Caroline Chanin

Chanin is a Yiddish singer in her own right, but with a slightly different twist: She is an accomplished mezzo-soprano who has gone against the trend of unadorned Yiddish folk and klezmer music and become a leading singer of Yiddish art songs — sophisticated collaborations between classically trained composers and Yiddish poets. Her repertoire does include folk and theater songs, but because of her operatic style and the frequently complex harmonies of the accompaniment, they sound more like classical pieces than like folk music.