Just off Tower Lane, the “606 Dance” had burst into bloom. Saxophones shrieked, and flute responded in a trilling, high voice. Bass hummed and rumbled, cuing in the violins. In the front row, Fanya Mayzlina heard strains of her childhood in old Kyiv, before the second World War upended her entire life. 

Mayzlina, whose story of survival spans three countries and almost nine decades, looked to music as a bridge Monday night, as members of the Nu Haven Kapelye arrived at The Towers at Tower Lane for their annual Hanukkah concert. For both residents and musicians, the concert has become tradition, bringing many in the retirement community back to their roots. 

“We lost our Jewish roots,” said Mayzlina, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. with her mother in 1991. “We lost our culture, Jewish culture, in Russia. We were interrupted far away from our culture. And I am deeply grateful … we need to revive our culture. It’s necessary to be close to it.” 

Monday, she pointed to the Kapelye as a powerful life force, reuniting many European Jews with a vital piece of their history. As the sky darkened outside, musicians opened on “Turetskaya,” horns wailing to life as Artistic Director David Chevan held it down on bass. All the way to the right, Eli Jackson, Steve Jacobs and Seth Rosenthal joined in on violin. Back in the woodwind section, the clarinet and saxophones were having a party. Jay Miles came in with a rolling drumbeat that took it back to 1912.

“It’s time to celebrate Hanukkah, yes!?” Chevan said, his eyes darting around the room in search of a menorah. He spotted a tinsel-wrapped Christmas tree in the back of the room and kept looking. Off mic, Cynthia Astmann flipped off the flashlight on her phone and began to wave it. “We’re gonna have to have a menorah in our minds. Our imaginary menorahs.”

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By Brian Slattery

Nu Haven Kapelye, sometimes billed as New England’s largest klezmer band, saw out the final days of 2021 with two concerts — one on Dec. 25 at Congregation Mishkan Israel and one on Dec. 31 as part of Yiddish New York​’s globe-spanning, 24-hour Klezathon — that saw the ensemble carrying on longstanding traditions, expanding its reach, and exemplifying the tenacity of musicians and music to get through another pandemic year with spirits intact. 

“We managed to make it work, and not do one, but two shows within a week, which was really cool,” said Nu Haven Kapelye bassist, bandleader, and arranger David Chevan. 

In the modern era, bands playing klezmer (or, to sum it up all too quickly, traditional Jewish music from Eastern Europe) tend to be smaller, with one musician per instrument and an emphasis on virtuosic solo playing. Not so the Kapelye, which draws its strength from its numbers, entire sections of strings and horns, with Chevan in the middle, leading the charge from his bass. In its approach, the Kapelye resembles both a big band and, reaching into the past, the large klezmer ensembles, like Belf’s Rumanian Orchestra or Abe Schwartz’s Yiddisher Orchestra, of the first half of the 20th century. 

In Europe before the Holocaust, Chevan pointed out, while rural Jewish communities might have had small music groups, ​“ensembles tended to be bigger in urban areas.” In cities like Warsaw and Prague, ​“centers of Jewish culture, you had these theater bands,” akin to the big bands in the early years of jazz. ​“There were these opportunities for larger professional ensembles,” Chevan said. The urban enclaves were the result of, on one hand, greater freedoms for Jews in Europe in the 19th century that allowed them to live in cities commingling more easily with non-Jews, and on the other hand, baked-in antisemitism that meant Jews tended to live with other Jews. They ​“might have been equal, but they were separate,” Chevan said. It set the stage for escalating violence that culminated in the Holocaust. Hitler ​“couldn’t have come to power” with his antisemitic message ​“if there wasn’t a culture for it that already existed.” 

Chevan had that history in mind as the Nu Haven Kapelye took shape in 1998 for its first Dec. 25 concert at CMI and Chevan began making charts for the variety of musicians he knew he would be working with. ​“I use a mental model in my head of what it would mean to have a klezmer orchestra or big band,” he said. For many of the musicians in the Kapelye, the group is their first chance to play klezmer. The Kapelye ​“creates an opportunity for people to get to know the music,” Chevan said. 

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By Lucy Gellman

It was just moments into “Ocho kandelikas” that Izzy Juda stood up, extended a hand to Sylvia Rifkin, and turned the dining room into a dance floor. Onstage, the Ladino tune conjured a Bosnia that no longer existed. Four rows back, Juda and Rivkin slipped into a seamless tango. Between them, there were 200 years of Hanukkah history, spanning Vienna and Kiev to Brooklyn and New Haven. 

Celebration filled the dining room at The Towers at Tower Lane Thursday night, as members of the Nu Haven Kapelye welcomed the fifth night of Hanukkah for over 60 residents of the assisted living home. In an audience were listeners who have survived the Holocaust, fought in World War II, passed the century mark, weathered a global pandemic—and still believe in this season of miracles. 

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see so many friends and so many familiar faces out there,” said bassist David Chevan, who leads the group.

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The singer sways at the mic, gliding into one last song for the night. Behind her, the band looks on, ready to pack up. An accordionist approaches, still playing. The singer caresses the mic, spots the musician. Her hands, gloved, flutter like tiny birds. Her arms reach out to their full wingspan. As the accordionist sits, she touches them lightly on the shoulder.

The singer is Cynthia Astmann, a member of the Nu Haven Kapelye who has helped make a pandemic-era music video into a reality. Thursday night, the group dropped a cover of the 1938 song “Mazel” just in time for the final night of Hanukkah. It is the brainchild of band member and teacher Jay Miles, with cameos, production help and sound mixing from fellow bandmates and musician Steve Rodgers. As a final Hanukkah gift to New Haven, jazz soloist Frank London appears on trumpet. 

"It all kind of came together, and I'm just really delighted,” Miles said in a recent phone call. “For me, it was incredibly needed. This is what I do. I do things with people. With Covid, you’re usually in a different room, and the cables are the only thing you're interacting with. It was really invigorating, and really special, to see these people. I feel really lucky.”

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