National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Announces Autumn Songs

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) today announced the cast and creative team for Autumn Songs, a new concert set to stream November 7th on Folksbiene! LIVE. Singer Theresa Tova leads the performance with support from Fern Lindzon (vocals, piano) and David Woodhead (vocals, guitar, bass). The event is fully virtual and will be presented free of charge through NYTF's Folksbiene! LIVE platform.

Featuring music from the Broadway musical stage to concert and jazz venues around the world, Autumn Songs will offer up stunning performances of some of Tova's favorite songs - including Yiddish classics and new translations of popular songs, all presented with English supertitles.

"As an actress, I've spent most of my life pretending to be something I'm not," Tova said. "I'm a second-generation daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors. In order to survive, my mother had to hide who she was - but as a Yiddish diva, I can sing loudly and tell the world."

One of the most versatile performers in Canada, Theresa Tova is an award-winning actor, writer and singer who is also at home in TV and film with her latest roles in Akilla's Escape and Pretty Hard Cases. Tova wrote the award-winning musicals Still The Night, The Jewish Radio Hour, and co-wrote Bella: The Colour of Love with Mary Kerr.

Planet Jazz describes Parisian-born Tova as a "towering, pan-cultural jazz-cabaret diva." The Toronto Star called her "an artist Canadians should celebrate."

From the Broadway musical stage to concert and jazz venues around the world, the Yiddish Diva Tova has three critically acclaimed CDs: Telling Stories, Tova Live at the Top O' The Senator, and You Ask Me Why: Tova Sings Beyle. Moving effortlessly between English and Yiddish, she visits composers of the Great American Songbook, songs by NEA Award-winning poet Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, and old-world favorites.

JUNO Award nominee Fern Lindzon is a multi-faceted pianist, vocalist, and arranger. Fern possesses a technique WholeNote Magazine called "breathtakingly beautiful," respected jazz critic Mark Miller wrote "is secure in her sense of herself, her art, and her craft," New Canadian Music described as "one of the most adventurous and accomplished vocalists, pianists, and songwriters on the T.O. jazz scene," and Montreal critic Irwin Block lauded as "a rare and fascinating talent."

Fern's three CDs move comfortably and creatively through a highly-personal repertoire of her own arrangements of jazz standards, contemporary Israeli and Yiddish music and original compositions. Her second CD, Two Kites, received a JUNO Nomination as Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. Fern has also been an active member of several klezmer bands, composes and performs silent film scores, and is a Musical Director for live theatrical productions. Fernlindzon.com

Truly an explorer of wide musical territories, David Woodhead's melodic and subtle approach applies not just to his well-known electric bass style but to his writing and other instrumental work as well. His name appears on some 350 recording projects, and he's worked with many influential artists including Perth County Conspiracy, Stan Rogers, Oliver Schroer, Gil Scott-Heron, and David Sanborn. His live gigs have included working with Malagasy guitarist Donné Roberts, classical-folk fusioneers Ensemble Polaris, and veteran jazzers Manteca, as well as touring internationally with master songwriter James Keelaghan.

David has taught at the Folk Alliance International Conference (Kansas City), Haliburton Winter Folk Camp, the Goderich Celtic College and Ontario's The Woods. His Confabulation ensemble has a more rambunctious nature, while Oriana is focused on a folk-jazz chamber music approach, and after a 2016 residency at the Banff Centre, he completed his third and most recent CD, Tunnels and Visions.

Autumn Songs features sound, audio/visual recording and mixing by David Woodhead and translations by Hindy Noskek Abelson. Tova gives special thanks to Dorothy Schoichet z''l, for welcoming the performers into her home, and to Bela Schaechter Gottesman z''l, for her mentorship and friendship.

Fresh from the stellar success of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, which won multiple honors including a 2019 Drama Desk Award, NYTF will present Autumn Songs in Yiddish, with English subtitles. The fully-virtual event can be accessed for free through NYTF's Folksbiene! LIVE platform. Visit nytf.org/live to view the performance, and contact (212) 655-7653 for all other inquiries.

View Folksbiene! LIVE events at any time from anywhere with NYTF's new on-demand video library of virtual events - featuring unforgettable musical performances, exclusive interviews, instructive lessons, and more. The library is available at nytf.org/on-demand.