Courtesy photos.
Community concert will feature Nefesh Mountain and Mostly Kosher
THOUSAND OAKS — Temple Etz Chaim is proud to announce it will host two critically-acclaimed music groups, Nefesh Mountain Band and Mostly Kosher, on June 11 for a community concert, Cantor Kenny & Friends: An Entertaining Evening Celebrating Jewish Music.
Cantor Kenny Ellis, who will emcee the event, has been a cantor for over 30 years, serving at numerous synagogues in the Los Angeles area. Cantor Kenny produced Hanukkah Swings!, the world’s one-and-only big band Hanukkah album. He has performed at West Point and Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center. He has played a rabbi on many shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm and Law and Order.
The concert will be held Sunday, June 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Temple Etz Chaim at 1080 East Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. The concert will be held in the temple’s newly re-opened state-of-the-art sanctuary and social hall.
“We are thrilled to welcome the community to this one-of-a-kind musical experience in our beautifully renovated sanctuary,” said Eric Feigenbaum, president of Temple Etz Chaim. “We can’t think of a better way to celebrate its reopening than to bring together Cantor Kenny Ellis, and the incredibly talented Nefesh Mountain Band and Mostly Kosher, to treat the community to an evening of Jewish music and entertainment.”
Nefesh Mountain is a New York-based Progressive American band known for their “Jewgrass” sound that blurs the lines between the genres of Americana, bluegrass, folk, jazz and blues. Band co-founder Doni Zasloff is regarded as among the most influential Jewish performers in the twenty-first century. Her husband and band co-founder Eric Lindberg is known for his innovative use of the banjo in bridging the gap between American and Jewish musical traditions. Nefesh Mountain has performed at premier venues including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
L..A.-based Mostly Kosher is a celebrated klezmer gypsy-rock band that radically reconstructs Judaic and American cultural music through Yiddish refrains over striking klezmer beats. Inspired by the poetry and folk music of their Jewish roots, Mostly Kosher’s music explores themes of social justice, human dignity and mutual understanding. Front man Leeav Sofer was named one of Jewish Journal’s “30 under 30” most accomplished professionals in the Los Angeles Jewish diaspora and the group has performed at venues including the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
To purchase tickets, visit https://www.templeetzchaim.org/ckaf2023/
About Temple Etz Chaim
Temple Etz Chaim was founded in 1966 to serve the burgeoning Conejo Valley. For the past 57 years, TEC has sustained an inclusive community dedicated to the lifelong pursuit of Jewish learning, the celebration of Jewish culture and repairing the world through volunteerism, activism and good deeds. TEC’s Religious School and Early Childhood Education Center are accredited by the Bureau of Jewish Education and the temple supports an active United Synagogue Youth chapter, numerous havurot and much more. For more information, visit https://www.templeetzchaim.org
