Dmitri Slepovitch, Ph.D.

Dmitri Slepovitch, Ph.D.

DMITRI ZISL SLEPOVITCH

Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch is an ethnomusicologist, educator, clarinetist, saxophonist, pianist, composer, conductor, and Yiddish singer, founder of Litvakus and Minsker Kapelye bands, Yiddish Language and Culture Instructor at The New School (New York), Assistant to the Artistic Director at National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene. Slepovitch performs and teaches Ashkenazi Jewish music and other Eastern and Central European musical traditions.

Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch has performed with Aaron Alexander, Michael Alpert, Paul Brody, Psoy Korolenko, David Krakauer, Frank London, Selim Sesler, Yale Strom, and Theresa Tova, to name a few. He has co-arranged a score for the Jewish cantorial music project performed by Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Meir Helfgot (2011/12, music direction by Hankus Netsky).

Having moved to the US in 2008, Dmitri Slepovitch brought with him his collection of Litvak musical folklore containing dozens of hours of interviews and region-specific musical material. He published over 20 articles and co-authored a book, “Traditional Jewish Music in Eastern Europe” (2007, in Russian). He holds a Ph.D. degree in musicology (Jewish music) from The Belarusian State Academy of Music (2006).

Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch has worked as a music consultant and played character roles in the movies Defiance (2009) and The Burning Land (2003); a co-producer of the KlezmerShock! International Festival (Minsk, 2005). He served as a composer, arranger, orchestrator, music director, rehearsal pianist, band musician, and actor in numerous theater productions in New York and Minsk (National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene, Theatre for A New Audience, New Yiddish Rep, Castillo Theater, Peak Productions at Montclair State University, Harvard Yiddish Players, NYU, CUNY, Gene Frankel Theatre, and The Belarus National Drama Theatre).

Among his original works, Dmitri Slepovitch has scored the ballet "Two Brothers" (Folksbiene), The Learning Play (All Stars Project/ Castillo), The Agents (New Yiddish Rep), DOROGA (Lost & Found Project), and the documentary Funeral Season (in production).

Dmitri Slepovitch taught courses in music history, theory, ethnomusicology, and Yiddish language and culture— at the Belarusian State Academy of Music, National Music College in Minsk; workshops and seminars in Yiddish music and Jewish studies in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States, held by the Sefer Center for Jewish Studies, Moscow, Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University, New York, Intercollegiate Center for Jewish Education, St.Petersburg - Jerusalem, and Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2010, Dmitri Slepovitch has worked as a community educator at BIMA program at Brandeis University.

Zisl has recorded 3 albums with his band Minsker Kapelye, 4 CDs with the Simcha Jewish Youth Music Theater (Minsk). He appears as a guest artist on the CD appendix to the “Upward Flight” book on An-ski’s heritage,an award-winning album “Kalykhanki” (Lullabies) produced by the UNICEF, and One Ring Zero''s album, "Planets." He has contributed as consultant to Joel Rubin''s compilation "Shalom Comrade! (Yiddish Music In The Soviet Union 1928–1961)". Dmitri Slepovitch has appeared in dozens of TV and radio shows and programs aired throughout Europe, Israel, former USSR and the US.

For bookings and contact, please write at dslepovitch (at) gmail (dot) com