The Centre des musiciens du monde launched its new season of Intimate Concerts last night. An extended season, with more concerts and discoveries in store. If last night’s concert is any indication, it will be a rich year. Melodically, some of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in years were performed at the Tur Malka (King’s Mountain) – New Yiddish Songs from Canada concert. Several of them were brand new, never performed on stage before. If there are indeed a few details to fine-tune and a stage performance to coordinate, the touching beauty of the material offered by the ensemble is a guarantee of assured success in the hearts of those who will listen to them.
The quartet is made up of Henri Oppenheim on piano, guitar, percussion, compositions and arrangements, Mael Oudin on double bass and arrangements, Elvira Misbakhova on viola and Sheila Hannigan on cello. Oppenheim is the originator of the project, a Frenchman of Jewish origin who has lived in Montreal for almost 30 years. The songs in Yiddish, the language of the Jews of Eastern Europe, draw on the ultra-poignant, even emotionally powerful, melodic style of the Eastern European tradition, which was heavily decimated by Nazi Germany, but fortunately still alive in Montreal, one of the world’s main bastions of this culture. Oppenheim draws his texts from Yiddish poetry, including that of several Montreal artists such as Chava Rosenfarb or Jacob-Isaac Segal.
The arrangements, full of tenderness and melancholy, are carried out with great care by the outstanding performers Sheila Hannigan, a regular in all kinds of music, and Elvira Misbakhova, an excellent violist with the Metropolitan Orchestra, in addition to having played very often in klezmer ensembles in the metropolis. Mael Oudin on the double bass is more discreet, but his presence is nonetheless essential. Oppenheim leads the transitions in a sober manner, and with a discreet touch of humour.
Ultimately, it was an extremely touching moment of human communion, steeped in the cultural richness of Jewish Montreal, without which the soul of the metropolis would not be what it is today.
DETAILS AND TICKETS FOR THE INTIMATE CONCERTS SERIES
Next concerts of the series:
- December 17, 2025 – Didem Basar, kanun – Under the Moon of Topkapi
- January 23, 2026 – Ori Shalva, choir – Echoes of Sakartvelo, Georgian polyphonies
- February 11, 2026 – Guillaume Martineau, piano and Gabriel Paquin-Buki, clarinet – A Night in the Garden of Eden
- March 18, 2026 – Sadaf Amiri, santour – The sparkle of inner strings
- April 15, 2026 – Persian-Inca Duo – Federico Tarazona (charango) and Showan Tavakol (kamancheh) – The Valley of Dreams
