Eleanor Reissa: Songs in the Key of Yiddish

Eleanor Reissa has a body of work that’s difficult to compartmentalize.  She has been called a quadruple threat - director/singer/actor/writer – in two languages, Yiddish and English.  She was nominated for a Tony Award for the very first musical she directed on Broadway - which she also choreographed and starred in.  Reissa's solo and collaborative music projects are fueling the New Yiddish Music Movement with traditional and original compositions that are rocking the Yiddish world. A Brooklyn-born daughter of Holocaust survivors, The New York Times said that Eleanor Reissa’s work as a “leading singer of Yiddish songs is a tribute to her family’s resilience.” These days she collaborates with exciting new bands as well as solo concerts.   The Los Angeles Times called her “A terrific stage presence with a sure sense of storytelling through song and dance, she has made Yiddish her mission. Sometimes she translated, often she didn’t -- there was no need.” The Band: Janet Axelrod •