Here you'll find information about over 20 different concerts featuring original Contemporary Folk, World Jewish Roots Music in Hebrew, Ladino(Judeo-Spanish), Yiddish and English and Great Classics of American Song. Some are celebrations of folk, sacred and ethnic music, others are theme or tribute shows created by Laura honoring the artistry, social context and legacy of some of America's most gifted songwriters and legendary performers. The Songwriter's Notebook / Laura Wetzler In Concert show includes a little of all of the above. All concerts are also available as multimedia lecture / workshop presentations. Laura performs solo with guitar, with guest back-up musicians or in a duo with gospel / R&B singer Janiece Thompson. For more information contact Maggie Sash : booking@laurawetzler.com or call (413) 634-5617 EST   "As a working singer, composer and lyricist, I am always studying the history and craft, the art of songs, song writing and singers, with a special interest in World Jewish and American Music. After a concert one day, Eric Robbins, then of the Educational Alliance in NYC, came up and said, 'Laura, you seem to know a lot about this music-would you consider doing a 5 part lecture series for me?' So I did. Since then, I've put together theme concerts, multimedia lecture demonstrations and hands-on workshops about music and musicians that inspire me in different ways. I try not to make a concert a lecture or a lecture a concert. I share my own excitement in exploring the musical artistry, history,craft and context and hope others enjoy it too. I include some of my favorites in my concert of original songs Songwriter's Notebook as well. I love to sing, write music and lyrics and study. I believe in 'honoring the ancestors'. Sharing it all is great fun." Laura

Concerts and Lectures Songwriter's Notebook Ascap Award Winning singer-songwriter Laura Wetzler's Songwriter's Notebook/In Concert show features original songs from her critically-acclaimed debut CD Songwriter's Notebook spiced with World Jewish roots music in Hebrew, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and Yiddish and great folk, pop and blues classics. Kabbalah Music: Songs of the Jewish Mystics World Jewish Roots Music The Hitmakers in Hollywood: Great Songs from the Movies Kabbalah in Music, Art, Literature and Film Great American Songmakers: Blues, Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley Sacred Resistance: Jewish Songs of Peace, Justice and Social Change from Around the World Laura Wetzler and Gerard Edery Duo Show Jewels of the Diaspora: A Concert Celebration African-American and Jewish Song, featuringR&B/Gospel singer Janiece Thompson & Laura Wetzler. The Hitmakers: Immigrant Roots, American Dreams ArtJam™ Songs of the Lost Communities (Holocaust) Adventures in Sephardi, Mizraki and African Jewish Song Music of the Jews of Italy Kurt Weill, Brecht and the Legacy of German Jewish Music Jewish Women in Jewish Song Songs of Healing and Wonder Z'mirot of the Whole Jewish World The 'Jewish' Musicals Great Women Singers Series: American Songbirds (Bessie, Billie, Ella, Mahalia, Nina & Aretha) Broadway Belters and Torch Mamas (Waters, Horne, Mercer, Merman, Martin, Garland) Fabulous Showbiz Divas: (Fannie, Sophie, Barbra & Bette) Classics of American Songwriting: The Great American Songbook: 100 Years of Folk and Popular Song making The Way You Wear Your Hat: Great Lyricist Series: I, II, III All the Things You Are: Great Melody Maker Series: I, II, III Natural Woman: Tribute to America's Women Songwriters Souls on Fire! : Songpoets and Social Change Essential Gifts: African-American Artists and American Vocal Music Janiece Thompson & Laura Wetzler Women in Gospel: The Heart of African-American Musical Culture Janiece Thompson & Laura Wetzler Kidsong™ Songwriting Workshop

Descriptions:

The Hitmakers in Hollywood: Great Songs from the Movies
Concert /lecture series explores great songs from classic American films and celebrates their creators. Includes Berlin, Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Hamlish, Bacharach, the Bergmans, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, & others. Features Laura's jazz trio.

Kabbalah in Music, Art, Literature and Film
This multi-media, 5 part survey lecture series introduces basic concepts of 5000 years of Jewish mysticism and explores their expression in Jewish song and dance, the art of the Chagall and of Jewish ritual objects, the Sephardi poetry of Shabbat, the stories of the Torah and of Singer, Peretz, Malamud and Potok, as well as such films as the Dybbuk and The Golem.

Sacred Resistance: Jewish Songs of Peace, Justice and Social Change from Around the World
A cross-cultural exploration of how communities worldwide use both sacred and secular songs, based in Jewish literature,
to organize, fuel active resistance to oppression and pursue peace, justice and survival.

Great American Songmakers: Blues, Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley
Concert/ lecture series explores the music, artistry, lives and legacies of such great American songmakers as W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.

ArtJam™
Laura's concerts and lectures (solo or with trio) coordinated thematically with conferences, poetry performances, art gallery and museum shows. The Javits Center, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Rutgers, ABC NO RIO Gallery; Brooklyn Historical Society, Holocaust Museums, Do The Right Thing Festival, NYC; Hudson River Maritime Museum, Dixon Place, Nuyorican Poets Café, Womens One World Festival, Center for Anti-Violence Education, NYC, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, among many others.

Songs of the Lost Communities
Songs from both Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities celebrating the vitality of prewar Jewish life; Holocaust memorial; Laura's father Rudi was a Nazi era survivor from Frankfurt, AM Germany.

Adventures in Sephardic, Mizraki and African Jewish Song
Enjoy the beautiful songs created by Jews living in such places as Spain, Turkey, Greece, Sarjevo, Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Uganda, Morocco, Syria, India (everywhere but Eastern Europe, Germany and the U.S)... Discover how the great Sephardic poets influence Jewish literature and song the world over; trace these sacred and secular songs on their journey through time and place.

Jewish Women in Jewish Song
A musical celebration of the contributions of women to Jewish life through songs from all over the world; also the lives and songs of women composers, performers and collectors who create, rescue, renew and transmit this cultural heritage.

Z'mirot from the Whole Jewish World

Songs of Healing and Wonder

Kurt Weill, Bertold Brecht and the German Jewish Legacy
An exploration of the songs of these brilliant creators whose work still challenges us to ask what the role and responsibility of the artist is in any culture;. Survey of the German Jewish music legacy.

The 'Jewish' Musicals
Fiddler and beyond: explores the Jewish experience as depicted on the Broadway musical stage. Milk & Honey, the Rothschild's, Two by Two, Wholesale, Funny Girl, Parade and others.

Great American Singers Tribute Series
American Songbirds (Bessie, Billie, Ella, Mahalia & Nina)
Broadway Belters and Torch Mamas (Waters, Horne, Mercer, Merman, Martin, Garland)
Fabulous Showbiz Divas: (Fannie, Sophie, Barbra & Bette)

Classics of American Songwriting
The Great American Songbook
A tribute concert including some of America's best folk and popular songs from Shenandoah, Storyville, Vaudeville, Nashville, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, Motown, Hollywood, the Brill, Billboard, and places in between. Lecture: Explore one of the most powerful mysteries of music-the power of a simple song. What makes a timeless, great song in each genre? What are the multicultural, historical and other influences on the lyric, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic elements, content and form, that contribute to a good song? Which traditional folk, contemporary folk, Jazz, Blues, R&B, Rock, country and pop songs might belong in the "Great American Songbook" and why.

The Way You Wear Your Hat: Great American Lyricist Series I, II, III: The art and craft of lyric writing in several genres: 3 volumes include The Child Ballads, Shaker hymns, spirituals, Blues, lullabies, Berlin, Hart, Gershwin, Porter, Hammerstein, Razaf, Harburg, Loesser,Harnick, Sondheim, Seeger, Ian, Nyro,Wonder, King, Mitchell, Meeropol, Cohen (ok, he's Canadian) Simon and others.

All The Things You Are: Great American Melody Maker Series I, II, III
3 Volumes: Joplin, Blake, W.C. Handy, Berlin, Kern, Ellington, Gershwin, Rodgers, Loesser, Loewe, Bernstein, Sondheim, Weill, Seeger, Wonder, Bacharach, Bock, Simon, Joel and many others.

Natural Woman: Tribute to Women Songwriters
A celebration of the women who fought their way through the songwriting establishment becoming writers or co-writers of some of America's best songs; from spirituals, folk ballads and lullabies to Blues divas and gospel composers to Fields, Rodgers, Janis Ian, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King to today's contemporary writers.

Souls on Fire: Songpoets and Social Change Explores the songs and songwriters that have helped fuel social justice movements in the US in the 20th century; a celebration of vision, action and change as expressed through the inspiring voices of artists such as Robeson, Berenice Johnson-Reagon, Dylan, Reynolds, Collins, migrant worker, labor songs, Mitchell, Wonder, Seeger, Baez, Ochs and many others.

Essential Gifts: African-American Artists and American Vocal Music
A celebration of the vital contributions of African-American composers and singers to every style of vocal music; the songwriters, the vocal artistry, musical elements, historical influences and the role of the church in this diverse, multicultural heritage. Janiece Thompson & Laura Wetzler

Women in Gospel: The Heart of African-American Musical Culture. Janiece Thompson & Laura Wetzler

Kidsong™ Songwriting Workshop/ Familysong™ Songwriting Workshop
Nurturing the creative spirit inherent in every person, The Kidsong™ Songwriting Workshop encourages kids ages 7-16 (or adults!) to express themselves and explore their culture, history, identity, feelings and values through the group creation of original songs. A fun, guided, cooperative process set in an atmosphere of emotional safety and mutual respect, The Workshop uniquely reinforces reading, writing, thinking and listening skills through the dual arts of lyric writing and music composition. Creating together with professional Singer-Songwriter Laura Wetzler in 3/45 minute sessions, children gain an immense sense of validation and accomplishment, proudly culminating in a performance of their work. (brochure available)

Worldbeat Jewish Music: Adventures in African, Sephardi and Mizraki Jewish Song
Explore the exciting rhythms of   Jewish music with a world beat, based on Laura’s extensive work in Africa, through great songs from Uganda, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, India, Yemen, Iraq, to Israel, Spain & Italy.

“Music of the Jews of Italy”
Explore the diverse Jewish musical traditions that combine into one of the most ancient, beautiful and influential Jewish communities in the world.

The Great Cantors
Rossenblatt, Kwartin, Koussevitsky, Hershman, Oysher,Waldman, and more. Explore the spiritual art of Eastern European cantorial music. Enjoy the beautiful voices of these gifted sacred singers. Compare and contrast the Ashkenazi aesthetic with the sacred musical traditions of other world Jewish cultures.

Great Jewish Singers from the Bima,  Opera, Second Ave. & Broadway.
Enjoy the artistry of some of the finest voices to emerge from Jewish culture: Rosenblatt, Oysher, Tucker, Peerce, Sills, Peters, Merrill, Jolsen, Cantor, Patinkin, Picon & Streisand.

The Art of Molly Picon
Explore the life, career, and artistry of the wonderful Molly Picon, star of Broadway, Hollywood, and Yiddish stage and screen. Enjoy rare classic performances from the 50- year career of this versatile artist.

Strange Fruit: American Jewish Songwriters, Tikkun Olam and Social Change” 

"Eyn Keloheynu":
The Sacred and Secular Musical Legacies of the German Jews”

“September Song: The Music of Kurt Weill”

The Great Broadway Showmen: Flo Zeigfeld, Billy Rose, Hal Prince, David Merrick.
Explore the life and careers of America’s greatest Broadway producers. Enjoy backstage stories and excerpts from a century of hit shows.

Classic Hoofers: Great Dancers & Choreographers of Stage & Screen
George Balanchine, Agnes DeMille, Gower & Marge Champion, Eleanor Powell, Astaire,  Rogers, & Hermes Pan, Katherine Dunham, the Nicholas Brothers, Bill “Bo Jangles” Robinson, Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, Pat Birch, Garth Fagen, Greg Hines & Bob Fosse. Explore the life and work of some of the most original dance masters in American popular entertainment. Examine the history of popular dance in America and its resurgence in contemporary music video.

Abayudaya Jews of Uganda: A Multimedia Presentation from the Inside  
Laura volunteers as www.kulanu.org Coordinator for Uganda and works closely with the Abayudaya Jewish Community in Uganda on over 24 development projects.
  
In this talk she shares 5 years of amazing experience in Jewish Africa and presents a computer based slide-show and Q&A  with photos from 4 Abayudaya synagogues in Uganda, 2 schools, African Jewish women's empowerment, child hunger program, water, sanitation and electricty projects. Hear the story  of  the fair trade, organic, kosher, interfaith Mirembe Kawomera Coffee Project (www.thanksgivingcoffee.com) the  Jewish Life in Uganda Mitzvah Tour and Wildlife Safari, (www.kulanu.org) and the Abayudaya micro-finance small business loan project, all  created by Laura together with the visionary leaders of the Abayudaya community. Learn about exciting volunteer opportunities. Given in conjunction with a concert performance or scholar in residence program. Fee donated.
  
Mitzvah Work: Best Antidote to the Evening News (shabbat talk)  
Laura volunteers as www.kulanu.org Coordinator for Uganda and works closely with the Abayudaya Jewish Community in Uganda on over 24 development projects. In this talk she shares 5 years of experience gained working in Jewish Africa.
  
Given in conjunction with a concert performance or scholar in residence program. Fee donated.