The Yellow Ticket

Grinnell College will host a live, multi-media concert on Saturday, Nov. 21, featuring a screening of the silent film The Yellow Ticket with a klezmer score performed live by its composer, renowned violinist Alicia Svigals, and award-winning pianist Marilyn Lerner.

Klezmer, the spirited folk music introduced to America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, is best known as the style of music performed in Fiddler on the Roof. Svigals composed The Yellow Ticket score, which is as fresh, vital, and contemporary as the music she has performed as a solo violinist and with the Grammy Award-winning ensemble known as The Klezmatics.

The event will start at 7 p.m. in Herrick Chapel. Tickets are required for this free public concert, and will be available starting Nov. 17 at Bucksbaum Center for the Arts Box Office.

The Yellow Ticket, a 1918 drama set in Poland and czarist Russia, portrays a woman’s struggle to overcome adversity in a story of secret identities, heroic measures and triumphant love.

Svigals, considered the world's premier klezmer fiddler, received first prize at the International Klezmer Festival in Safed, Israel. Her debut solo album, "Fidl (Traditional Crossroads)" is the world's first klezmer fiddle CD. Her work as a composer earned her the 2014 MacDowell Fellowship.

Lerner, a jazz pianist, has earned international acclaim in creative improvisation, klezmer and 20th century classical music. She also has composed for film, theater, radio and television. Her piece titled "Healing Hands" received the Montreal International Jazz Festival award for best composition in 1994.

Grinnell welcomes and encourages the participation of people with disabilities. Accommodation requests may be made to Conference Operations and Events.