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Dear Friend of Yiddish,
We are thrilled to announce the Los Angeles debut of singer, actor and cultural innovator Mitch Smolkin.
Come celebrate Khanike (that's "Channukkah" spelled in Yiddish transliteration) in Santa Monike (that's Santa Monica for the traditionalists) on Sunday, December 13, 2009.
By the 1940s in New York, one entertainer had become the King of Yiddish Radio - the heartthrob crooner Seymour Rexite. Join us as the talented Mitch Smolkin, accompanied by renowned pianist, Nina Shapilsky, brings this unique world and repertoire to life.
Tickets are on sale now at brownpapertickets.com. Read more about the concert, meet Mitch Smolkin, and learn about Seymour Rexite below. Then buy your tickets today -- it's a small venue and these tickets will sell fast!
In our last newsletter, we included a contest to guess the subject of the concert. The answer, and winner, are below.
See you in December,
The Yiddishkayt Staff
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 12/13 - REXITE ON THE RADIO
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Come celebrate Khanike in Santa Monike.
Tickets on sale now!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
2:00pm Matinee & 7:00pm Evening
At the Miles Memorial Playhouse
1130 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, 90403 (map)
Tickets $20; children under 12, $10
Buy your tickets online or call 1-800-838-3006
Yiddishkayt is proud to present Mitch Smolkin in Rexite on the Radio: Live from the Golden Age of NY's Yiddish Broadcasts, for two performances on Sunday, December 13th, direct from its production at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene in New York.
In
New York in the 1930s, there were over 23 radio stations broadcasting
Yiddish programs but by the 1940s, one entertainer had become the King
of Yiddish radio - the heartthrob crooner Seymour Rexite. At the height of his popularity, the smooth-as-scotch tenor starred on 18 radio shows a week.
 This unique world and repertoire is brought to life by the exciting and gifted singer, actor and cultural innovator Mitch Smolkin (at left), accompanied by renowned pianist Nina Shapilsky.
The Forward declared that "Mitch Smolkin is Yiddish's next wave," and
The Jewish Standard gushed "Mitch Smolkin makes a fine romantic figure,
and sings sexy love songs very well."
Audiences will hear the American Songbook and the great Broadway hits of the 20th century as they were heard on thousands of radios across the country - in Yiddish! You'll never listen to Oklahoma the
same way again. In addition to mining the richness of Rexite's era, Mitch will perform some classic Yiddish songs that are bound to send
you home singing. So put down your dreydl and join us as we journey
back to the golden age of Yiddish radio. New York delights like
pickles, egg creams and Dr. Brown's will be on sale!
--> Tickets are available online or by calling 1-800-838-3006.
--> Info on parking, seating, and more
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MEET MITCH SMOLKIN
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 Mitch Smolkin is a Toronto based
actor, singer, playwright and cultural innovator. He has been seen on
the stage and in concert in dozens of cities internationally. 2009 has
included concerts in Jerusalem, Chicago, New York, Argentina, Uruguay,
and across Canada. Career highlights include performing with the
Folksbiene Theatre at the legendary Town Hall on Broadway in a tribute
to Carl Reiner, off-Broadway with the late Bruce Adler, with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra at the Mayor's ball in Toronto and earlier this year
at the Glenn Gould Studio at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In
2008, Mitch Smolkin released his debut album A Nign Iz Geboyrn (A Song Is Born). Klezmershack hailed the album as "the most
exciting, inventive, beautiful, and just plain interesting Yiddish album in
years."
He was the Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Ashkenaz
Festival from 2001 - 2006 and is currently an artistic associate with
Harbourfront Centre, Canada's largest cultural presenting organization.
Mitch Smolkin's singing can be heard currently at the permanent sound
installation in the Michael Lee Chin Crystal's Spirit House at the
Royal Ontario Museum. He recently received a grant to complete his
first full-length play entitled Polonium
based on the life of Marie Curie and a Canada Council for the Arts
international touring grant to tour the United States and South
America.
--> Learn more about Mitch on his website.
Mitch will be accompanied by renowned pianist and composer, Nina Shapilsky.
 Nina Shapilsky is an award winning
concert pianist based in Toronto. Originally from Russia where she was
well-known, Nina traveled the world as both a pianist and musical
director for a number of important musicals and musical ensembles. She
received numerous awards across Europe as a pianist and arrived in
Canada with the show "Russians On Broadway". At present, she works with
a variety of singers and organizations, including the National Ballet
of Canada, as both a pianist, music consultant and curator.
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WHO IS SEYMOUR REXITE?
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Seymour Rexite, "The Wonder-Boy"
 Seymour Rexite (originally
Rechtzeit) was a singing prodigy in his native Poland, known as "The
Wonder-Boy." He, his Cantor father and older brother immigrated to
America in 1920, but quotas prevented his mother and sisters from
joining them.
Not yet a teen, a sympathetic congressman arranged for
Seymour to sing before a congressional committee, and then in a command
performance for President Calvin Coolidge. His rendition of "Bring Me
My Mother From the Other Side," written by his brother, so moved
President Coolidge that he relented to the plea on the spot.
Rexite
went on to succeed in all venues of entertainment - Yiddish theater,
recordings, Yiddish film (Mayn Yidishe Mama, Motl der Operator),
and white tie and tails regular appearances at upscale New York
nightclubs like Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe and the Casino de Paris.
But
it was in radio that Rexite truly excelled. The matinee idol's smooth-as-scotch tenor won him Sinatra-like adoration from female fans. And
his repertoire expanded way beyond the classic canon of Yiddish theater
and folk songs.
For the assimilating audiences of the 40s and 50s,
Rexite and his wife, the singer and actress Miriam Kressyn,
took to adapting whatever songs were popular on American radio into the
beloved language of his listeners - lyrical and witty Yiddish
renditions of Night and Day, Tea for Two, Oh What a Beautiful Morning, McNamara's Band, Love and Marriage. ("...go together like a horse and carriage" became "geyt tzuzamen vi zup un knaydlakh"
- go together like soup and matzo balls.)
And all of this interspersed
with his renowned Yiddish advertising jingles for his sponsor's
products - Maxwell House, Barbasol, Ajax, Campbell's Soup, Coca Cola,
among many others.
Listen to Seymour Rexite's smooth-as-scotch tenor.
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Puzzle Answer
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= Seymour Rexite
In our last newsletter, we asked you to guess the connection between the images above.
And the answer is... Seymour Rexite! Seymour famously sang jingles in
Yiddish for Ajax and Barbasol and sang a Yiddish version of the song
Tea for Two, tey far tsvey.
The first person to respond correctly was Netta Avineri! yasher koyekh to Netta, who one a free ticket to the concert on Sunday, December 13! |
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