Jewish Arts Festival Comes to Leeds

A dynamic programme of international Jewish music, drama & comedy is heading your way when this year’s International Jewish Performing Arts Festival comes to Quarry Hill in Leeds.

Graffiti Classics

Between 25th June and 1st July, four evenings of high quality UK and international shows will hit the stages of Northern Ballet and the Leeds College of Music, both located on St. Peters Square, Leeds. Now in its 12th year, this entertainment showcase bursting with versatility will celebrate Jewish related performing arts and talent on a huge scale!

Overseas artists come to Leeds this year from the US, Poland and Israel as well as the length and breadth of the UK. Bringing outrageous musical comedy to the festival are Graffitti Classics. Four very talented but wacky characters power hilariously through musical preconceptions of jazz, classical, opera and folk using string instruments. This crazy four were a huge hit at this year’s New Orleans Mardi Gras celebrations and have toured around the world.

Doo Wap Girls

Vocal Vintage Trio, the Doo Wap Girls, from Jerusalem, offer a fresh musical perspective on all-time classics combined with unbeatable harmonies. Presenting a young energetic take on popular Klezmer music is Klezmafour from Poland. This talented group and current finalist contenders for the Polish equivalent of X Factor, take an innovative approach to the music adding in rock beats, Balkan sounds and a whole load of explosive word music energy. The Twist, Cuban Dance, Mambo, West Indian Calypso, Surf Guitar and more are presented by a sizzling line up of 8 musicians when Yiddish Twist Orchestra hits the stage on the last night of the fest. A line up to include saxophonists, trumpeters, trombonists, guitarists and percussionist, will accompany dynamic vocalist, Sam Lee, to make an exceptionally entertaining kaleidoscope of a show.

Rebecca Joy Fletcher - Cabaret

For drama buffs, award winning US television and stage actress, Deborah Jean Templin, brings her celebrated one woman show ‘Unsinkable Women’ to the Festival. Playing nine female characters, Deborah Jean tells how Molly Brown and other extraordinary women on board the Titanic not only survived that night … but changed their own lives and the world around them. Other highlights of the festival include Cities of Light, drama/cabaret performed by New York actress Rebecca Joy Fletcher, Graffiti Classics, outrageous comedy music theatre, Tina Law sings Streisand, a tribute show to the music of Barbra Streisand and Mark Maier.

These are just some of the shows on offer. See the full festival programme and how to buy tickets on www.leedsjewishfestival.co.uk Or call the Festival Office on 0113 2680899 to request a programme.