AMICHAI LAU-LAVIE is the Founder, Executive and Artistic director of Storahtelling. An Israeli-born teacher of Judaic Literature and performance artist, he is described as "one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world" by the NY Jewish Week, "iconoclastic mystic" by Time OUT NY, and "a Judaic Pied Piper who spins gold out of the inherent drama of biblical legends and scripture" by the Denver Westword. Amichai studied at various yeshivot, including the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Elul Center in Jerusalem. Between 1992 and 1996 he directed the summer programs at Melitz: the Jewish Zionist Centers in Jerusalem, focusing on the integration of Jewish education via the arts. His theatrical experience as a writer and performer includes the Theatre Company Jerusalem, The Acco Theatre Group in Israel and the Avodah Dance Ensemble in the U.S. Between 1997-2000 he served as Artist-in-Residence at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York City.

Amichai is a Jeruslalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel (2008-2009) and is a consultant to the Reboot Network, a member of the Synagogue 3000 Leadership Network, serves on the Advisory Council for the Six Points Fellowship, the Advisory Board for faithhouse manhattan, and the Board of Directors of Zeek Magazine.

SHIRA KLINE is a New York based performer and music educator. She travels with her band, ShirLaLa, throughout the country and internationally bringing a dynamic, interactive program of joy and spirit, story and song, not to mention all out rock-star dancing and grooving! Brought up in the world and tradition of music, Shira celebrates with communities and shares her love for Jewish life and prayer.

Featuring the talents of drummer Lee "Free" Frisari (Circus Amok) and guitarist Avi Fox-Rosen (The Amazing Frozen String Quartet), ShirLaLa touches the lives of children and their families at synagogues, museums, schools, festivals and community centers including the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, The Toronto Ashkenaz Festival, The Jewish Museum on Fifth Avenue, the Alyeska Resort in Alaska, the Limmud Conferences in England and New York and Terra DiLei in Umbria, Italy. She is also a founding company member of Storahtelling: Ritual Theatre Revived. In its 10th year, Storahtelling is considered a trailblazer and a revolutionary approach to Judaism: "Deep inside tradition, way outside the box." She trains and works extensively with Amichai Lau-Lavie and Peter Pitzele (Bibliodrama).

In addition to performing, Shira is a worship leader and presents engaging programs for children and adults including Tot Shabbat, adult Jewish music meditation and professional development for early childhood and music teachers. In 2008, she served as adjunct faculty for Hava Nashira and has led ongoing programs for families at Temple EmanuEl in New York City for the past ten years.

Shira holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and has spent many years engaging in Torah Study in formal and informal settings.

Her motivation stems from a family who infused every moment of life with a love of Judaism - special homemade foods, singing and dancing to Jewish music, exploring and reveling in all holidays, ethics, lessons learned through Jewish eyes. Her father, Rabbi David Kline, taught her meditation as a form of prayer at an early age. Her mother, Barbara Kline, brought in each Shabbat with beautiful candle-lighting and homemade challah and at bedtime her father sent her to sleep with sweet dreams of Shabbat angels.

Rose Ayelet Gottlieb is a Swedish-born Israeli singer who lives in New York. Her music walks a wonderfully dizzy line between jazz, Sephardic, and klezmer traditions, and Middle Eastern rhythmic influences. SHe studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with Dominique Eade, Ran Blake, George Russell and Hankus Netsky, that she galvanized her musical style. "Hankus Netsky made me see the beauty within traditional Jewish music, which up to that point never really resonated with me." Ayelet recently released her debut album "InTernal-ExTernal" on Genevieve Records.

JEREMY BROWN grew up playing classical violin, and discovered improvising and folk music during college in Berkeley, California. Since that time, Jeremy has played many styles of music, including klezmer, bluegrass, rock, and swing. In 2001, while living in the Midwest, Jeremy released an album of original music, titled "This Year in St. Louis". The album was well-received, and led to performances around the Midwest by Jeremy's klezmer-swing-grass band, "Treif". In 2004, Jeremy moved to New York with his family and has been an active member of the city's Jewish music scene. He is a member of "Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar", who recently released a debut CD, and has also performed with artists including Frank London, Golem, and Margot Leverett's Klezmer Mountain Boys.

Special guests:

For thirty years now, Israeli superstar DAVID BROZA has been considered one of the most dynamic and vibrant performers in the singer/songwriter world. His charismatic and energetic performances have brought to worldwide audiences, fusions of three different countries in which he was raised: Israel, Spain, and England, filling concert halls with his famous guitar playing, ranging from flamenco flavored rhythmic and percussion techniques, to whirlwind finger picking, to a signature rock and roll sound. Broza unites the three worlds by utilizing his ability to take on the troubadour style tradition, featuring lyrics of the worlds' greatest poets.

Truly spanning the globe, David Broza has immersed himself in numerous projects. In the U.S., he has spent time working with American poet, Matthew Graham, as well as teaching Master Creative Writing classes at the prestigious Bennington College. Broza's time in Spain was spent collaborating with Spanish writers, leading to the completion of three Spanish C.D.'s, as well as broadened audiences. In Israel, Broza has performed with the Israeli Philharmonic many times, featuring his own music, including a self-composed classical suite. Throughout the years, his global tours have resulted in collaborative performances with prominent musical figures such as Paul Simon, Al Dimeola, Bob Dylan, Spyro Gyra, Van Morrison, Jose Fernandez, Sting, and more.

More than a singer/songwriter, David Broza is well known for his commitment and dedication to several humanitarian causes, predominantly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beginning in 1977, Broza has been working to bring the message of peace to the masses by joining peace movements, and singing what is now the anthem of the 'Peace Now' movement, his hit song, Yihye Tov. A recent project has been writing and recording with the Palestinian music group, Sabreen, the song 'Belibi', which featured Broza, Sabreen's Wissam Murad, and two children's choirs, one from each side of the conflict. Though met with controversial reactions from around the world, both Israeli's and Palestinians strongly favored the project, as did the United Nations D.C. based organization, In Search for Common Ground, which presented awards to both artists in November of 2006.

Trumpeter/composer FRANK LONDON is a member of the Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave, has performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa, and is featured on over 100 cds. His own recordings include INVOCATIONS (cantorial music); Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars' DI SHIKERE KAPELYE and BROTHERHOOD OF BRASS; NIGUNIM and THE ZMIROS PROJECT (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); THE DEBT (film and theater music); THE SHEKHINA BIG BAND; the soundtrack to THE SHVITZ; the soundtrack to Perl Gluck's THE DIVAHN and four releases with the Hasidic New Wave.

His projects include the folk-opera A NIGHT IN THE OLD MARKETPLACE (based on Y.L. Peretz's Bay nakht oyfn altn mark), DAVENEN for Pilobolus and the Klezmatics, Great Small Works' THE MEMOIRS OF GLUCKEL OF HAMELN and Min Tanaka's ROMANCE. He composed music for John Sayles' THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET and MEN WITH GUNS, Yvonne Rainer's MURDER AND MURDER, the Czech-American Marionette Theater's GOLEM and Tamar Rogoff's IVYE PROJECT.

He was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson's THE KNEE PLAYS, collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in Canada, Crimea and the Catskills, and produced CD's for Gypsy Ledgend Esma Redzepova, and Algerian Pianist Maurice el Medioni.

He has been featured on HBO's SEX AND THE CITY, at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Front man of The Sway Machinery and frequent collaborator with Balkan Beat Box, JEREMIAH LOCKWOOD started his career performing on the streets and in the subways of New York City, playing solo and with Piedmont Blues master Carolina Slim. Local favorites, Jeremiah and Carolina Slim's relationship has been chronicled in The New York Times Magazine and Time Out NY. American Primitive, Jeremiah's solo album, is an attempt to capture that fascinating and powerful intersection of Americana and NYC street culture. Listen to "Love in the Dungeon" and "Going to Brooklyn" from American Primitive.

"Lockwood, a young Brooklynite who plays good guitar and banjo and sings like he's possessed by the schizoid spirit of Bukka White, forges his own idiosyncratic strain of blues-cum-country on his impressive debut." --DownBeat

The Sway Machinery, Jeremiah's band, offers a different view of his musical personality. This exciting project, a collaboration with musicians from Antibalas and Tom Waits' old band, is an exploration of the Ashkenazic Jewish liturgical music tradition Jeremiah grew-up exposed to in his family. The band has been capturing the attention of more and more New Yorkers in the last year and is poised to break out on the national and international level. Listen to "Birkas Kohanim" from The Sway Machinery's new self-titled EP, out now on JDub Records.

"Lockwood's arrangements of Jewish cantorial songs whip up a frenzy wherein all the world's music can do that which music does best: celebrate. Such joyful synthesis is what music is all about, not to mention what New York is all about."

--Buzz Poole, The Village Voice

Jeremiah Lockwood lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Shasta and their two sons Moses Lion and Jacob Ulysses.