The Festival of Interfaith Arts of the Davis Performing Arts Center and Georgetown University’s Theater and Performance Studies Program Present:

Serendipity 4 – featuring renowned actor Theodore Bikel, Grammy nominated conductor Tamara Brooks, accordionist Merima Kljuco and Yiddish folk singer Shura Lipovsky  - comes to Georgetown University for three days of musical and theatrical performances, workshops, discussions and master classes. This free series of events – entitled The Bridge To Peace Residency – reflects the Davis Performing Arts Center’s distinctive emphasis on the development of new work, socially engaged performance and interfaith dialogue.

"Music is a special kind of bridge - reaching over time and ethnicity, over chasms of silences, able to speak and understand in tones when we are unable to utter words. Songs of loss, of pain, of grief and sorrow - and songs of hope and joy - are common to all," says Brooks. "When we sing each other's songs, we understand our common humanity.

The roots of Bridge to Peace were planted in October 2004, when Brooks and Lipovsky went to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to prepare the musicians of the inter-ethnic Mostar Sinfonietta for a program of Bosnian, Sephardic and Yiddish music. Their first concert took place in Holland for The Musicians Without Borders conference. In the summer of 2005, Bikel, Lipovsky, Kljuco, and the Mostar Sinfonietta under Brooks' direction performed in a concert tour of Poland. These concerts, called "Bridge to Peace," took place in Warsaw and Lublin and at the Cracow Jewish Music Festival.

Presented in cooperation with The Office of Mission & Ministry and Campus Ministry.

Sponsored by the Family of H. Max Ammerman (L ‘32), Josephine F. Ammerman and Andrew Ammerman (F ‘72).

Schedule of Events

April 13th at 5:00 PM - The Artist As Activist
Bikel and Brooks take part in The Artist As Activist, a musical performance and discussion about the power of the arts to transmit culture, hope and history.

April 14th at 7:30 PM - Keynote Bridge To Peace Concert

The capstone of the residency!

Performed in the beautiful, 743 seat Gaston Hall, this inter-ethnic concert weaves together music from different cultures and faiths interspersed with stories and contextualizing narratives. The concert also features Georgetown student musicians who will rehearse during the residency with and perform with the musicians on certain selections.

April 15th at 7:30 PM  - Lives In The Theatre: An Evening of Drama and Music
Celebrated DC actor Ed Gero (Shining City, Richard III) joins Serendipity 4 for an interactive theatrical evening featuring selections from the Yiddish theater, Bosnia and the American musical theater. Accompanied by a Georgetown University student chorus. In the Gonda Theatre.

The Performers

Theodore Bikel is one of the most versatile and respected actors and performers of his generation. A master of languages, dialects and accents, his memorable supporting roles include The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952) and The Enemy Below (1957). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Defiant Ones (1958). Equally at home on the stage, Bikel is remembered for creating the role of Captain Von Trapp in the original Broadway cast of The Sound of Music. He also appeared on stage in The Chosen, Tonight in Samarkand, The Lark, The Rope Dancers and over the past 37 years, has played the role of Tevye more than 2000 times in Fiddler On The Roof. He has made more than 25 albums of folk songs, freedom songs, cast albums of musicals, and classical works. Bikel’s numerous albums of Jewish folk music, concerts and theater performances, his co-founding of Israel’s Cameri Theater, his leadership in the Soviet Jewry movement and in the American Jewish Congress, have all distinguished him as a Jewish activist.

Tamara Brooks is a conductor whose career has spanned more than 35 years. She has performed with ensembles around the world and conducted and commissioned contemporary compositions. She has made numerous recordings, including a Grammy-nominated recording of the music of Vincent Persichetti. A graduate of the Julliard School of Music, Brooks has combined a performing career with a love of teaching throughout her professional life. She was president of the New School of Music, and has just returned from conducting the National Symphony in Taiwan.

Shura Lipovsky, one of Europe’s best-known singers of Yiddish/Jewish song.  She has sung in Europe, Russia, the United States and Canada and teaches master classes for singers and repertoire classes of Yiddish. She is also a specialist in storytelling, Judaic mysticism and dance.


Merima Kljuco, accordionist, is an internationally acclaimed soloist who has played with renowned artists and ensembles including MusikFabrik, Gelberklang and Joaquim Sabate. In addition to her classical career, she has extensive experience as a performer of contemporary, Klezmer and Balkan music.

Online Reservations Closed.

Tickets Now Available One Hour Before Each Event at the Door.