There is no Broadway without Jewish composers. No Tin Pan Alley, no American songbook, no Jazz. Jewish composers, shut out of professions, brought European training and Jewish depth into conversation with the rhythm and pathos of African-American music. This class traces that arc — Yiddish theater, Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville, Broadway, all the way to the Ramones and Billy Joel. The Story of American music is our story.

The Wandering Jew — an ancient blood libel that occupies a complicated place in Jewish imagination. Because if you strip away the libel & the othering, it’s basically true. For millennia we wandered, and everywhere we landed, we built. Join me for a musical journey through the beautiful & surprising world of Jewish historical geography. We will travel the diaspora, tracing the path of Jewish wandering from Babylon to the present day.

Sometimes words get in the way. The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, believed that music bypasses the limits of human speech and brings us into a state of dveikus, pure communion with the Divine. Allowing sounds to transcend language, we transform mundane reality with the power of our wordless prayer. No one sings alone here — voices layer, harmonies form on their own, and the melody grows with the room. Drop in and sing.

A lay leader who knows nusach doesn't need a separate melody for every prayer — one flexible system covers the connective tissue of the service, so there's still time for the pieces that deserve a favorite melody, without turning Kabbalat Shabbat into a five-hour marathon. This class teaches the scale and shapes of a single mode, works through a short piece from the liturgy, then opens into real improvisation: wordless and playful.

The music of the Sephardi Jews is one of the world's most passionate, satisfying music traditions. Built on shared Jewish & Arabic scales, utilizing a language combining Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, & Hebrew, Ladino music taps into the pathos & heartache of the Jewish Diaspora. This class covers history, pronunciation, & ornamentation, then teaches 3–5 songs the traditional way, by call & response.

They arrived in steerage, singing of the world they'd left behind, already dreaming of whatever waited past the harbor lights. The melodies they carried, and the music they would go on to create, hold more range than almost any Jewish tradition — sacred and secular, tragic and absurd, often in the same breath. This class covers history, interpretation, and the stories behind the songs, then teaches 3–5 of them by ear.

The Jewish people are storytellers. Whether waxing nostalgic about the old world or bantering at a bodega, we can spin any story into a spiel. Molly Picon, Bette Midler, Adam Sandler. 3 singers, 3 centuries, 3 giant personalities, all in service of one continuous tradition — one that you are invited to be a part of. Let's demystify the art of interpretation. Class will include lecture, discussion, and a live coaching demo with one to two singers.

Great performances require great coaching. One adjustment, and the good becomes unforgettable. Krishna Alexandra brings twenty-five years of coaching experience & deep diaspora music expertise to every session. Whether you need a technical fix or help finding the story inside a piece, whether you're new to singing or a seasoned professional, this class will help you bring new dimension to your performance.

There's a melody in you already, you just need to learn to hear it. Start with a text you already love — a psalm, a piyyut, a line from Jewish liturgy — and let the familiar carry you into something new. Starting with existing words means you're never staring at a blank page. We will explore and ideate in the same creative cauldron, experienced composers, working songwriters, and first-time writers, together demystifying the art of creation.

Nothing brings us closer to Hashem than the act of creation. Taking up the Divine's primary axis of activity, we become G-d's partners, beautifying the world we inhabit. This act has always been about collaboration — with G-d, with tradition, with one another. Step into deep creative waters. You don't have to do it alone. We pair you & walk you through the mechanics of writing together: finding your roles, mapping an idea & building something real.

My students at Ohio University used to call me Professor Jukebox: press a button, a lecture pops out. If none of the workshops above are quite the right button, that's often where the real conversation starts. Looking for a custom offering on mysticism? Halakha? A niche area of Jewish history? Some help punching up your Purim spiel, or a hands-on lesson in tzitzit tying? If it's Jewish, there's a good chance I can build something around it.