Ashkenazi Vernacular Cultures of Latin America
Conference October 2026
The 2026 conference focuses on Ashkenazi vernacular music cultures in Latin America and examines how Yiddish, German-Jewish, and Eastern European musical traditions were preserved, adapted, and transformed through encounters with Latin American genres and performance contexts. Particular attention is given to processes of cultural hybridisation in urban centres such as Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Montevideo, including the circulation of Yiddish song, klezmer, and theatre music and their interaction with tango, samba, bossa nova, and related styles. Combining scholarly and artistic research, the meeting explores how music articulates migration and social concerns, and it considers the roles of musicians, cultural mediators, literatures and institutions in shaping these transnational soundscapes.
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Sunday, October 18 |
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10:00-10:15 |
Welcome and Introduciton |
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10:15-11:00 |
Lecture: “Argentine Yiddish Theater in its Golden Age: A Journey Through Archival Findings“ |
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11-11:20 |
Break |
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11:20-13:00 |
Round table: Artistic Research on Yiddish and Latin American Music |
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13:00-14:30 |
Lunch Break |
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14:30-16.15 |
Film screening: The Exile of the Musicians |
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16:15-17:00 |
Break |
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17:00-19:00 |
Concert: Jiddischer Tango. Jüdische Musik aus Lateinamerika |
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Monday, October 19 |
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10:00-10:45 |
Intergenerational and Transnational Migrations of Melodies in Cuban Yiddish Literature |
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10:45-11:30 |
Dancing Across Borders: Jewish Musicians, Yiddishkeit and the Tango Scene in Early-1900s Buenos Aires |
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11:30-12:00 |
Break |
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12:00-13:00 |
From Shabbat to the Arrabal: Ashkenazi and Porteño Sonorities in César Tiempo |
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13:00-14:30 |
Break |
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14:30-15:15 |
Lecture (ZOOM): Bernardo Mitn Fidl: Ashkenazi Vernacular Instrumental Culture in Argentina, 1930s to 1970s |
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15:30-16:15 |
tba. |
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16:15-17:00 |
tba. |