Vocalist Anthony Russell, in collaboration with acclaimed klezmer consort Veretski Pass (Joshua Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein and Stuart Brotman), set out to create new musical idioms by combining two distinct older ones: African American spirituals and the music of Jewish Eastern Europe.

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Drawing from a diverse collection of folksongs, anthems, lullabies, art and religious music, Convergence mobilizes an array of historic genres to evoke a multi-diasporic sound. Early blues, Hungarian and Bessarabian klezmer, “old time” fiddle music, synagogue tunes and contemporary classical music combine to create a repertoire of songs authentically inhabiting the sounds and histories of two traditions.