Klezmer under glass

It's not Tanglewood, but once a month during the school year, the newest greenhouse of the Marsh Botanical Gardens, at the top of Science Hill, becomes the university's greenest performance space. At a “Music in the Garden” event in January, members of the Marsh Garden Irregulars rehearsed before going onstage, flanked by Mexican golden rain (left) and fan flower (above, in bloom). The trio -- clarinetist and Yale arts administrator Becky Wexler ’07MAR, accordion player Jake Weinstein (often seen, in warmer weather, playing on stilts on Chapel Street), and bassist and psychotherapist Dawn Lorentson -- performed klezmer, vigorous Eastern European dance music that originated in Jewish shtetls. Their set was well received by the audience and the fauna, says Marsh Gardens superintendent and Irregulars guitarist Eric Larson: “The plants are still dancing the hora.”

Julie Brown

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