Join us as we kick off this year’s Micki Levin Concert Series with Yale Strom and his extraordinary ensemble, Hot Pstromi, together with special guest artists Fred Benedetti and Amos Hoffman. Enjoy an evening of music that begins with klezmer and spans influences from the Middle East, Central, and Eastern Europe.
Yale Strom is one of the world’s leading ethnographer-artists of klezmer and Roma music and history. Since Hot Pstromi’s inception in 1981, Strom has composed original New Jewish music that combines klezmer with Hasidic melodies, as well as Roma, jazz, classical, Balkan, Arabic, and Sephardic motifs. Strom’s compositions range from folk to orchestral, and works have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Hausmann Quartet, Burdick-Thorne String Quartet, Rachel Barton Pine, Mike Block, Bordeaux Philharmonic, the Ostrava Philharmonic of the Czech Republic, and others. In addition, he has composed original music for theater, film, and television. The musicians of Hot Pstromi are virtuosos in their own right, each having achieved international recognition for their work.
Amos Hoffman is an Israeli jazz guitarist and oudist, known worldwide as a pioneer in fusing the rhythms and melodic themes of the Middle East with modern jazz. After learning how to play the guitar and oud at a young age, he attended the prestigious Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. Amos’ search for new musical experiences led him first to Amsterdam, and then to New York City, where he played jazz with both established musicians and up-and-coming talents like Jason Lindler, bassist Avishai Cohen, and Claudia Acuna. In 2013, Amos was awarded one of Israel’s most prestigious prizes – The Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Jazz.
Fred Benedetti began studies of classical guitar at 16 and by 26 was one of 12 guitarists worldwide to perform in one of the last masterclasses of Maestro Andres Segovia. He has performed in the United States, England, Germany, the Czech Republic, Canada, Taiwan, and Mexico as well as with the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, the Starlight Opera, the American Ballet Company, the Old Globe Theatre, Luciano Pavarotti, and jazz artist Dave Brubeck.
Fred is an emeritus professor of music at Grossmont College, where he was the head of the guitar studies program, and is part of the guitar program at San Diego State University. He has received numerous accolades for his teaching and has performed for dignitaries such as the king and queen of Malaysia, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ravi Shankar.
