BEN ZIMET- Yiddish song and music

Ben Zimet ("the man with the great voice") is widely recognized today as one of the world's most authentic and original Yiddish singers and storytellers.

His career spans three decades and began in America well before Klezmer music became fashionable everywhere.  After settling in Paris some years ago, he has toured all over Europe and elsewhere with his "Songs and Tales out of Yiddishland", appearing in such major festivals as "Jazz à Manosque" &  "Nuits de Nacre" in France, "Folk Tejo" in Portugal, 'San Sebastian Festival" in Spain, "Ascona Festival" in Switzerland, and "Sydney Festival" in Australia.

Ben was the first Yiddish singer to perform in Paris' famed "Théatre de la Ville", in the "Centre Pompidou" and in Peter Brook's "Bouffes du Nord" theater. He also was the first to give a command performance at the "Élysée Palace" along with the great french singer Barbara. 

Ben Zimet was also the first Yiddish singer to introduce completely new and modern arrangements, along with literary references, in the traditional Yiddish repertoire.

He has recorded twelve CDs of Yiddish song and music on his own, and together with the french Yiddish singer Talila. French and German television (FRANCE 2, WDR, NDR) have devoted several shows of his performances.

Ben was recently seen on the screen in Tony Gatlif's hommage to gypsy music, entitled " Swing".

Ben Zimet has just spent the last two years in Dakar, Senegal, working on a new, completely original blend of Yiddish salsa and African music. The show is called "La Casa del Judio Tropical", and will feature both Senegalese and Jewish musicians.

Contact :Tateniou Productions, 24 rue de Condé, Paris, France, 75006     

Email : zmetb@yahoo.fr

 Tel. : 00221 583 77  11 in Dakar
         06 15 53 69 90 in Europe

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                                     BEN ZIMET

                                    Storyteller-conteur

Ben Zimet is said to be one of the world’s best-known Yiddish storytellers. He was one of the founding members of the French storytelling revival, along with people like Henri Gougaud, Bruno de la Salle, Manféi Obin, Nacer Khemir, Mimi Barthélémy, Michel Hindenoch, Pépito Matéo, Gigi Bigot, Rachid Bouali, Marc Laberge, and many others. His repertoire ranges from the Isaac Bashevis Singer tales for children to the great Rabbi Nakhman of Bratzlav epics, and includes most of the humourous tales about the wise men of Khelm, plus a number of other Yiddish classics by writers like Cholem Aleykhem, Itzkhak Leybush Peretz, Cholem Anski, Avrom Reisen, Aaron Lutski, Itsik Manger, Jacob Glatstein. He was one of the first to introduce music and song as part and parcel of this storytelling.

Ben Zimet has performed in many French and European festivals over the years, in Africa too, and was recently invited to the Montreal International Storytelling festival. He has publishd one CD and three book-length collected Yiddish tales, in French (Editions du Seuil) – translated into Italian, Spanish and Greek –along with a dozen CDs of Yiddish and Hassidic song (in Yiddish). He speaks English and French equally well, plussome German, some Spanish, and loads of Yiddish, his mother tongue. 

Ben zimet is a Canadien citizen of Jewish-Polish stock, a long-time French resident. His current home is Dakar, in Senegal, where he is working on a major Jewish-African musical project. But he keeps hopping around the world to tell stories.