Voice and Singing in
Popular Music in the U.S.A. (1900–1960)

 

Jascha Nemtsov, The Liszt School of Music Weimar / Universität Potsdam

From Molly Picon to Barbra Streisand.

The Jewish Voice in American Popular Music

 

Since the end of the 19th Century Jewish singing is part of the multi-ethnic American popular music scene. The development of Jewish popular music in America is closely tied to theater and later to film. While initially Jewish popular music was confined to the Yiddish speaking milieu and existed so autonomously for a certain extent, at least since The Jazz Singer (1927) there has been intense interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish influences.

 
Prof. Dr. Jascha Nemtsov's scientific works focuses on Jewish music and Jewish composers of the 20th century. He gives guest lectures and master classes at numerous European universities and music academies as well as in Israel, Canada and the USA. Jascha Nemtsov is a member of the School of Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam and of the Editorial Board of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music (Santa Monica/New York). Since 2010 he has been Academic Director of the Cantorial School of the Abraham Geiger College. In 2013 he was appointed as professor for History of Jewish Music at The Liszt School of Music Weimar.