CONTRIBUTOR:

Walter Zev Feldman

AFFILIATION:

TITLE:

Performer & Music Researcher

DEPARTMENT:

INSTITUTION:

Jewish Music Research Centre

BIOGRAPHY:

Walter Zev Feldman is a leading researcher in both Ottoman Turkish and Jewish music. His book Music of the Ottoman Court (Berlin, 1996) has become a classic in the field, and in 2004 he co-directed the UNESCO application of the Mevlevi Dervishes of Turkey. His article on the bulgar dance (Ethnomusicology, 1994) is frequently cited in studies of klezmer music internationally. He is an authority on Ashkenazic dance, forming part of his research on the role of gesture in the performing arts, which he has taught in NYU Abu Dhabi. He teaches both klezmer music and Ashkenazic dance in workshops and festivals worldwide. Feldman is a Visiting Professor of Music at NYU Abu Dhabi. He is a board member of the Corpus Musciae Ottomanicae (CMO) Project of the Wilhelm Westphalian University in Münster, supported by the DFG. He directs the An-sky Institute for Traditional Jewish Expressive Culture at the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York. His book Klezmer: Music, History and Memory, has been published this year by Oxford University Press.