Hilda Bronstein

Award Winning Singer of Yiddish Song

Hilda fell in love with the Yiddish language and Yiddish song at an early age. She was born in London to Polish-Jewish immigrants and Yiddish Theatre was her inspiration. She trained as a singer at the Royal College of Music in London, but other priorities took over when she married, had a family, and later retrained, taking a doctorate and becoming a university lecturer in English Literature.

In 2003 she discovered that, while she had been otherwise involved, there had been a huge revival of interest in Yiddish language and music, so she decided to return to her long-forgotten first love. She brushed up her Yiddish and attended London's annual Klezfest, where she encountered the exciting sounds of the new wave of klezmer music. It was here that she tentatively sang her first solo in Yiddish after so many years. Since then she has performed at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Concertgebouw and the Conservatorium of Music in Amsterdam, the Union Chapel in Islington, and at numerous other venues in London and the Home Counties.

Hilda was the Director of the Jewish Music Institute's Weekly Song School in London from 2005 to 2007 and took repertoire sessions and masterclasses at the JMI Klezfest in 2009 and 2010. She has also given masterclasses and workshops in Cambridge. In May 2008 she participated in the International Jewish Music Festival at the Concertgebeouw in Amsterdam, where she won the Mira Rafalowitz Prize for The Best Yiddish Song Interpretation. She returned to Amsterdam the following year to take part in the Prizewinners' Festival which took place in the New Music Conservatorium. She continues to teach Yiddish Song at her workshops in Edgware, under the title Sing Your Roots, where the students range from trained singers to those who profess to no previous experience out of the bath or shower! Her debut CD Yiddish Songs Old and New was launched internationally in February 2007 and a second CD Yiddish Songs With Chutzpah! was launched July 2010. Her recordings have been reviewed and broadcast extensively across Europe, the USA and Canada, and in September 2010 she was interviewed and sang live on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour.

For the past year Hilda has formed a fruitful collaboration with the gifted Israeli musician Yair Schleider who accompanies her on piano, accordion and guitar. Together, they have performed gems from the huge repertoire of Yiddish Song including some newly composed in England the USA, the Czech Republic and also in the former Soviet Union by Jews reconnecting with their heritage. These songs, old and new, weave a gloriously colourful patchwork of Jewish culture - each one capturing some facet of Jewish life - from celebration to tragedy, from childhood to old age, from the joys of love and family to the trials of separation. Hilda sometimes translates and sings some of these songs in English to make them fully accessible to non-Yiddish speakers. To read more about the band just click on Chutzpah!

New projects in 2011 include a collaboration with artist/printmaker artist Maureen Lopatkin with whom she shares childhood memories of London's Jewish East End. Together they are planning a series of concerts and exhibitions under the title 'Being There' where their impressions will be conveyed through anecdote, song and artwork. Click on the diary page for details of these events and also for Hilda's scheduled performances with her band Chutzpah!

Hilda is available for concert or cabaret performances, masterclasses and workshops. To find out more, or to book her for your next event, call her on 07778 501215 or email hilda@chiribim.com.

Details of Hilda's forthcoming events appear on the diary page.