In 2012, as sponsored by the Jewish Music Institute (JMI) in London, klezmer clarinettist Ros Hawley and horn-playing ethnomusicologist Richard Fay co-founded The University of Manchester's klezmer ensemble, The Michael Kahan Kapelye (MKK). Each year, the ensemble provides students in the Music Department with the opportunity to step outside the familiar boundaries of their musical experience and learn to perform klezmer and connect with Manchester's Jewish communities (e.g. through annual concerts at the Manchester Jewish Museum since 2014).

With the Performance Lead now taken by clarinettist Daniel Mawson - himself an MKK alumnus and founder member of L'chaim Kapelye - the 9th cohort of MKK were currently developing their klezmer understanding and skills. With others, they performed in the Vessels of Song show.

Many MKK students want to keep playing klezmer after their studies end, and Klezmorim of Manchester - the troupe bringing MKK alumni together with klezmorim in the wider community - enable this desire through regular pub-based klezmer sessions ('klez-jams') as well as performing at concerts and other events across the city and beyond.

Vessels of Song is the latest show created and performed by Klezmorim of Manchester. Through music and narration, it explores the journeys made by klezmer over the years and also the journeys made by musicians with klezmer. In addition to klezmer classics, the show incorporates songs from Yiddish theatre, klezmer-swing cross-over numbers, and even an exploration of the ways in which classical composers have worked Jewish themes into their music.