The klezmer revival began in the late 1970s when American musicians found some old 78 rpm records.

Explanatory note for the iPod Generation: "Records" were the music medium that preceded compact discs, which preceded MP3s. Records turned at varying speeds, expressed in "revolutions per minute." First there were 78 rpms and then 33 rpms and ... oh, forget it.

Klezmer was forgotten.

"The music had essentially disappeared," says Hy Goldman, the Montreal pediatrician who's instrumental in the rebirth of klezmer.

"There was a period, after the Second World War," Goldman adds, "when the music was almost extinct."

Not to put too fine a point on it, klezmer had been murdered. Most of the people who who had played the music and enjoyed it had perished in the Holocaust.

Klezmer is the non-liturgical, celebratory music of Ashkenazic Judaism. The klezmer repertoire of Yiddish songs was performed at weddings and other celebrations in the Jewish communities of central and eastern Europe.

Klezmer had a good beat. You could dance to it - as klezmer enthusiasts will on Wednesday night at the Corona Theatre, where Goldman is staging a concert to mark the 13th anniversary of KlezKanada.

If Fiddler on the Roof was Klezmer 101, Goldman's event is grad school.

KlezKanada will draw almost 500 participants and 60 teachers from across Canada, the United States and around the world to Camp B'nai Brith in Lantier, about 100 kilometres north of Montreal. They will be immersed in what began in 1996 as a weekend event and has evolved into a week-long celebration of Yiddish culture.

Goldman describes KlezKanada as "an attempt to resuscitate, maintain and innovate the 1,000-year heritage of Ashkenazic civilization."

Resuscitation was successful and the patient is breathing on its own. A measure of KlezKanada's vitality is the event's participation this year in both the St. Patrick's and Fête nationale parades.

Goldman is 81 and looks younger. He still puts in full days at the Montreal Children's Hospital, where he has been on staff since 1959.

Born in Montreal, Goldman grew up on Clark St. near Mount Royal Ave. Interestingly, in view of his future avocation as Dr. Klezmer, Goldman did not speak Yiddish at home.

"My parents spoke English to me," he recalls. "I understood some Yiddish, but the language was not part of my upbringing."

The process of assimilation continued after Goldman graduated from Baron Byng high school. He went to the U.S. on a landed immigrant visa and was drafted into the U.S. army in 1946.

After he got out of the service, Goldman decided to go to the University of Illinois, where he faced a career choice: music or medicine. He'd been in a children's choir in Montreal and, later, cut some demo recordings as a possible crooner with the Sammy Kaye Orchestra. But rather than swing and sway with Kaye, Goldman studied medicine, returned to Montreal and joined the staff of the Children's.

In 1980, Goldman produced a Place des Arts concert by Boston's Klezmer Conservatory Band. He continued to organize klezmer shows - including a Jazz Festival joint performance by the Boston klezmer group and Quebec's superb roots music ensemble, La Bottine Souriante. For a widening audience of Montrealers, the music was a revelation.

"It was an eye-opener," Goldman says, "a discovery not only of the music but of the culture. It was a hidden treasure."

KlezCanada is more than a music camp. The event celebrates all the treasurable facets of Ashkenazic culture, including film, theatre and literature.

"It's a phenomenon that continues to grow and deepen," Goldman said. There are klezmer bands in St. Petersburg and Berlin. The music is played in Japan.

And thanks to the music-loving pediatrician and his wife, Sara, who was co-founder of KlezCanada, the music that almost died is alive and well in Montreal.

Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars perform in support of the KlezKanada Youth Scholarship Fund on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. at the Corona Theatre, 2490 Notre Dame St. W. Tickets are $36, available at the theatre box office (514-931-2088) or through the Admissions network (514-790-1245) Online: www.admission.com

mboone@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008