MARQUETTE, Mich.—Yid Vicious, a klezmer band from Madison, Wis., will be the next featured act in Northern Michigan University’s International Performing Arts Series. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, in the Great Lakes Rooms of the University Center.

Tickets are available at all NMU EZ Ticket outlets at the following prices: students, $5 in advance/$6 at the door; NMU employees /seniors 60+, $13 advance/$15 door; and general public, $18/$20.  This event is funded in part by Arts Midwest, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Describing its music as klezmer dance music with attitude, Yid Vicious has been engaging audiences throughout the Midwest since 1995. Some in Marquette may remember their rousing performance at the 2007 Hiawatha Music Festival.  The group has released four CDs and received numerous Madison-area music awards.

Yid Vicious is committed to keeping traditional klezmer music and dance alive and collaborates frequently with internationally renowned klezmer dance instructor Steve Weintraub. The group has participated in the New York-based “KlezKamp: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program” and was a featured performer at the “KlezKamp Roadshow” directed by Yiddish scholar Henry Sapoznik at the University of Wisconsin in April 2009. That same year, it became the first performing arts ensemble in Wisconsin to receive a USArtists International grant to perform at Argentina’s KlezFiesta, an international klezmer festival.

Yid Vicious has presented concerts, workshops and clinics at performance and educational venues in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. The band has also performed to statewide audiences on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.