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Sketches

Welcome to the new website! We've tried to make it easy to get around and filled with music and info. Please let us know what you think at the guestbook. Here at sketches, I'll be writing notes to let you know what's been going on. I'll keep you posted. From time to time, I'll also be posting drawings and sketches from my travels. Thanks for stopping by and see you on the road. Laura

I am very excited on the eve of my 2007 summer tour of 60 concerts and lectures from June to September. I will sometimes be doing two or three a day, sometimes in two different venues nearby each other. Check with the venues on the tour schedule to see what’s up. During the year I do a lot of one-night concert/lecture appearances and scholar in residency weekends. During the summer, I am in residence for four to six days at a time at some of the most beautiful retreat centers and resorts in the country. These longer lecture concert series give me a chance to really get to know folks and have fun studying together. I love it all and I’m looking forward to seeing you.

Check out the new “Uganda” web pages on volunteer projects I ‘ve been working on for over five years as Kulanu Coordinator for Uganda. Come join me on our tour to Africa in January and help this great community.

Highlights of this year were many more concerts with my band. Working with Wes Brown and Dan Broad on Bass, Robin Burdulis and Richie Davis on percussion is an absolute joy.  I am happy to be able to work solo but my dream is to have all of us together at every gig.  Many of you have asked about new CDs and I appreciate your patience. It is a challenge balancing extensive touring with recording, with family needs and with volunteer work in Uganda. I am blessed with a very full life but I am behind in recording music from my 24 different programs you have been asking for on CD. I know you want a CD of the American Songbook standards, and you should know I have been working on songs for a  children’s album- songs I’ve written for my family, as well as a CD of new and unrecorded originals you have requested. My goal is to get into the studio after the summer tour.

The new song this season, “Flying”, has met with enormous reaction on the road. I have been trying to find a way to write the story of my mother-in-law Ursula, and her sister Helga’s holocaust experience in a song for at least 10 years. I am asked to sing many “Songs of the Lost Communities” Holocaust programs. Always the question is for me:
how to do justice to those we have lost?

Helga and my mother in law Ursula were two German Jewish girls from Breslau who, starting at ages 13 and 15, smuggled anti-Hitler newspapers into Germany in their ski poles, escaping detection for 3 years until they both were caught. My father was also a survivor, a member of the early anti-Hitler Reichsbanner resistance movement in Germany. He was lucky to get out and I am lucky to be here. I felt a great debt to Helga’s memory and I worked on the song for a long time. I am very gratified by your responses to “Flying”. Thank goodness Ursula likes it too. Here are the words:  FLYING

 

I loved singing for so many of you this year, particularly concerts and lectures in Uganda, Italy, Belize, Florida, San Antonio and all over the US. Looking forward to seeing you at concerts, lectures and workshops this season!

This past March, I was invited to a sing at an international music conference based on 11th century composer Ovadia HaGer in Oppido Lucano, Italy and had a remarkable experience. Ovadia composed "Waeda Ma" the first song on my  Kabbalah Music: Songs of the Jewish Mystics CD. I was invited as a result of the recording and honored to join eminent musicians, history and music scholars in exploring the life and work of this composer, who was born in Oppido, in the Basilicata region, south and east of Salerno..

My mother was of Italian descent and   Music of the Jews of Italy is one of my favorite courses of study and concert programs- this was a trip home! Italy in springtime, just as the almond trees are blooming pink, is a revelation. We flew to Rome, then Palermo. We toured Sicily, which is an absolute multi-cultural, ancient crossroad joy; drove up the coastal boot over to Oppido, then on to the beautiful Amalfi coast. Here I experienced a Positano village nightmare: Oy! Try backing down a one- lane hairpin turn for a mile by stick shift, a truck in front of you and one behind you! As you may know, no one should drive in Italy without strapping on a helmet and employing a co-pilot. As I learned to drive on the Long Island Expressway, I thought I was ready for the adrenaline speedway. It was the passing on the blind cliff turns with only a honk that got me. We ended our journey in lemon- grove Sorrento, fun, gorgeous corny blue grotto Capri and a drive to Rome. The academic conference in Oppido was fascinating and I met some wonderful singers and musicians from Europe and the US, as well as many scholars whose work I have been studying for years. I was finally able to express my gratitude for their work, which I depend on to do my job well. We were given a great welcome from the people of lovely Oppido Lucano, a tiny medieval hill town set in rolling wheat fields, olive orchards and vineyards. They took us to visit surrounding historical sites. Before the Spanish inquisition, southern Italy was home to thousands of Jews who had lived there from ancient times. All that is left today are some ancient catacombs and Hebrew inscribed tombstones used, with Greek and Roman stones, in the walls and pillars of some of the churches- a hot topic of debate! What was best about the conference was the welcome of the townspeople. Even though few spoke any English we were able to communicate through music and gestures. They were unbelievably warm and gracious. After my performance, one wonderful Oppido artisit, Donato Lancellotti, ran home, came back and presented me with a set of his original drawings, a gift I will treasure always.

Other highlights of touring this year included the February 2004 and January 2005 trips leading groups of folks to visit with members of the    Abayudaya Jewish Community in Uganda. I traveled with great people. We visited and learned from the community, donated time doing clinic hours and teaching, and toured Uganda on wildlife safari adventures. A highlight of the trip was the music and dance festival involving Abayudaya from all 5 villages. It was a fantastic event we all loved. This trip helped Abayudaya earn money for their development projects. Most indigenous communities welcoming US travelers receive little in return for sharing their way of life. We Americans typically consume an experience without giving back much, but the mitzvah tour is created to help Abayudaya strengthen their community.

For 3 years I have been doing volunteer work as Kulanu Coordinator for Uganda www.kulanu.org helping Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, kulanu donors and other volunteers create and facilitate 20 community mitzvah projects. These projects include supporting 2 schools, installation of 9 new water tanks, bringing electricity to the main village, improved sanitation and child nutrition, better health, economic development through craft and music sales, plus new this new tourism, micro-finance and Fairtrade coffee projects. I have learned so much. This volunteer work has been tremendously rewarding at a time when the world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. Making even a small contribution is the only antidote to the despair of the evening news. If you'd like to join me, contact me and I can tell you how you can help.

NEWS! Please join me on an amazing trip to visit the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, Jan. 2006. I am a volunteer leader. I also can help you arrange a small group trip (minimum 4 people) at your convenience. As I said earlier, just visiting this community is a mitzvah (a good deed) as a part of your fees go directly to the Abayudaya in earnings. You will never forget the experience of getting to know this remarkable community. Here is the information:

Adventure Travel with the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda
and Shoebills Safari www.shoebillsafaris.com
Jewish Life in Uganda Mitzvah Tour
& Wildlife Safari
15 days/14 nights January, 2006
Download flyer (pdf)

Abayudaya will be working as our guides, earning money for their Jewish schools, water, electricity and health projects. Volunteer opportunities also available. Come visit with the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda for 2 shabbatot and get to know this wonderful Jewish community. Visit their 5 African village shuls. Enjoy a thrilling wildlife safari to a national park. 4-14 people maximum small group tour by air-conditioned van; accommodations in friendly hotels; vegetarian meals available. Stay at beautiful safari lodgse in magnificent Uganda. Bring your family to see lions, hippos, buffalo, elephants, monkeys, baboons, 500 species of birds all living freely! Also beautiful Sipi Falls, MT. Elgon National Park and Jinja, the source of the Nile. Custom tours available year round.

For more information contact:
Laura Wetzler, (volunteer) Kulanu Coordinator for Uganda
laura@laurawetzler.com (413) 634-5617
www.kulanu.org

See you in concert! Love, Laura