Shir Madness for Melbourne
THE popular Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival, which has been a regular feature on the Sydney calendar since 2010, is spreading its wings with a Melbourne festival planned for next year.
Festival director Gary Holzman and festival manager Nicola Ossher will be in Melbourne this weekend to meet people interested in joining the local committee to run the festival.
“We are finally setting that ball in motion by coming to Melbourne to meet with people who are interested in joining the committee,” says Ossher.
“Shir Madness in Sydney has had an amazing committee for the past four years that covers all areas of the festival and we hope to establish a similar committee in Melbourne to run the music festival.
“We are looking for people who have some experience in organising festivals and areas such as marketing.”
The Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival features performers from around Australia and overseas presenting a wide variety of musical styles including klezmer, Ladino, Israeli, folk, jazz, blues, rock, reggae and hip-hop.
More than 2000 fans attended the 2013 festival that was held in Bondi and featured more than 30 strong acts including American singer Joshua Nelson, Melbourne singer Deborah Conway and acclaimed Sydney pianist Simon Tedeschi.
Ossher says the long-term goal of Shir Madness was to have the festival held in Sydney and Melbourne on alternate years.
She says Shir Madness will have a session at Limmud Oz in Melbourne over Queen’s Birthday weekend next month to gauge interest in the Melbourne festival.
“The Sydney Shir Madness festival got off the ground by a discussion session held at Limmud Oz in 2009 and from that a number of people came and expressed interest in joining the committee, so we hope the same will happen in Melbourne.”
For more information about the organising committee, contact
info@shirmadness.com.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
PHOTO of Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier performing at the 2013 Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival in Sydney.
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