Kimberly Gelbwasser Lazzeri, soprano, is Associate Professor of Voice and Vocal Area Coordinator at Northern Kentucky University’s School of the Arts. After completing a term as Music Program Head, Dr. Lazzeri was awarded a sabbatical to record her first album. She is thrilled to release Freylekh: A “joyful” rediscovery of De Cormier’s Yiddish folksongs. 

The 14 songs on the album are from the recently published The Yiddish Folksong Project Anthology. This anthology brings to life Robert De Cormier's folksong arrangements, which had previously been in a storage closet for over 40 years. Not only is this anthology the first-ever publication of De Cormier’s arrangements of Yiddish folksongs, but it is also the first-ever large body of Yiddish folksong repertoire that is arranged in the classical style for performance on the concert or recital stage. 
 
While this is Dr. Lazzeri's first time singing in Yiddish, one might say that it is in her blood. Her father grew up speaking Yiddish in an Eastern European immigrant household in New York City. (Her father tells the story that his older brother started kindergarten knowing only the Yiddish language.) With this album, Dr. Lazzeri has so enjoyed discovering the thousand-year-old language of her Ashkenazi ancestors and deepening her connection with her Jewish identity.