shtetl' (villages) and the ghettos of Eastern Europe. Itinerant Jewish troubadours, known as 'klezmorim', performed at joyful events (simchas), particularly weddings, and were inspired by religious and secular melodies as well as by popular dances.

Sephardi music comes from the Jewish communities of Medieval Spain with influences from Morocco, Turkey and Greece. Songs are in Ladino, the language of the Jews of Sepharad, the  name the Spanish Jews gave to the Iberian Peninsula.