In association with the International Jew’s Harp Society the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ will organise the 5th
international Jew’s harp festival In July 2006. Hundreds of players, Jew’s harp makers and researchers
from remote corners of the world will come to Amsterdam in order for the Dutch audience to get
acquainted with the astounding versatility of this small instrument.

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

The core of the festival is the participation of some 60 very accomplished instrumentalists and their ensembles
which represent the diverging musical traditions in an excellent manner. In addition to a series of concerts in
which mixed ensembles will highlight the versatility of the Jew’s harp, there will be cinematography, lectures,
demonstrations and a market.

The Jew’s harp players from Asia with their electrifying and idiomatic sound interpret the authentic musical
culture which has remained almost unchanged over the centuries (e.g. Spiridon Shishigin from Sakha-Yakutia,
Bolot Bairyshev from Altay, Robert Zagredtinov from Bashkortostan).

Also in Europe there are some remnants
of the original folklore (e.g. Svein Westad from Norway, Manfred Russmann from Austria) but much
experimenting with modern instruments takes place as well (Aron Szilagy from Hungary, Anton Bruhin from
Switzerland, Tran Quang-Hai from Vietnam/France, Phons Bakx from Holland, Tapani Varis from Finland).

Jew’s harp players tend to meet at a local level to exchange ideas. Remarkable about these gatherings are the
mutual ties and fascination for the instrument. Dividing lines caused by cultural and ethnic background
disappear visibly and audibly, as the audience can observe as well.

HISTORY

The Jew’s harp is the most widely circulated musical instrument in the world. In its many varieties the
instrument is known to an immense number of people and it has more than 1000 different documented names.
The instrument originated approximately four thousand years ago in the southern regions of China. Ancient
trades from the Far East may have introduced the Jew’s harp to European cultures, where it became a popular
instrument. Nowadays the small instrument has a strange reputation in Western Europe. It is associated with
the Flower Power era and the American country music. In large areas in Eastern Asia however, the Jew’s harp
has an important ritual and social function. In Hungary and Austria there are still craftsmen who have passed
the knowledge of the manufacturing of Jew’s harps from one generation to the next. In America the musicologist
Fred Crane has made the study of this instrument his magnum opus.