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Tossi Aaron

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American folk singer
Tossi Aaron
DiedMarch 20, 2018
Genresfolk music
Occupation(s)folk singer, educator, author, editor, folk dancer
LabelsPrestige International
SpouseLeon Aaron
Musical artist

Tossi Aaron was an American folk singer, folk dancer, author, educator, and folk historian. She is known for her early-1960s recordings of secular and Jewish folk music, with a repertoire including blues, early American songs, and British and Scottish ballads in addition to folk songs in Yiddish and Hebrew. Following her recording and performing career she became a prominent music and arts educator.

Folk musician

In 1962 Prestige International released her 15-track album Tossi Aaron sings Jewish Folk Songs for the 2nd generation, composed of Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs, and her album of non-Jewish folk music, Tossi Sings Folk Songs and Ballads. The latter album included her best-known track, "I Know You Rider," the first recorded and released version of the 1920s folk-blues song that became a popular folk-music staple. The album also included "A Girl of Constant Sorrow," "Gypsy Davy," "House Carpenter," "House of the Rising Sun," "I Saw the Light," "Waly, Waly" and others.

Aaron helped establish the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1962 and performed at its first iteration that year along with Pete Seeger, Reverend Gary Davis, The Greenbriar Boys, Obray Ramsey, and Jack Elliott. She was a founding member of the Philadelphia Folksong Society.

Educator

Following her career as a folk musician and recording artist she went into education and became an influential figure in the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, an organization for professional music educators. A founding member of its Philadelphia chapter, she became editor of the organization's publication Orff Echo. She worked as an Orff specialist at the Philadelphia School, taught at Chestnut Hill College, and taught in the Orff-Schulwerk Teachers Certification Program at Abington Friends School.

In 1965 she released a children's record, A Child's Introduction to Going to School, which she narrated and sang.

Author

Aaron authored and co-authored a number of books in the 1970s including Music for Children and Joy Play Sing Dance (American Play-Parties) (with Wautack Jos). She edited and adapted from the Danish Musicbook O: Pulse, Pitch, Rhythm, Form, Dynamics, a source book on music for preschool and primary grades, co-authored In Canon: Explorations of Familiar Canons for Voices, Recorders and Orff Instruments, and wrote Punchinella 47 : twenty traditional American play parties for singing, dancing, and playing Orff instruments.

Personal life

She was married to Leon Aaron, and the couple had two children, Rachel Roca and Ellen Aaron.

References

  1. JOY! Play, Sing, Dance: "Time-tested jewels from the work of Tossi Aaron", Philadelphia Area Orff-Schulwerk Association, 9 September 2023, retrieved 11 March 2024
  2. ^ Karen Ellis, KAREN ELLIS BIOGRAPHY TEACHER, AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER OF PRINT AND ONLINE MEDIA, Educational CyberPlayGround, retrieved 11 March 2024
  3. Joyce Greenberg (26 April 1963), Jottings from Joyce, The Jewish Post, retrieved 11 March 2024
  4. Tossi Aaron sings Jewish Folk Songs for the 2nd generation at Discogs
  5. Philadelphia folk festival 1962, volume II Instruments, WorldCat, retrieved 11 March 2024
  6. Elisabeth Woronzoff, Philadelphia Folk Festival, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, retrieved 11 March 2024
  7. SlimD (26 March 2018), Tossi Aaron, SecondHandSongs, retrieved 11 March 2024
  8. Tossi Aaron (1 January 1980), "Music improvisation and Related Arts", Music Educators Journal, 66 (5): 78–83, doi:10.2307/3395781, JSTOR 3395781, retrieved 11 March 2024
  9. George A. Woods (15 March 1964), "Easing the Pains of Education", The New York Times, retrieved 11 March 2024
  10. Tossi Aaron, early leader in AOSA, passed away on March 20, 2018, AOSA, 26 March 2018, retrieved 11 March 2024
  11. Musicbook O: Pulse, Pitch, Rhythm, Form, Dynamics, ISBN 0918812046
  12. Bisgaard, Erling; Aaron, Tossi (September 1978), In Canon: Explorations of Familiar Canons for Voices, Recorders and Orff Instruments, Magnamusic, ISBN 978-0-918812-03-2, retrieved 11 March 2024
  13. Punchinella 47 : twenty traditional American play parties for singing, dancing, and playing Orff instruments Instruments, WorldCat, retrieved 11 March 2024
  14. TOSSI AARON Obituary, Newark Star-Ledger, 22 March 2018, retrieved 11 March 2024
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