Background information From http://www.shuralipovsky.com

Performer

Shura Lipovsky was born in The Hague (Netherlands) and is a highly valued per-former of Yiddish song on the international stage. Writer and composer of new Yid-dish songs, she appears worldwide as a singer and storyteller. She performed in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Russia, the United States and Canada.

Professional education

Shura Lipovsky studied singing at the Rotterdam conservatory with Margreet Honig, the Yiddish language with Mira Rafalowicz, at the Oxford Summer University and at Maison de la Culture Yiddish in Paris. She finished a dance education at the Dutch institute of folklore LCA in 1987 and specialized in Hassidic dance. In 2005/2006 she studied at l‘Ecole internationale de théâtre de Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She studied Cabalistic concepts with several teachers in Europe and the United States. In 2013 she received a Diploma as a Psychosynthesis psychotherapist at Psycho-synthese Studies Holland. In 2018 she finished her education with a Diploma as a coach in 5DL (5 Dimen-sions of Leadership) at the Institute of Psychosynthesis in London.

Highlights of her career

In March 2020 Shura Lipovsky presented her new CD Malakh, with her Ensemble Novaya Shira at the International Klezmer Festival Furth. In December 2019 she performed with her Ensemble Shura Lipovsky at the Luxem-burg Philharmonie for the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembering Alliance). This concert will soon appear as a live concert CD with the ARCO-Verlag in Vienna. In September 2016, Shura Lipovsky opened the 'Bonner Klezmer-Tage’ in Germany with a new program of Sephardic songs, with ensemble Hapilpel (Monique Lans-dorp, Bart Lelivelt and Roelof Rosendaal). In 2015 she appeared at Kultur Fest NYC, with her Hassidic story-program‚ ‘The Magid from Amsterdam’, accompanied by pianist Joyce Rosenzweig and flutist Marjolijn van Roon. In 2011 premiered Shura Lipovsky with her new Ensemble Novaya Shira in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In 2009 she performed in Carnegy Hall with her quartet Serendipity 4 (Theodore Bikel, Tamara Brooks and Merima Kljuco). In 2004 she produced a Jewish/Bosnian song program in collaboration with Musi-cians Without Borders and performed with the intercultural Mostar Sinfonietta. For this project she invited Bosnian accordionist Merima Kljuco to participate and the American guest-conductor Tamara Brooks (z’’l) to conduct for the occasion of the second conference of Musicians Without Borders in Utrecht. In 2002 Shura Lipovsky opened the International Jewish Music festival in Amsterdam with her ensemble Yiddishe Veltn (Monique Lansdorp, Bart Lelivelt, Jan Rokyta and Mihai Scarlat). She participated in the Klezmer Extravaganza with Yitskhak Perlman in New York (1996) In April 1993 Lipovsky gave the Commemoration Concert of the 50th Anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw Philharmonia (1993), which appeared on CD as a live concert: 'Heroes and Poets’.

Awards

●2017 Shura Lipovsky received the ACDiY Award (Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award) in New York for her life-long commitment to perform and teach Yid-dish song-repertoire and for her new written Yiddish songs, texts and music.

● Shura Lipovsky won the second prize for her recent written song: 'Di levone badekt ir shmeykhl’ at the Original Yiddish Song Competition: 'Bubbe Awards’ in Brazil.

Pedagogue

Shura Lipovsky teaches masterclasses for professional singers, workshops on Yid-dish song repertoire and she developed a model of Hassidic teachings and Kabba-lah, ‘The Meditative Voice’: Jewish mystical melodies, meditation and movement. She taught at the International Jewish Music Competition in Amsterdam, at MCY- Bibliothèque Medem in Paris, the Oxford Summer University, Summer-University in Vilna, Yiddish in Stockholm, at Klezfests in St. Petersburg, KlezKanada, London, Weimar and Paris.

She taught ‘Meditative Voice’ at the Center for Jewish spirituality Elat Chayyim in New York, the Zentrum für Bewegung & Bewustsein’ in Portugal and in various other spiritual centers in Europe. For the last seven years she has been the artistic director of the Jewish Summer Song-School in London for the Jewish Music Institute (JMI). Since 2005 Shura Lipovsky has a choir for Yiddish songs in MCY-Bibliothèque Medem. In 2008 and 2012, 2014 and 2017 she was a member of the jury for the International Jewish Music Competition in Amsterdam.

Peaceworker

By means of singing, dancing and storytelling, Shura Lipovsky is active in inter-religious dialogue and she is a member of Musicians without Borders (MwB), locat-ed in the Netherlands. MwB does peace-work through music and dance in countries experiencing ethnic conflicts and war. She worked with spiritual leaders of different religions, such as the German priest and Zen-Master Willigis Jaeger (Benediktushof, Holzkirchen), Sheich Bashir Ah-mad Dultz (Moslim Liga, Bonn) and the Sufi-master Ingo Taleb Rashid from Irak. In 2003 Shura Lipovsky taught Jewish mystical melodies, nigunim in Sarajevo to the inter-religious choir Pontanima, collaborating with choral conductor and director of MwB, Laura Hassler. In 2004 she produced a Jewish/Bosnian song program in collaboration with Musi-cians Without Borders and performed with the intercultural Mostar Sinfonietta. For this project she invited Bosnian accordionist Merima Kljuco to participate and the American guest-conductor Tamara Brooks (z’’l) to conduct for the occasion of the second conference of Musicians Without Borders in Utrecht. In 2005 the American singer\actor Theodore Bikel joined the project, which toured through Poland in june 2005, under the name ‘Bridge to Peace’. A documentary under the same title ‘Bridge to Peace’ has been made by the Dutch journalist Rob Simons. (Since 2007 Theodore Bikel, Tamara Brooks, Merima Kljuco and Shura Lipovsky have formed a quartet under the name ‘Serendipity 4’. In 2009 the quartet performed in Carnegie Hall.)

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