YAM Ensemble

YAM Ensemble brings together young people from Turkey, Greece and Germany for a two-and-a-half week project in Thessaloniki and Weimar. If you are a musician aged 18-29 living in Germany, Turkey or Greece (of any nationality) and want to participate in a 20-piece ensemble that plays Yiddish, Greek and Turkish music, then YAM is for you! Both singers and instrumentalists are welcome!



YAM ים is the Yiddish word for “sea,” inspired by the fact that the music in this project comes from the region around the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

In recent years, Yiddish Summer Weimar was able to establish a database of related, parallel repertoire of Yiddish, Greek and Turkish music with the support of the department of Transcultural Music Studies at the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar. While the close relationship between Turkish and Greek music was to be expected, we were very surprised by how much repertoire both of these traditions share with Yiddish ( Ashkenazic Jewish) music. In the course of our research, we came to understand that the thriving Yiddish culture that existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust was musically connected not only to Central Europe (Ashkenaz means "Germany" in medieval Hebrew, after all), but way more connected to Ottoman, Turkish, and Greek musical cultures than we thought.

Join YAM and dive into these fascinating musical and cultural worlds!


Schedule                    
Agios Lavrentios (Greece):
July 2 (day of arrival from Germany and Turkey) - July 11th (departure to Weimar)

Weimar, Thuringia (Germany):
July 11th - July 19th (day of departure back to Greece and Turkey).

The village of Agios Lavrentios will host the project at www.music-village.gr. Check out the place on the website and on their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/musicvillage.gr


We will rehearse and perform in Greece as well as in Thuringia. Concerts are scheduled in the towns of Thessaloniki, Weimar (opening concert of Yiddish Summer Weimar), Erfurt, and Eisenach! Exact dates will be published here as soon as they are confirmed.

What to expect as a participant? We will take care of your travel costs and accomodation as well as breakfast and lunch on most days of the project. We ask for participants’ help in finding accommodation for their fellow band members for certain points of the project.


Age group
18 - 29 (your date of birth should be after July 19th 1994)




Application has ended on May 7th, 2024.
If you have missed the deadline but still want to apply, please get in touch with Andreas: or WhatsApp/Telegram: +49 177 6017686

Artistic director and ensemble leader:



Ilya Shneyveys (New York)


If you have any questions, please get in touch with YAM’s project manager,
Andreas:
WhatsApp / Telegram: +49 177 6017686

YAM Ensemble is supported by: