AMHERST, Massachusetts – The seventh annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music will kick off on Thursday, July 12, 8 p.m., with a performance by world famous clarinetist David Krakauer and his Acoustic Klezmer Quartet.

The four-day festival – July 12 to 15, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts – will also include performances by a diverse group of bands and performers: Heather Klein & Joshua Horowitz; Tsvey Brider, featuring Anthony Russell & Dmitri; David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness Reunion Concert, with special guest Socalled; Beyond the Pale; Sarah Aroeste and Anthony Russell; and the Socalled String Quartet.

Sunday, July 15 includes three concerts, including the closing performance featuring the Socallled String Quartet – a one-of-a-kind concert with Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled), the mad wizard of Yiddish hip-hop, on vocals backed by members of the Common Music Collective, playing newly commissioned transcriptions of classic Yiddish theater, folk, and art songs, some of which he discovered in the Yiddish Book Center’s archive of Yiddish sheet music from the early 20th century.

Talks and workshops during the festival include an exploration of Yiddish theater music with Hankus Netsky, founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and co-chair of the Contemporary Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory; a klezmer music dance class with world-renowned dance instructor Steve Weintraub; and, the multimedia presentation “A Journey to LadinoLand” with international Ladino singer-songwriter Sarah Aroeste.

For a schedule of event and ticket information, visit yiddishbook.center.org/yidstock.