The music of the Eastern European and Spanish/Mediterranean Jews is important to hear. Its contribution to multicultural wisdom and understanding helps keep generations connected to each other and evokes powerful emotions of the heart and soul. Preserving Yiddish and Ladino, the mother tongues of these two heritages, through song is widely received and needed.
Sheila loves performing for interested audiences and involving them in the show. The audience will receive a Yiddish lesson, an introduction to the Ladino language, be invited to dance, learn a bit of history, perhaps contribute some history, and they will not be able to resist joining in the sing along.
Whether it's a preschool, primary, secondary or college, retirement or nursing home, everyone learns and can appreciate a concert from Sheila Fox and the Kosher Red Hots.
The multitalented pair of Eugene Jablonsky on bass and guitar and Liz Dreisbach on clarinets (a Bb and a C) and the saxophone, give fun and interactive workshops on klezmer music, love to talk story, and are seasoned teachers and performers.
Eugene is well known in Eastern Washington as a jazz, classical and folk music virtuoso. He has been teaching music for over 25 years. He is professor of jazz and classical bass at Eastern Washington University. He has performed with Marian McPartland, Fred Hirsch the New England Ragtime Ensemble directed by Gunther Schuler and many others.
Liz Dreisbach has been a mainstay in Seattle's folk and world music scene for 25 years. Liz is Co-Director of Festival Programs for the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle. She also holds an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. Liz has performed at festivals worldwide including the Vancouver Folk Festival, Hong Kong Folk Festival, Bumbershoot (Seattle), and Oregon Country Fair.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOLLY PICON – an educational show by Sheila Fox
Yiddish Theater maven Molly Picon, singer, dancer, actress, comedienne, vaudevillian, acrobat deemed the Yiddish Helen Hayes and a beansized Sarah Bernhardt! Molly's great success in the Yiddish theater spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s. And then she went on from there to do Broadway, International Night Club Acts, daytime soap operas, and TV sitcoms!
Sheila has been told over and over again that she is a modern day Molly Picon. After being praised and receiving so much enthusiasm from the folks who actually got to see Molly Picon, Sheila decided to create a show about this courageous, bold and daring young girl from a poor Jewish family in Philadelphia, who makes it big on the Yiddish stage. In doing so, Sheila brings Yiddish theater alive in the present time.
“The Life & Times of Molly Picon” has played in Seattle and toured to New York. Most recently, Sheila performed excerpts of her show at Center Stage Theater, Mercer Island, Washington. Molly Picon lives!!