Set the stage for Passover with an entertaining and uplifting evening featuring professional storytellers, live music, and a delicious dinner! Passover is a time for telling tales and we’re thrilled to welcome award-winning storytellers and performers Bill Gordh and Therese Folkes Plair to explore the themes of freedom as told through Jewish and African sources. They will be accompanied by violinist Lisa Gutkin from the renowned Klezmatics and other musicians. After the performance, guests will be prompted to share their own stories over a delicious kosher-style dinner by Jean-Jacques catering. Includes entertainment and dinner.

About the Performers:

Bill Gordh

Bill Gordh is an award-winning storyteller, author, educator, songwriter, and banjoist. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, at the Clearwater Festival, The Museum of Natural History, the Tribeca Film Festival Family Day, Celebrate Brooklyn, the Byzantine Fresco Museum (Houston, TX), the Gerald Ford Amphitheater (Vail, CO) and for the last 3 years of the Clinton administration Bill was a featured storyteller at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Lisa Gutkin

Recognized as violinist and vocalist for the groundbreaking Jewish Roots band, The Klezmatics, and as fiddler for the Downtown Celtic band Whirligig, Lisa is also known for her scoring, performance, and music direction in the two-time Tony Award winning play, Indecent. She has performed in Sting’s Broadway musical The Last Ship and her song “Gonna Get Through This World” – with words by Woody Guthrie – was hailed by Pete Seeger, as “a piece of genius.” Lisa’s playing and stories are fun and poignant, and her voice has been praised by the LA Times as “hauntingly emotional.”

Therese Folkes Plair

Therese Folkes Plair, an award-winning performing artist, is a classically trained singer who in 1979 changed her artistic direction from opera to world music and storytelling. Her research, performances, and teaching focus on the music and the oral and written literature of people of African descent. A graduate of in from Sarah Lawrence College, Ms. Plair has been on the forefront of developing arts education in Westchester Country and Tri-State New York areas since 1980. Her roles have included conducting residencies, integrating core curriculum with music, and storytelling for students of all ages.

This event is made possible by a generous grant from Verve 55+ Living/UJA Federation of NY.