Fellowships & Awards

 
  • Westphalian Wilhelms University (WWU) Fellowship (February 2016):  “Compositions of Tanburi Isak Fresco According to the Oldest Hamparsum Manuscripts.”
  • NYU AD Research Enhancement Fund (September 2014-August 2015): “Klezmer Music of Moldova.”
  • NYU AD Research Enhancement Fund (August 2011-December 2013): “History and Memory in the Traditional Moldovan Wedding Table Song (Cîntec de Masa), ca. 1840-1960.”
  • The Magowan Family Foundation, (2008, 2007, 2002-2004); Beit Shalom Aleichem, (2003); Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, (2001-2002): “Klezmer: Music, History and Memory.”
  • The Littauer Foundation, (2000): “The Klezmer Materials of Jeremiah Hescheles.”
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, (1998-99): “The Indian Style in Ottoman Poetry.”
  • U.S. Department of Education, (1990-92): “Advanced Turkish Teaching Materials.”
  • IREX, (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991): “The Uzbek Oral Epic.”
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, (1985-87): Annotated Translation of “The Book of the Science of Music According to the Alphabetic Notation” by Prince Demetrius Cantemir (1673-1723).
  • American Research Institute in Turkey, (1984): “The Philosophy of Music in Ottoman Turkey.”
  • Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, (1984): “Music and Zikr of the Sunni Tarikats of Istanbul;” (1983): “The Ottoman Lyric Form Murabba.’”
  • National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Research Institute in Turkey, (1983): "The Position of Traditional Art Music in Nineteenth Century Turkey.”
  • National Endowment for the Arts, (1978-1979): “Jewish Instrumental Folk Music.”

Research Projects & Collaborations

 

Ottoman & Mevlevi Dervish Music

  • Board Member of the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (CMO) project, sponsored by the Deutsches Forschungs Gemeinschaft, under the direction of Prof. Ralf Martin Jager, Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster (2015-2026).
  • Interview for film “Wajd: Music, Politics and Ecstasy” by Amar Chebib (Salam Films),  shot in Istanbul, Aleppo and Abu Dhabi, (February 2012).
  • Co-director Candidature File of the Sema Ceremony of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes for UNESCO’s Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (2004).
  • Consultant and Co-Editor for the Medimuses Project “Music of the Mediterranean: Modal and Learned Traditions” sponsored by the European Union through the En Chordais School of Thessaloniki. Meetings, workshops and concerts in Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Venice, Madrid, Marseille, London, Cairo, Tunis, Amman (2002-2005); two co-edited volumes on “History” and “Theory and Practice” with Prof. Mahmoud Guettat (Conservatoire Nationale, Tunis).
  • Musical Consultant for the Project in Early Ottoman Music, sponsored by the French Anatolian Research Institute (Istanbul), with Fikret Karakaya (summer, 1993, 1994).
  • Musical Consultant for the Bosphorus Project,  with Ihsan Özgen and Nikiphorus Metaxas, based in Istanbul and Athens (summer, 1989).

Klezmer & Ahkenazic Dance

  • Director, An-sky Institute for Traditional Jewish Expressive Culture, Center for Traditional Music and Dance, New York City (2009-present).
  • Editor (with Michael Lukin, Jerusalem) ”East European Jewish Folk Music” for Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies (series editor David Biale). (2015-16).
  • “Klezmer Music of Moldova,” research trips to Bucharest and Iaşi, (November 2014), and Moldova (July 2015).
  • “History and Memory in the Traditional Moldovan Wedding Table Song (Cîntec de Masa), ca. 1840-1960,” with Professor Diana Bunea, Academy of Music, Chişinau.
  • Research trips to Moldova, November, 2011, May 2012, October 2013.
  • Interviews with Teodor Komann (b. 1930), Moldovan violinist resident in Mainz, Germany, with Christina Crowder (April 14-16, 2011).
  • Interviews with Teodor Komann, along with Alan Bern and the film crew of The Other Europeans (November 2009).
  • Interviews with Emil Croitor, Moldovan accordionist/composer, resident in Tel-Aviv, along with Alan Bern and the film crew of the Other Europeans (2009).
  • Expedition to Moldova (Edinets and Chişinau) as part of the Other Europeans Project, sponsored by the European Union and National Yiddish Book Center, (November 2008).
  • The Yiddish Dance Research Project (Center for Traditional Music and Dance and National Endowment for the Arts), (2007-08).
  • Research on Klezmer and Hasidic music, National Sound Archives, Hebrew University Library and Rubin Academy of Music Archives, (Jerusalem, Spring, 2000).

Workshops, Conferences, & Events

 

Ottoman, Mediterranean, & Asian Topics

  • International Workshop: “A Locally Generated Modernity: the Ottoman Empire in the ‘Long’ Eighteenth Century”, NYU Abu Dhabi Institute (February 19-21, 2018).
  • Board Meeting, Corpus Musicae Ottomanica, University of Münster. (October  27, 2016).

  • International Symposium: “Music of the Arabian Peninsula,” (with Virginia Danielson). NYU AD Institute, (March 1-3, 2015).

  • “Ilyas Mallayev: Remembering the Poet-Laureate of the Bukharan Jews” (December 2009).

Ashkenazic Dance

  • Advanced Workshop in Yiddish Dance and Interview, Eshkolot, Moscow (October 8-10, 2018).
  • Scholar in Residence, Klez Kanada. St. Agathe, Quebec (August 23-28).
  • Advanced Workshop in Yiddish Dance, Yiddish Summer Weimar (August 2015).
  • Advanced Workshop in Yiddish Dance, and Advanced Workshop in Non-Dance Klezmer Repertoire, Yiddish Summer Weimar, (July, 2010, July-August 2011).
  • Yiddish Dance Workshop, Medem Biblioteque, Paris (April 2010).
  • “Ashkenazim Rokdim” (“Dancing Ashkenazim”) workshops held at Beit Avichai, Jerusalem (Spring 2008, 2009, 2010).
  • “Tantshoyz,” (Yiddish Dance), held at the Workman’s Circle, New York City, fall 2009.
  • “Ashkenzic Dance; History and Theory,” Yiddish Summer, Weimar (July, 2009).
  •  “Yiddish Dance”, 92nd Street Y, NYC, (fall 2007).
  • “Tantshoyz” (Yiddish Dance), Manhattan JCC, (fall 2006, fall 2007).
  • Ashkenazic Dance, Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (December 2002, May 2003).
  • Ashkenazic Dance, Neskaya Foundation, New Hampshire (October 2002).
  • Ashkenazic Music and Dance, KlezFest, London (July 2001, 2002).

Klezmer Music

  • “Music of Dave Tarras and the Klezmer Tradition of Northern Bessarabia” (with Christina Crowder); “Jewish and Moldavian Dances of Northern Bessarabia” (Klez Kanada, August 2013).
  • Student klezmer ensembles in NYU Abu Dhabi (spring 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015).
  • Advanced Workshop in Baroque Klezmer Repertoire (Weimar, July 2012).
  • 2009 Lecture Series of the An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture, held at the Center for Jewish History, New York City:
  • “Beyle-Schaechter-Gottesman: Celebrating a Lifetime in Yiddish Song” (October 2009).
  • “The Multi-Ethnic Music Culture of Moldova” (September 2009).
  • “The Shared Sacred Space” (with Professors Daniel Goffman, Ball St. U. and Eleni Frangakis, CUNY Graduate Center, 92nd Street Y, (October 2005).
  • “Multicultural Musical Encounters,” sponsored by the Multicultural Music Group, with musicians, composers and ethnomusicologists of the Latino, African-American, Chinese and Jewish communities of New York (April 14-20, 2004).
  • Klezmer composition (with Alan Bern) and Ashkenazic dance, KlezKanada (August 2004, 2003).
  • Ashkenazic Music and Dance: Weimar Klezmer Wochen (July 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006).

  • Program Co-Director, KlezKanada (St. Agathe, Quebec, August 2000).