Mappamundi plays more-or-less traditional Jewish music at festivals, concerts, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs ...

Based in the Triangle area of North Carolina (Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh) Mappamundi has been working more and more with organizations and individuals to present programs of Jewish music in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington. These include klezmer tunes, folk and theater songs in Yiddish, and music from Israeli and Sephardic traditions.

You can look at a list of the pieces we play here.

"Their program of Yiddish and Ladino songs and tunes, sometimes humorous and sometimes passionate, moved us to laughter and to tears." Entertainment Coordinator, Palmetto Lodge of B'nai Brith, Myrtle Beach

If you click this button once, your email address will be added to our mailing list and you will receive an occasional update. Thanks!

"I can't begin to tell you how thrilled the members of the Mid-Atlantic Reform Rabbis Association who attended our kallah were with your wonderful performance [of Sephardic and Moroccan music] ... our rabbis were very receptive to your wonderful music which appealed to the other side of their brains.". Rabbi John Friedman, Temple Judea Reform

"Your Yiddish is so beautifully clear. I could understand every word and it made my cry -- it was just like the old days in Brooklyn." Organizer, Festival of Lights, Greensboro

In recent years, the jubilant, life-affirming music of Eastern European Jewry has become tremendously popular. With basses, fiddles, viola, cello, trombone, piano, clarinet, domro, accordion, percussion, and gleefully passionate vocals, Mappamundi has a riotous and moving klezmer sound and is equally at home with Israeli material.

An ever-increasing repertoire of songs from Israel, Eastern Europe, and Sephardic traditions fills Mappamundi's programs for traditional simchas. Folk songs and dances of Israel, and sacred and secular songs sung in Hebrew are popular with every Jewish gathering. There's almost always somebody around to lead a simple folk dance or two.

Jane Peppler is music director of the Triangle Jewish Chorale and the Temple Judea Reform cantorial staff. She has studied Yiddish song since 1987, with coaching from Adrienne Cooper, Zalman Mlotek, Sheva Zucker, and Benyumen Schachter.

Of course, one often wants a variety of music at a public event and "variety" is what Mappamundi does best. See our main page for a description of some of our other specialties, including American popular/swing tunes of the 20s, 30s, and 40s (and the occasional song by Bette Midler or the Kinks). We are the local specialists in hyphenated weddings: Spanish-Jewish, Irish-Jewish, Scottish-Jewish, and other events where the motley tastes of a multitude must be taken into consideration!

Inquire for information about programs in commemoration of Israeli Independence Day, Yom HaShoah, Hannukah, and other joyous or solemn occasions.

Back to Mappamundi home page.

Send us email
or call 919-383-8952 OR 919-606-2122 or write: