Jewish Music: International winners announced

Musicians in the family?

Here are more you may not have known about. They are the winners of the second International Jewish Music Festival, held in Amsterdam.

Participants included 24 groups from 12 countries.

As in 2008, the Amsterdam-based festival managed to attract top ensembles from around the world to this unique competition. The pre-selected 24 ensembles came from 12 countries and four continents. For them, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase their talent for an audience of programmers, agents and aficionados. The jury included world-renowned Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper and klezmer expert Hankus Netsky.

Eight workshops were also presented, incuding Adrienne Cooper's Yiddish/Ladino masterclass and the famed Hankus Netsky's Instant Klezmer workshop.

The first-place winner was a Chassidic band, The Heart & The Wellspring (Israel).

Other winners:

Mames Babegenush (Denmark)
Voice of the Levites (Israel)
Shir (UK) - Best Yiddish song
Di Gojim (Netherlands)
Yonit Shaked Golan & Gabi Argov (Israel)
Lafra (Spain) - Best Sephardic performance
Klezmafour (Poland)
Trio C Tot De Derde (Netherlands)
Vent d'Ouest Klezmer Band (France)

To view an 11-minute documentary of the finale, click here.