Please note that the deadline for submitting proposals for the 2014 New Jewish Culture Network commission has passed. Thank you to everyone who applied. We look forward to getting back to applicants by July 2013.

Read below for more information about the New Jewish Culture Network, including eligibility requirements for proposals.

More detailed information about the NJCN’s vision, criteria, and selection process is available here.

The 2013 North American Tour of The Yellow Ticket

The Foundation for Jewish Culture is proud to announce the North American tour of The Yellow Ticket – a live multimedia concert event featuring the eponymous 1918 Pola Negri silent film with a performance of an original score by Alicia Svigals, one of the world’s foremost klezmer fiddlers. The score is the newest commission from the Foundation’s New Jewish Culture Network (NJCN) and marks the first feature-length film composition by Svigals who will perform live with virtuoso pianist Marilyn Lerner at each of the screenings of this cinema classic. Set in Poland and Tsarist Russia, the film portrays a woman’s struggle to overcome adversity in a story of secret identifies, heroic measures, and triumphant love.

Alicia Svigals, who has composed for violinist Itzhak Perlman and the Kronos Quartet and helped found the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, has crafted a lush score inspired by klezmer and other Eastern European folk forms, 20^th-century classical composers such as Béla Bartók and Ernest Bloch, European café music, and contemporary improvisation. She will be joined by the exhilarating Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner, whose work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer and 20th century classical music.

Remarkably progressive for its time, The Yellow Ticket (1918) is the first film to explore Jewish discrimination in Tsarist Russia and stars famed Polish actress Pola Negri, Hollywood’s first European silent film star. It tells the story of Lea, a young woman who hides her Jewish heritage to study medicine. Pushed towards prostitution to pay the rent, Lea is saved by a beloved professor with a secret of his own. The Yellow Ticket, directed by Victor Janson and Eugen Illès and filmed partly on location in German-occupied Warsaw during the last year of World War I, was one of Pola Negri’s first films for Germany’s leading studio UFA and was released in the U.S. by Paramount in 1922. The film is based on Abraham Schomer’s 1911 Yiddish melodrama, Afn Yam un “Ellis Island” (At Sea and Ellis Island) which was subsequently produced on Broadway in 1914 in an un-authorized English-language version written by Michael Morton.

NJCN commission funds of $10,000 helped Svigals to further refine and develop a score initially commissioned by the Washington Jewish Music Festival. In addition, each of five “hub” cities – Vancouver, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston – receive subsidies for production and a wide array of public programs such as performance workshops, master classes on klezmer music, a film scoring lecture-demonstration, as well as panel discussions and talks to help contextualize the film.

For booking inquiries please click here.

Click here to watch The Yellow Ticket Promo Video.

2013 New Jewish Culture Network Presenters

New York City
January 10, 2013 (8:30 pm)
Walter Reade Theater
The New York Jewish Film Festival, a collaboration between The Jewish Museum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Vancouver
February 17, 2013 (2 pm)
Presented by Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz International Showcase of Jewish Performing Arts at the Norman Rothstein Theatre

Miami
March 3, 2013 (4:30 pm)
Presented by Next@19 at Coral Gables Art Cinema in collaboration with the Miami International Film Festival

Boston
April 29, 2013 (7:30 pm)
A collaborative presentation by the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Boston Jewish Music Festival,  and the New Center for Arts and Culture.

Philadephia

May 9, 2013 (8 pm)
Co-presented by The Gershman Y and the National Museum of American Jewish History

Houston
November 7, 2013
Presented by the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston, Houston Cinema Arts Society, and  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Yellow Ticket performance was commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s New Jewish Culture Network, a league of North American performing arts presenters committed to the creation and touring of innovative projects. The Yellow Ticket debuted at the Washington Jewish Music Festival, presented by the Washington DC Jewish Community Center, through a commission made possible by the Arthur Tracy “The Street Singer” Endowment Fund. The New Jewish Culture Network has received major support from the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by Sylvia M. Neil, the Milken Family Foundation, and other donors.

National outreach partners for The Yellow Ticket tour include the Polish Cultural Institute New York and the Goethe-Institut New York.

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Program Overview

The New Jewish Culture Network (NJCN) is the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s pipeline for contemporary performing arts that explore the Jewish experience. NJCN is a collaborative commissioning and touring program represented by a select league of performing arts presenters, both Jewish and general. Music composition is a priority for the first several commissions. Past commissions recipients include Alicia Svigals for The Yellow Ticket (2012) and Galeet Dardasthi for Monajat (2011).

The musician/composer receives a $10,000 commission for the project. Each presenter selected for the commission receives a subsidy for production costs associated with the tour.  Consisting of a diverse range of geography, size, and institutional type, NJCN members share a capacity to reach North American audiences of all cultural backgrounds through performances, artist-in-residency activities, and other interpretive programs in partnership with local Jewish and general organizations.

NJCN members convene annually in order to collaboratively select commissions, as well as review policy and criteria. Meetings also offer opportunities to exchange information about new trends, best practices, form strategic partnerships, and generate discourse about the performing arts through a Jewish lens. The Foundation seeks to facilitate deep and long-term relationships between artists and its Network members that extend beyond the commissions.

Eligibility

• Music commissions are project-based and should reflect new work by accomplished musicians/composers in all career stages with a track record of professional production and touring.
• Projects should be timely, imaginative, and risk-taking while rooted in Jewish traditions, history, and spirit.
• Projects should have potential to generate public discourse
• Selected artists should demonstrate an interest in community engagement through workshops, lecture-demos, panel discussions, public interventions, and educational programs.
• Projects should be accessible to audiences of all cultural backgrounds
• Projects may be in its early stages of development or at the final stages of completion. They must be ready to tour no later than fall 2014.
• Preference is given to U.S.-based artists with citizenship or legal residency status; however, international projects with U.S. fiscal sponsorship may be considered.

Applications

Please note that the deadline for submitting proposals for the 2014 New Jewish Culture Network commission has passed. Thank you to everyone who applied. We look forward to getting back to applicants by July 2013.

Please email us with any questions.

Previous Tours

Learn more about the first NJCN commission and tour:
The 2011 Monajat  Tour