Fay Sussman
Cabaret pPerformer, Singer, Producer, Director & Social Activist
For Fay Sussman, music is the ultimate language of peace. The alternately soulful and sassy singer lives a commitment to keeping the Jewish heritage alive through music.
Named for her great aunt Faina Feigale who died at the hands of the Nazis, along with most of her family in Europe, Fay says her passion for Jewish song, both Hebrew and Yiddish, is a compulsion and a beacon: “Music is a way to unite people and break down boundaries so that all people can celebrate together.”
Born to a long tine of cantors, Polish-born Fay came to Australia by way of Israel as a youngster, but her childhood memories are all of the songs of her parents‚ and grandparents, in Walbcze or the streets of Tel Aviv where she sang with other survivors as a statement: “Am Yisroel Chai!”(the Jewish People Live!).
The trauma of her father’s sudden death when she was in her 20’s silenced her Yiddish singing for more than 20 years until the joy of her daughter’s wedding forced the music out once more. Since then, she has become a sensation on the folk and world music circuit as well as a voice for understanding in a world of conflict. Fay sings the wild and joyous Jewish jazz as well as the reflective and soulful music of the shtetl (villages).
From communal concerts to Cafe Carnival, cabaret at La Bar, and command performances from Auckland to Brisbane she has performed with Henri Szeps and Warren Mitchell and for Shimon Farkas. At Woodford Folk Festival one New Year’s Eve, she performed for 10,000 people, leading them spontaneously to light Chanukah Candles in a prayer for peace!
About Klezmer Divas
Klezmer Divas are one of the most creative and exciting new Klezmer bands on the scene. This intoxicating combination of music is played in a harmonic minor, taking you on a journey through the 1930’s swing era of jazz, Gypsy, tango, waltz, with a Klezmer Yiddish flavour, incorporating beautiful Eastern European melodies.
The sound of Fay Sussman’s soulful and emotive singing, is comparable to the Berlin cabaret of Marlene Dietrich. Fay was reviewed in the Polish press, after her performance at the Polish embassy, comparing her to a “Yiddish Piaf”. Her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah for Harmony day at the town hall was moving and inspirational and was captured by SBS T.V.
As the lead singer Fay Sussman has been invited to perform at many of the festivals around Australia, including Woodford folk festival, the global festival in Bellingen, the national folk festival in Canberra, Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast, Nambour, Melanie, New Zealand and Perth. In Sydney, she has performed at Irish pubs, Camelot lounge, the Vanguard, Club 505, Café Carnival, Hunters Lodge (now the Blue Beat), Hakoah Club and Shir Madness music festival. She has been interviewed on national ABC radio by Rachael Kohn (Spirit of Things), by John Cleary on East Side Radio and SBS radio. Fay Sussman has been acknowledged as one of the mainstays of the world music scene in Australia.
