<\/p>\n
Great Yiddishe Cup non-gigs:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Shrine to American Music, Vermillion, North Dakota All of them were close calls.<\/p>\n Maybe we came in second.<\/p>\n Second stinks.\u00a0 For example, when 30 clarinetists audition for the Kansas City Symphony, 29 clarinetists get to add “finalist” to their resumes.<\/p>\n Australia . . . That would have looked good in our obits.<\/p>\n Nobody — anywhere — does what Yiddishe Cup does: play wacky klezmer comedy.<\/p>\n We get around.\u00a0 We’ve \u00a0been to Texas three times, Florida four times, Missouri nine times.<\/p>\n We’ve played abroad twice.<\/strong><\/span> The first time was New York City. That’s a foreign country.\u00a0 The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts.\u00a0 The Jews in New York understood our Catskills parodies better than we did.<\/p>\n The second time abroad . . . Windsor, Canada. \u00a0\u00a0(Quiz:\u00a0 What foreign country would you reach first if you drove due south from Detroit?\u00a0 The answer: Canada.\u00a0 Windsor is south of Detroit.)<\/p>\n For our Australian non-gig, I dealt with a contemporary composer\/professor, Ralph.\u00a0 His children knew most of Yiddishe Cup’s funny lyrics.<\/p>\n I wondered if Yiddishe Cup’s synthesizer would work with the electrical system in Australia.\u00a0 And should I purchase the airplane tickets, or have Ralph do it?\u00a0 He might route us through Greenland.\u00a0 The bigger question:\u00a0 Would Ralph’s university have the money to bring us over?<\/p>\n Ralph didn’t have the money.<\/p>\n Chanukah in <\/em>Jackson Hole<\/em>, <\/em>WY<\/em>. <\/strong><\/span>That was the subject line of an email I recently got. I almost spammed it.<\/p>\n In the email’s text, a Wyoming rabbi asked Yiddishe Cup about doing a three-day Chanukah bash at three ski hotels.\u00a0 I immediately called the rabbi, gave him a fair price, and he didn’t hang up.\u00a0 In fact, he was enthusiastic.<\/p>\n I told the Yiddishe Cup musicians the Wyoming gig was 49 percent likely.<\/p>\n Our singer said, “Forty-nine percent?\u00a0 That means you think it’s not going to happen.”<\/p>\n “Correct.”<\/p>\n Forty-nine percent is the street corner where optimism meets realism.<\/p>\n
\nNew York Mills (Minn.) Regional Cultural Center
\nSouthern Cross International Music Festival, Brisbane, Australia
\nAustin (Tex.) JCC, Israel Independence Day celebration
\nKlezmer Festival, Fuerth, Germany
\nJewish Music Festival, Jackson Hole, Wyoming<\/p>\n