Fran & Flora present a night of contemporary Yiddish music, feat. Merlin Shepherd, Ilana Cravitz and Fran & Flora
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM
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Experimental-folk duo Fran & Flora curate a special night at The Horse Hospital celebrating contemporary Yiddish culture, showcasing some of the UK’s most acclaimed klezmer artists.
Fran & Flora present brand new material from their upcoming third album; Klezmer clarinettist Merlin Shepherd performs a collection of original compositions; fiddler Ilana Cravitz shares a first public outing of selected tunes from Beregovsky’s Tish Nign collection.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Fran & Flora's critically acclaimed releases and performances have led to their rise in prominence across folk and avant-garde musical landscapes alike. As leading women of their generation their sophomore album Precious Collection (Hidden Notes Records'24) was The Guardian’s ‘Top 10 Best Folk Albums of the Year’. Presenting uniquely reworked Yiddish music (collected from archival recordings & manuscripts) and original compositions for strings, electronics and voice they create an unrivalled evocative and 'border-defying' (Mojo) aesthetic.
Far from recreating music from a bygone era their intricately sculpted contemporary sound remains 'as experimental as it is accessible' (The Guardian). Fran & Flora perform and teach at festivals globally.
Merlin Shepherd is one of the world's leading players of traditional East European Klezmer Clarinet style, and apart from his own ensembles he has worked and toured throughout Britain and Europe with Budowitz, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish-Mosh, Boban Marcovic Orkestar, Luigi Cinque, Djivan Gasparian, Ivo Papasov and Yuri Yanakov.
Most recently Merlin was Musical Director for Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory.
He has taught extensively and internationally at east-European Music seminars in Kazan, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Evpatoria, Weimar, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Montreal, Petaluma CA.
Ilana Cravitz is one of the world’s best-known klezmer fiddlers and is also in demand as a producer, editor, and Yiddish dance leader. Based in London, Ilana tours internationally and regularly helps to set up and run Yiddish culture festivals. She has introduced thousands of people to klezmer through her performances and teaching. Ilana was a co-founder of the London Klezmer Quartet and her book ‘Klezmer Fiddle – A How-To Guide’, is published by Oxford University Press.
Ilana Cravitz’ Tish Nigumim Kapelye play a hand-picked selection of tunes from ‘Jewish Songs Without Words’ - an anthology of 215 tunes collected by Moshe Beregovski (1892-1961) that was prepared for publication in the late 1950s and then kept in the Vernadsky National Library, Kiev.
Nigunim are tunes without words, composed to be sung, catchy and lift the spirits.
Beregovski’s book of nigunim was the fourth of five volumes of Jewish music painstakingly assembled by this dedicated Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist. Tragically, he did not live to see them published.
Ilana Cravitz is now working on an English edition of this volume, with its glimpses into a now-lost world.
This event is open to the public, and is the closing event to the Jewish Music Institute’s Yiddish Cultural Weekend.
With support from the JMI.
Fran & Flora present brand new material from their upcoming third album; Klezmer clarinettist Merlin Shepherd performs a collection of original compositions; fiddler Ilana Cravitz shares a first public outing of selected tunes from Beregovsky’s Tish Nign collection.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Fran & Flora's critically acclaimed releases and performances have led to their rise in prominence across folk and avant-garde musical landscapes alike. As leading women of their generation their sophomore album Precious Collection (Hidden Notes Records'24) was The Guardian’s ‘Top 10 Best Folk Albums of the Year’. Presenting uniquely reworked Yiddish music (collected from archival recordings & manuscripts) and original compositions for strings, electronics and voice they create an unrivalled evocative and 'border-defying' (Mojo) aesthetic.
Far from recreating music from a bygone era their intricately sculpted contemporary sound remains 'as experimental as it is accessible' (The Guardian). Fran & Flora perform and teach at festivals globally.
Merlin Shepherd is one of the world's leading players of traditional East European Klezmer Clarinet style, and apart from his own ensembles he has worked and toured throughout Britain and Europe with Budowitz, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish-Mosh, Boban Marcovic Orkestar, Luigi Cinque, Djivan Gasparian, Ivo Papasov and Yuri Yanakov.
Most recently Merlin was Musical Director for Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory.
He has taught extensively and internationally at east-European Music seminars in Kazan, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Evpatoria, Weimar, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Montreal, Petaluma CA.
Ilana Cravitz is one of the world’s best-known klezmer fiddlers and is also in demand as a producer, editor, and Yiddish dance leader. Based in London, Ilana tours internationally and regularly helps to set up and run Yiddish culture festivals. She has introduced thousands of people to klezmer through her performances and teaching. Ilana was a co-founder of the London Klezmer Quartet and her book ‘Klezmer Fiddle – A How-To Guide’, is published by Oxford University Press.
Ilana Cravitz’ Tish Nigumim Kapelye play a hand-picked selection of tunes from ‘Jewish Songs Without Words’ - an anthology of 215 tunes collected by Moshe Beregovski (1892-1961) that was prepared for publication in the late 1950s and then kept in the Vernadsky National Library, Kiev.
Nigunim are tunes without words, composed to be sung, catchy and lift the spirits.
Beregovski’s book of nigunim was the fourth of five volumes of Jewish music painstakingly assembled by this dedicated Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist. Tragically, he did not live to see them published.
Ilana Cravitz is now working on an English edition of this volume, with its glimpses into a now-lost world.
This event is open to the public, and is the closing event to the Jewish Music Institute’s Yiddish Cultural Weekend.
With support from the JMI.
By Fran & Flora