Shtoltse Lider – Queen of Word – A Tribute to Anna Margolin (Kakafon, 2026)
The Swedish group Shtoltse Lider pays tribute to Yiddish poet Anna Margolin on Queen of Word – A Tribute to Anna Margolin. The album sets Margolin’s texts to music. It revisits the work of a modernist writer who challenged the social and literary expectations of her era.
Musically, Shtoltse Lider presents an emotive and exquisite mix of Western classical, spoken word, and folk music.
Margolin, who lived in New York and died in 1952, published her only poetry collection, Lider, in 1929. Her work combined defiance and pride with doubt, darkness, and self-criticism.
For more than a decade, Gothenburg-based musician Ida Gillner has focused on poetry by women who wrote in Yiddish before World War II. Through Shtoltse Lider, she has brought those texts into a contemporary musical context.
“During Margolin’s lifetime, she carried a feeling that the world wasn’t quite ready for her,” Gillner said. “With this album we want to give her and her work the recognition they deserve.”
According to Gillner, Margolin struggled with the limited response to Lider at a time when women writers faced significant barriers. She later withdrew from literary life.
“The climate for women writers was harsh,” Gillner said. “When it failed to receive the recognition she knew it deserved, Margolin felt crushed and misunderstood, and gradually withdrew into silence.”
Musicians: Ida Gillner on lead vocals, piano, soprano saxophone; Livet Nord on violinquinton, vocals, glockenspiel, loops/fx.
Text: Anna Margolin (1887-1952) Swedish translations: Beila Engelhardt Titelman.
Recording: Henrik Cederblom, Studio Epidemin. Ola Höglund, Omnivox Studio.
Mixing: Per Störby Jutbring. Mastering: Gustav Davidsson, Studio Glasfågeln.
Cover art by Ulf Lundén
Photo: Josef Persson
Producer: Shtoltse lider
Author: JGurski
