The Man Without a World film screening
With live original music composed and performed by klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and silent film pianist Donald Sosin
Join the Jewish Studies Program and the Music Department for a screening of "The Man Without a World" with live original music composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin. "The Man Without a World" is a 1991 film directed and written by Eleanor Antin, her homage to Soviet silent films of the 1920s.
Made possible by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.
Artist Biographies:
Alicia Svigals, violinist/composer and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, is the world's foremost klezmer fiddler. She almost single handedly revived the tradition of klezmer fiddling, which had been on the brink of extinction until she recorded her debut album Fidl in the 1990’s. Svigals has performed with and written for violinist Itzhak Perlman, and has worked with the the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. She was awarded a Foundation for Jewish Culture commission for her original score to the 1918 film "The Yellow Ticket" and is a MacDowell fellow. In February 2018, Svigals and jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer released Beregovski Suite, their fantasy on klezmer melodies culled from the archive of early 20th century Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski. In May 2023, Svigals was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Jewish Theological Seminary for “extraordinary contributions to the arts and Jewish life.” In June 2024 she released her newest album, Fidl Afire, on the Borscht Beat label - a return to her roots with a full-on party band. In August 2024 she was awarded the 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Folk/Traditional arts.
festivals in ten other countries in Europe and Asia. He has written many types of music, from theater and dance pieces to television and contemporary film scores, in addition to the silent film music he has recorded for the Criterion, Kino, Milestone and Flicker Alley labels.
Donald has had commissions from the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and other ensembles. He has played his scores for Jewish-themed silent films— THE ANCIENT LAW, JEWISH LUCK, BREAKING HOME TIES and Lubitsch’s THREE WOMEN—at the New York Jewish Film Festival and brought THE ANCIENT LAW there in 2019 with klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals. They have written two other film scores— CITY WITHOUT JEWS (1924) and THE MAN WITHOUT A WORLD (1990). All three films have been performed live by the duo around the US and Europe, and are available on DVD/BluRay. Sosin's one-act children’s opera ESTHER was performed at the National Yiddish Book Center in 2013. Other Jewish music includes Yiddish folk song arrangements for chamber ensemble, a Shabbat cantata, “Shir Hadash (1974), commissioned by Community Synagogue of Rye, NY, a short opera on the I. B. Singer story, "A Parakeet Named Dreidel" and several choral psalm settings, which were orchestrated under the title "Three Psalms" and premiered in 2009 by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He lives in Lakeville, CT with his wife, singer Joanna Seaton. They have two children. Website: oldmoviemusic.com