Dark Nights Bright Lights Jewish Music Series
Curated by Jewlia Eisenberg & Jason Ditzian of Charming Hostess

All concerts $10.

Join Charming Hostess and friends as we move from Khanukah to Solstice, from mystic contemplation to sweaty dancing, from the intimate to the apocalyptic. Charming Hostess will be in residence at Meridian Gallery for the month of December, with their installation, Teraphim. For the performance piece, they will open each evening with a short set and then be followed by Jewish luminaries who will light up this intimate space. Get apocalyptic for Khanukah!

Jewlia Eisenberg will be in residence at Meridian Gallery on December 6th, 13th & 20th from 12pm-5pm (Free: Open to Audience Interaction)

CONCERTS:

December 6 at 8PM: Charming Hostess and I-Tal-Ya: SONG

Charming Hostess will perform winter songs for teraphim and other house-gods. I-Tal-Ya will sing from the Italian Jewish tradition: synagogue chants to lullabies to work songs. Apocalyptic Intimate Signifier: EARTH

December 13 at 8PM: Charming Hostess and Jeremiah Lockwood: RISING

Diaspora consciousness connects the halakhic demand for ethical conduct to a spirit of universal dignity. Tonight both ChoHo and Jeremiah will perform music with roots in religious transcendence and branches in social justice movements. Apocalyptic Intimate Signifier: SKY

December 20 at 8PM: Charming Hostess and Kugelplex: DANCE

We will be celebrating the darkest night with Jewish songs about eggplant and fire-worship. Dance music from the heart of Other Europe will make you sweat out your fear of the upcoming apocalypse. Apocalyptic Intimate Signifier: FLAME

Jewlia Eisenberg is a composer, extended-technique vocalist, lay cantor, and the founder of Charming Hostess. She is interested in the particular emotional, erotic and spiritual terrains that the voice can traverse. Her work explores the intersection of text and the sounding body, pushing for translation strategies between verbal and non-verbal languages. Collaborators include anarcholits Fantom Slobode, choreographer Jo Kreiter and filmmaker Lynn Sachs. Commissioned work includes Harmonices Mundi, an opera about Kepler's mother, and Red Rosa, a song cycle based on the letters of Rosa Luxemburg. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at MIT and University of Denver; she has studied with sozanda Muna Nissimova, Fred Frith and Daniel Boyarin. Hobbies include class war, knitting, and smashing SUV windshields. Brooklyn born and bred, she now calls San Francisco home.

Jason Ditzian is a multi-wind instrumentalist/composer who performs on single reeds, double reeds, flutes, and jaw harps. He has composed and performed numerous works for dance, movie and theater, including an Isadora Duncan Dance Award winning collaboration with butoh maestros Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, and touring as co-composer/band leader for the Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. Jason is horn section leader for soul band, Lord Loves a Working Man; leader of klezmer ensemble, Kugelplex; and clarinetist in the Georges Brassens cover band, Les Croque-Notes. Upcoming projects include composing for Featherlead productions play, The Breeze at Dawn (November 2007) at the Traveling Jewish Theater and co-composer for The Misadventures of Flapjack, a new series on the Cartoon Network (winter 2008). Jason has played and/or recorded with folks such as Faun Fables, Kunst-Stoff Experimental Dance ensemble, Myra Melford, Yuko Kaseki, and eXtreme Elvis. When he's not tooting on his clarinet, Jason can be found doing publicity for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, working as a freelance writer, and importing beautiful bansuris and harmoniums from India.