Jane Peppler: musician and author
I have two musical lives at this point. One is in English: I'm performing music of the British Isles with Bob Vasile of the Pratie Heads and sometimes with Jack Herrick (of the Red Clay Ramblers). My most recent project is making animated videos to go along with these songs, some newly recorded and some from the "back catalogue." I'm making a collection of the new ones, tentatively titled Oddments, available piecemeal at Skylark Productions at Bandcamp. Click here for the Youtube playlist of Jane Peppler animated videos in English.
The second is in Yiddish: I've researched and am performing little-known, clever, engaging Yiddish theater music from before the Holocaust, with translations projected on the wall so everyone gets the jokes (and can sing along). Photo: David Blass"Jane Peppler is a one of a kind personality in the landscape of Yiddish song. Rather than revisit the repertoire already crisscrossed in every direction -- the two or three dozen "standards" -- she has undertaken the extraordinary adventure of an archeologist-paleontologist of the forgotten heritage of Yiddish popular song in the interwar era, particularly in the Yiddish cabaret flourishing in Poland of the time before its being swallowed up forever. RYPT is proud to count her among its its columnists henceforth." // Jane Peppler est une personnalitй tout-а-fait а part dans le paysage de la chanson yiddish. Plutфt que parcourir а nouveau le rйpertoire dйjа sillonnй en tous sens des deux ou trois douzaines de « standards », elle s'est lancйe dans une extraordinaire aventure d'archйologue-palйontologiste du patrimoine perdu de la chanson yiddish populaire d'entre les deux guerres. En particulier du cabaret yiddish florissant dans la Pologne d'alors, avant d'кtre englouti а jamais. RYPT est fier de la compter dйsormais parmi ses chroniqueurs. From the station "Radio Yiddish pour tous," for which I prepare a weekly podcast. Click here for some of the archived podcasts.
My December 4, 2022 hour-long presentation on the work I've done for the past dozen years resurrecting lost theater songs and putting them on youtube, jointly produced by the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language, the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, and Der Nister:
October 2018, a concert of comic Yiddish songs of social commentary at the Shadowbox in Durham, NC. Because of the translations on the wall, everybody laughs at the jokes.
February 2019 I gave three performances in Chicago at Aitz Hayim for Jewish Living and for the Chicago Workmens Circle and YIVO. They requested Yiddish songs from the turn of the 20th century which highlight the role Yiddishkayt played (or should have played but didn't) in peoples' lives. Most are acerbic and funny. Subtitles on the wall are important for every audience so they understand the song in real time.
I was grand champion (!) at the 2015 Yiddish song writing and performing competition in Mexico City, Der Idisher Idol (that's how they spell Der Yidisher Idol in Mexico). The song I wrote for the contest was Ikh ken shoyn nit mithaltn ("I Can't Keep Up"). Photo: Enlace Judнo
In June 2015 I was one of the music panel presenters at the American Jewish Libraries Jubilee conference in Silver Spring, Maryland. At the conference, pianist Roger Lynn Spears and I also gave a concert of Yiddish theater and vaudeville music. Photo: Aaron Taub
In 2016 I gave a concert and conducted a singalong of my "Yiddish Songs from Warsaw" at the Zumerkurs in Warsaw, Poland. I gave a concert and conducted a sing along of the Yiddish Songs of the Gaslight Era (American Yiddish Penny Songs) at the Workmens Circle "Trip to Yiddishland."
At home in Chapel Hill, NC... I'm not teaching individual voice lessons or fiddle lessons now but I am running a Song Circle meetup at my house on a fairly regular basis for people of any skill level who want to sing together - I offer coaching and teach how to make up harmonies during the circle to those who want some tips. I do teach voice and fiddle at the annual summer PickNBow folk music retreat in Durham, NC.
Three years in the making, my 230-page compendium called Yiddish Songs from Warsaw 1929-1934: The Itzik Zhelonek Collection is available as a paperback, a digital download, and a "Musicians' Edition" (spiral bound). Click the picture for details.
You can find all my Yiddish translations, cds, and songbooks at the Yiddish Emporium.
See, listen to, buy recordings I've made at the Skylark Productions website.
You can friend me at Facebook. Here is my Amazon author profile.
Performances
Yiddish Songs of the Jazz Age presents the funniest, warmest music from the Itzik Zhelonek 'Yiddish Songs from Warsaw' collection. Often a duo (with Roger Lynn Spears on piano) it can also be presented with a larger group.
- "American Yiddish Penny Songs" is a performance drawn from the 200 Yiddish songsheets (sold by peddlers on the streets of the Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century) found in the basement of Hebrew Union College. A historical gem of a collection!
- Cabaret Warsaw is a program of music from Warsaw Poland between the wars, from night clubs, kleynkunst theaters, and movies - half the music is in Yiddish and half is in Polish - all was written by Jews - the cast includes Mappamundi and Aviva Enoch or Roger Lynn Spears on piano.
- Mappamundi is an ensemble specializing in high energy acoustic "More-or-less Traditional Music of the Northern Hemisphere and the Previous Millennium" - we play concerts, festivals, workshops, and private celebrations of all kinds.
- Wedding Music in North Carolina is the umbrella site for hiring me and my musician friends in NC wedding bands.
Recordings (click to listen/buy)
In Odess: Yiddish Songs from Warsaw Volume I
Books (Songbooks, tunebooks, Yiddish translations)
I play:
- Traditional music (world music): Eastern and Western Europe, British Isles, Jewish traditions, music of Colonial America and early North Carolina;
- Early music (Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan);
- Choral music from many traditions
- Miscellaneous folk music and American popular music
- Cabaret and kleynkunst music from Poland
- Klezmer, Yiddish folk songs and theater songs
My instruments:
- Violin and viola;
- English concertina;
- Piano;
- Appalachian dulcimer (aka lap dulcimer)
Solo work:
- I taught at Village Harmony summer sessions for teens and adults presenting, arranging, and conducting songs of English, American, Klezmer/Yiddish, and Mariachi traditions
- I taught vocal classes (including performance master classes, individual tutoring, Balkan singing and Yiddish singalongs) for two summers at Pinewoods camp for the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS).
- I presented a week-long program based on "Songs for Non-Singers" at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching
- Music of the world for ElderHostel in Chapel Hill
- Fiddling and singing for weddings, parties, even wakes and funerals
- Fiddle workshops
- Songs of Immigration
- Music of the Holocaust
- Songs of the Supernatural
- General international programs
- Music of the British Isles
- Music of early North Carolina
Bio:
Jane Peppler grew up in Chappaqua, NY and graduated from Yale University with a degree in Russian language and literature. Long ago she made her living as a poster designer, sonnet writer, typesetter, flip-book artist and busker. She directed the a cappella ensemble the Solstice Assembly and produced the annual Solstice Extravaganza at Duke's Page Auditorium, UNC's Playmakers Theater, and elsewhere. She played and sang music of the British Isles with the Pratie Heads starting in 1981 and ending in 2013. She was long-time music director of the cantor corps at Judea Reform Congregation and director of the Triangle Jewish Chorale for fourteen years. She currently performs with world-music ensemble Mappamundi and hopes to find more performance venues for their Cabaret Warsaw project. She studies Yiddish with Professor Sheva Zucker and has translated three novels by Jacob Dineson, numerous articles, and, of course, songs.
Contact Jane Peppler
Email: jane@mappamundi.comCall: 919-606-2122