In a world of polarization and escalating conflicts, Musicians Without Borders plays a unique, harmonizing role. MwB works with people suffering from the effects of war, inspiring them to raise their voices to meet other voices within a creative proces of joy and play. The person who is given the chance to transform powerlessness and dehumanization into creativity, experiences his/ her own worth and right to exist. I believe that this is the first and most essential need of every human being. 'Harmony’ is thus a 'verb of peace' for every individual and the world as a whole.
Shura Lipovsky was born in The Hague (Netherlands) and is a highly valued performer of Yiddish song on the international stage. Writer and composer of new Yiddish songs, she appears worldwide as a singer and storyteller.
Shura Lipovsky studied singing with Margreet Honig at the Rotterdam Conservatory, the Yiddish language with Mira Rafalowicz, at the Oxford Summer-University and in Maison de la Culture Yiddish (MCY) in Paris.
Lipovsky finished a dance education at the Dutch institute for international folk dance (LCA), and in 2005/06 she studied at l’Ecole Internationale de Théâtre de Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
She studied Cabalistic concepts with several teachers in Europe and the United States.
Performer
Shura Lipovsky performed in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Russia, the United States and Canada.
Highlights of her career:
Lipovsky gave the Commemoration Concert of the 50th Anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw Philharmonia (1993).
She participated in the Klezmer Extravaganza with Yitskhak Perlman in New York (1996), opened in 2002 the International Jewish Music festival in Amsterdam with her ensemble ‘Yiddishe Veltn’ (Monique Lansdorp, Bart Lelivelt a.o.) and in 2009 performed in Carnegy Hall with her quartet ‘Serendipity 4’ (Theodore Bikel, Tamara Brooks and Merima Kljuco).
For the LIza Ferschtman Chamber Music festival in Delft, Lipovsky gave a concert with pianist Jacques Verheyen, which was life broadcast on radio 4, Dutch National Radio, in 2009.
In 2011 Shura Lipovsky premiered with her new ensemble ‘Novaya Shira’ in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The concert was sold out and received with great success.
Her Hassidic story-program ‘Outside of Eden’ was performed in Europe, Sweden and the United States, accompanied by accordionist Bart Lelivelt and later by pianist Tamir Chasson. The stories were alternatively told in Dutch, English, German or Yiddish.
Pedagogue
Shura Lipovsky teaches masterclasses for professional singers, workshops on Yiddish song repertoire and she developed a model of Hassidic teachings and Kabbalah, ‘The Meditative Voice’: Jewish mystical melodies, meditation and movement.
She taught at the International Jewish Music Competition in Amsterdam, at MCY- Bibliothèque Medem in Paris, the Oxford Summer University, Summer-University in Vilna, Yiddish in Stockholm, at Klezfests in St. Petersburg, KlezKanada, London, Weimar and Paris. She taught ‘Meditative Voice’ at the Center for Jewish spirituality Elat Chayyim in New York, the Zentrum für Bewegung & Bewustsein’ in Portugal and in various other spiritual centers in Europe.
For the last seven years she has been the artistic director of the Jewish Summer Song-School in London for the Jewish Music Institute (JMI).
Since 2005 Shura Lipovsky has a choir for Yiddish songs in MCY-Bibliothèque Medem.
In 2008 and 2012 she was a member of the jury for the International Jewish Music Competition in Amsterdam.
Peaceworker
By means of singing, dancing and storytelling, Shura Lipovsky is active in inter-religious dialogue and she is a member of Musicians without Borders (MwB), located in the Netherlands.
She worked with spiritual leaders of different religions, such as the German priest and Zen-Master Willigis Jaeger (Benediktushof, Holzkirchen), Sheich Bashir Ahmad Dultz (Moslim Liga, Bonn) and the Sufi-master Ingo Taleb Rashid from Irak.
In 2003 Shura Lipovsky taught Jewish mystical melodies, nigunim in Sarajevo to the inter-religious choir Pontanima, collaborating with choral conductor and director of MwB, Laura Hassler.
In 2004 she produced a Jewish/Bosnian song-program in collaboration with Musicians Without Borders and performed with the intercultural Mostar Sinfonietta. For this project she invited Bosnian accordionist Merima Kljuco to participate and the American guest conductor Tamara Brooks to conduct for the occasion of the Second International Conference of Musicians Without Borders in Utrecht 2004, ‘Singing the Bridge’.
In 2005 the American singer/actor Theodore Bikel joined the project, while it toured through Poland under its new name: ‘Bridge to Peace’ in June 2005. The Dutch journalist Rob Simons produced the documentary, ‘Bridge to Peace’ in 2005.
Shura Lipovsky produced several cd’s (Moments of Jewish Life, Heroes and Poets’ and ‘Tsart. Her new CD ‘Vaytinke’ has been presented in December 2013).
She was featured in Dutch, Belgian, American and Canadian documentaries (‘Jiddisj is mijn instrument’, ‘Terpe Kind Mains, Terpe’, ‘Yiddish Soul’, ‘Journey 4 Artists’, ‘Wandering Muse’).