Karsten Troyke (born Karsten Bertolt Sellhorn on 14 August 1960 in
Berlin) is a
German singer of Jewish songs, as well as an actor and speaker.
Early life
Troyke was born to a family with some Jewish ancestry, but is not
matrilineally Jewish. His father Werner "Josh" Sellhorn had a Jewish father, who hid the family tree from officials by buying a fake "
Aryan passport".[1]
Troyke worked in various jobs: as a gardener and with cognitively challenged children. He studied singing (with
Leonore Gendries) as well as drama and speaking, performing on stage since 1982.
Career
In 1990 he gave up work to dedicate himself full-time to musical performance and theater. Troyke participated in radio plays, worked as a voice actor (dubbing), and appeared in various stage plays.
As a singer, his album Yiddish Anders (1992) received the praise of German record critics. Jidische Vergessene Lieder (1997) contained previously unpublished songs of Sara Bialas Tenenberg, who became his mentor for the Yiddish language.
In his performances, Troyke worked with
Bettina Wegner, Suzanna and the
Trio Scho. His interpretations of the songs of
Georg Kreisler received mention in the writer-musician's 2005 biography. In 2006, two documentaries, Yiddish Soul and Concert Yiddish Soul, featured Troyke, Shura Lipovsky, Myriam Fuks, and The KlezRoym.
Troyke holds workshops on interpreting Yiddish songs and teaches rare songs from his collection. He was a guest professor at the Jewish Music Institute of
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, at
Carleton College Northfield (Minnesota) and at the summer school of
Centre Medem, Paris.
Work
Books
Fritz Mordechai KaufmannDie schoensten Lieder der Ostjuden, reprint from Berlin 1920 (2001), with translations by Karsten Troyke