Spring 2010
The Klezmatics in Concert
Thursday, February 25, 2010
8 p.m.
Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Zankel Music Center
The Klezmatics are globally renowned world music superstars, the only klezmer band to win a Grammy
award. The Klezmatics emerged out of the vibrant cultural scene of New York City's
East Village in 1986 with klezmer steeped in Eastern European Jewish tradition and
spirituality, while incorporating contemporary themes such as human rights and anti-fundamentalism
and eclectic musical influences including Arab, African, Latin and Balkan rhythms,
jazz and punk. In the course of more than 20 years and nine albums, they have stubbornly
continued making music that is wild, mystical, provocative, reflective and ecstatically
danceable.
The Klezmatics concert is SOLD OUT. All the free tickets have been distributed. There
may be a very limited number of unclaimed seats that open up at concert time. If you
want to to get on a waiting list for any unclaimed seats, the box office will open
at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 25. Any available tickets will be limited to one per
person.
Doors will open for advance ticket holders first at 7:30 p.m. Concert at 8 p.m. in
Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall.
More about The Klezmatics
Over the years the Klezmatics have had the privilege of working with many musical luminaries, including visionary American folksingers Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Theodore Bikel and Odetta, classical virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, Israeli pop icons Chava Alberstein and Ehud Banai, singer-songwriters Ben Folds and Natalie Merchant, Beat poet legend Allen Ginsberg, avant-garde experimentalist John Zorn, Morocco's master musicians of Jajouka, Nubian Egyptian percussionist Mahmoud Fadl and Kosher Gospel belter Joshua Nelson.
Their collaborations have extended to numerous theatrical, film, dance and television projects, including Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk and It's an Undoing World. The Klezmatics have reached millions through performances and features on Late Night with David Letterman, PBS' Great Performances, BBC's Rhythms of the World, BBC's John Peel Show, various NPR programs (A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, New Sounds Live and Soundcheck), CBSNightwatch, Fox After Breakfast, MTV News and HBO's Sex in the City. Additionally, their "NY Psycho Freylekhs" was chosen as a theme song for Air America Radio's Al Franken Show.
They have performed in more than 20 countries at some of the most storied venues and festivals worldwide, including Central Park Summerstage, Carnegie Hall, Pirineos Sur (Spain), Colours of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Pohoda Festival (Slovokia), Jazzsomer Graz (Austria), Heimatklänge Festival (Germany), London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. The Klezmatics have topped the Billboard world music charts on numerous occasions and have garnered numerous awards and accolades throughout their career, including a GLAMA (Gay and Lesbian American Music Award) and the German Critics Prize (twice), They were the recipients of the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for their CD Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie.
The Musicians
Matt Darriau (clarinets, sax, kaval) plays reeds, flutes and ethnic woodwinds; his music is informed
by his longstanding commitment to jazz, klezmer, Balkan and Celtic idioms. In addition
to his work with The Klezmatics, he leads his own Balkan rhythm quartet, Paradox Trio,
which regularly performs at major European jazz and world music festivals. The group's
third CD, Source, explores the common ground between Balkan and klezmer music; their fourth recording,
Gambit, was nominated for a 2006 German Critics Award. His newest project, along with fellow
Klezmatic Frank London, is Ballin' The Jack, a septet fusing early swing repertoire with contemporary improvisation. Their two
CDs, Jungle and The Big Head, have brought them to the attention of major international events, including the
JVC Newport Jazz, Chicago Jazz and North Sea festivals. Darriau's composition work
for film, theater and dance has been supported by a number of grants and commissions,
including awards from Chamber Music America New Works and the National Endowment for
the Arts, while Jazz magazine named him one of the 150 most influential jazz musicians of the last 15
years. He has recorded and performed with David Byrne, Marc Ribot, Roberto Rodriguez,
Ben Folds Five and many others in the New York scene.
Frank London (trumpet, keyboards), also a member of the Hasidic New Wave, has performed with John
Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Tormé, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might
Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds Five, Marc Ribot, Maurice El Medioni
and Gal Costa, and is featured on more than 250 CDs. His own recordings include Hazonos and Invocations (cantorial music); Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars' Di Shikere Kapelye, Brotherhood of Brass and Carnival Conspiracy (#1 non-English recording of 2006, Rolling Stone); Nigunim and The Zmiros Project (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); The Debt, The Shvitz, Erik Anjou's A Cantor's Tale and Pearl Gluck's Divan (film and theater music); and The Shekhina Big Band. Other projects include the folk-opera
A Night in the Old Marketplace (world premier 2007); its recent studio recording, featuring They Might Be Giants
and Manu Narayan, has been compared to Kurt Weill and Tom Waits; Davenen for the Pilobolus
Dance Theatre and the Klezmatics; Great Small Works' The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln
and Min Tanaka's Romance. He has composed music for John Sayles' The Brother From Another Planet and Men With Guns, Yvonne Rainer's Murder and Murder, Czech-American Marionette Theater's Golem; and Tamar Rogoff's Ivye Project. He was music director for David Byrne and Robert
Wilson's The Knee Plays, has collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in
Canada, the Crimea and the Catskills, and produced CDs for Gypsy legend Esma Redzepova
and Algerian pianist Maurice El Medioni. He has been featured on HBO's Sex and the City, at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival.
Fiddler/composer Lisa Gutkin's varied musical palette has led to collaborations with a wide array of artists and
to founding the "Downtown Celtic" group Whirligig. Having appeared on more than 100
recordings, Gutkin also composes for film, radio, television and theater. Recent compositions
can be heard on episodes of Sex and the City, following her on-screen appearance on the show with The Klezmatics. Gutkin has performed
and recorded with some of the best traditional Irish musicians: Tommy Sands, John
Whelan, Steve Cooney and Cathie Ryan. As part of the Fast Folk collective, she has
appeared with The Roches, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega and Richard Shindell, to name
a few. She has worked with Pete Seeger, Jane Siberry, John Cale & Bob Newirth with
the Soldier String Quartet, and contemporary R&B artist Pru. Her theater credits include
Mabou Mines' Peter & Wendy, Song of Songs by Elizabeth Swados and choreographer Maggie Boogaart's Seeing Is Believing, for which she composed and performed the music. Lisa can be heard occasionally with
The Demolition String Band in their Ola Belle Reed project and with Lisa's Pieces,
a bluegrassy band that features her original compositions. In 2007 Gutkin was commissioned
to compose music for the Mabou Mines production Song For New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting, and in January 2009 she was a resident composer at MacDowell Artist Colony.
Paul Morrissett (bass, tsimbl) is a collector and player of Eastern European and Scandinavian folk
instruments and has studied with many of their most renowned masters. He records and
performs on an impressive array of ethnic strings, winds and reeds, including hardanger
fiddle, nyckelharpa, gadulka, baritone horn, accordion, tamburitza and hurdy-gurdy,
and has taught at numerous educational events, including Fiddles and Feet, Lark in
the Morning, Buffalo on the Roof, Ashokan Northern Week, Balkan Music and Dance Camp
and KlezFest London.
Lorin Sklamberg (lead vocals, accordion, guitar, piano) is a founding member of the Klezmatics. He
has been heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration,
with such diverse artists as Itzhak Perlman (dueting on his original composition,
Nign), Don Byron, Jane Siberry, Marc Cohn, Moxy Früvous, Paradox Trio, Hip Hop Hoodios,
Esma Redzepova, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer and Neil Sedaka. His song "Headdy Down"
(from the Klezmatics' 2006 Grammy Award winning CD Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie) was recently printed in Sing Out! magazine. He has composed and performed for film (including Hilary Helstein's 2007
documentary As Seen Through These Eyes, narrated by Maya Angelou), dance, stage and circus, and has produced a number of
recordings of world and theater music. He also plays solo and teaches from London,
Paris and Weimar to Kiev and St. Petersburg. His and Frank London's concerts of Hasidic
"spirituals" have resulted in two recordings: Nigunim with jazz pianist Uri Caine and the Zmiros Project with multi-instrumentalist Rob Schwimmer. His other ongoing collaborations include
Esn: Songs from the Kitchen, a concert celebration of Jewish food combining singing
and cooking created with London and Adrienne Cooper, and Harts un Soul: A Celebration
of Yiddish Theater in Song with Yiddish diva Joanne Borts and Rob Schwimmer. Lorin
co-founded the New York-based nonprofit organization Living Traditions and coordinated
its event KlezKamp: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program, for 14 years. By day Lorin serves
as the Sound Archivist of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. "One of the premier
American singers in any genre." —Robert Christgau, All Things Considered, National Public Radio. Visit www.myspace.com/lorinsklamberg.
Percussionist Richie Barshay, most noted for his work with the Herbie Hancock Quartet, has established himself
as a prominent musical voice of his generation and is regarded as "a player to watch"
by JazzTimes magazine. On tour and on recordings his eclectic resume so far includes Hancock,
Chick Corea, Natalie Merchant, Lee Konitz, The Klezmatics, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner,
David Krakauer, Fred Wesley and Pete Seager among others. In 2004 he was named an
American Musical Envoy by the U.S. State Department for outreach tours in Asia, South
America and Europe. Now based in New York City, Richie began playing Jazz and Afro-Carribean
music during his youth and has expanded his focus to Indian rhythmic concepts and
tabla, inspiring his 2007 recording debut Homework on Ayva Records. "Homework introduces a major rhythm voice on the rise" says Downbeat magazine, and the Guardian (UK) praises "the arrival of a major innovator who also knows how to have fun."
About the Jacob Perlow Lecture Series in Judaic Studies
A generous grant from the estate of Jacob Perlow—an immigrant to the United States in the 1920s, a successful businessman deeply interested in religion and philosophy and a man who was committed to furthering Jewish education—supports annual lectures and presentations to the College and Capital District community on issues broadly related to Jews and Judaism.