“Shtern faln” is the title of the concert performed by The Kadya Trio from Germany during 33rd edition of the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow. It presented poetry for children written by Polish-Jewish poet Kadya Molodovsky with original music by Dr. Alan Bern. The concert was followed by the workshop dedicated to this little known poetry.
The origins of the song cycle “Shtern faln” go back to the children’s song workshop at Yiddish Summer Weimar 2015. Workshop leader Diana Matut suggested to Dr. Alan Bern that he set several Yiddish children’s poems by Kadya Molodovsky to music. Bern’s songs became the core repertoire for an international girls’ choir project in 2016 and 2017 between Germany and Israel, the Kadya Choir. The success of this project led to a feature film (The Young Kadyas) and many other interpretations of the song cycle. The Kadya Trio’s interpretation, conducted by the composer himself, is particularly remarkable for its depth, intimacy, virtuosity and sensitivity to the nuances of the Yiddish language.
Who was Kadya Molodovsky?
Kadya Molodowsky’s life encompassed many languages, countries, works and people and began – relatively ordinarily. Born in 1984 in the shtetl Byaroza (now Belarus), like many girls of her time, she was taught by her grandmother to read Yiddish and recite the prayers. However, her father also introduced her to religious Hebrew scriptures and hired private tutors to give Kadya a Russian, secular education. This broad educational horizon opened up the world to her and laid the foundation for her to be able to complete her own training at a teacher training college. After the war, she spent a few years in Israel (1949-1952), but returned to the USA, where she died in 1975.
For a long time, she was mainly known for the Hebrew translations of her children’s poems and many people in Israel were unaware that they were originally written in Yiddish. Only in recent decades has Kadya Molodowsky’s work begun to attract greater attention again. New text editions and translations have appeared and she is now considered one of the greatest poets of Yiddish modernism, an important voice of female Jewish emancipation, an advocate for the non-privileged and a witness to Jewish experiences of the twentieth century.
Dr. Diana Matut
The Kadya Trio
Bern, Kundish and Kovnatskiy are internationally acclaimed as artists who combine originality with a profound knowledge of traditional Yiddish music. Kundish is fluent in Russian, Hebrew, German and Yiddish. Her rich cultural and musical background informs her interpretation of the song cycle at every moment. Kovnatskiy, who is at the forefront of a new generation of virtuoso Yiddish violinists, also brings a classical violin background to his original style. Bern, a pioneer in the revival of Yiddish music since the early 1980s and trained as a classical pianist and composer, brings a poetically wistful and joyful sensibility to his settings of Molodovksy’s poetry.
Sveta Kundish – vocals
Dr. Alan Bern – composition, piano, accordion, direction
Mark Kovnatskiy – violin
The Kadya Trio, photo: Michał Ramus
Sveta Kundish, photo: Michał Ramus
dr Alan Bern, photo: Michał Ramus
Mark Kovnatskiy, photo: Michał Ramus
Workshop with The Kadya Trio, photo: Edyta Dufaj
Workshop with The Kadya Trio, photo: Edyta Dufaj
Workshop with The Kadya Trio, photo: Edyta Dufaj
