Klez from Kleveland music plays at Cain Park

Yiddishe Cup (from left): Steve Ostrow, Irwin Weinberger, Tamar Gray, Don Friedman, Bert Stratton, Alan Douglass, Alice Stratton.  (Photo by Shane Wynn)

Yiddishe Cup, the Cleveland Heights-based klezmer band, mixes soul music with klezmer at the 37th annual Workmen’s Circle Concert in the Park on Sunday, June 28, 7 p.m., at Cain Park’s Evans Amphitheater. Admission is free; tickets are not necessary.

Two years ago, Yiddishe Cup first collaborated with soul singer Tamar Gray of Cleveland Heights. Gray is the vocal music teacher at Fairfax Elementary School. At Cain Park, the band will debut a mash-up of “Tradition” from "Fiddler on the Roof" and the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.” 

In her youth, Gray belonged to the Worldwide Church of God, a Christian denomination that adhered closely to the Hebrew Bible. Church members fasted on Yom Kippur and celebrated Succoth (the Festival of Booths). Gray currently is the assistant pastor at Edgehill Community Church on Euclid Heights Boulevard.

The concert will also feature guest singer Shawn Fink of University Heights. Among other tunes, Fink will sing “Joe and Paul’s,” a Yiddish song about a teenage boy with a fascination for smutty French post cards. Fink will translate some of the lyrics.

The Workmen’s Circle Klezmer Orchestra, under the direction of Norman Tischler, will play from 6–7 p.m. in the Colonnade. Steven Greenman, a virtuoso klezmer violinist, opens the main-stage show at 7 p.m., accompanied by Mark Freiman on piano. Greenman has played throughout the United States, as well as in Spain, Poland, Germany and Canada.

Lori Cahan-Simon, a Yiddish-song researcher and accomplished singer, will follow Greenman, backed by Walt Mahovlich on accordion and Greenman on violin. Yiddishe Cup will play the second half of the show—and it’s possible that all the musicians will gather for an encore.