cimbalom
has grown up with authentic folk music, but also studied classical music. He graduated as cimbalom teacher from the Liszt Academy, Budapest in 1980, studying under Ferenc Gerencsér. In 1985 he was awarded the Hungarian distinction of "Young Master of Folk Arts", and two years later he won second prize in the Aladár Rácz cimbalom-competition. He plays mostly authentic folk music from Hungary and from the Balkans, though during the last years he has played with jazz groups, rock bands and a symphony orchestra, too. As an artist he has performed with such Hungarian bands as Jánosi, Ökrös, Téka, Méta, Muzsikás, Zsarátnok, Vízöntő, Vasmalom, the Swedish Orient-Express, the Dutch Sultan and Ot Azoj, the English Transglobal Underground, the American Peter Ogi and the Joel Rubin Jewish Ensemble. He was musical director of the "Magneten Gypsy Show" of Andre Heller and also performed on a CD with the Budapest Festival Orchestra playing Brahms' Hungarian Dances. In 1997, he performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and also with the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra.
www.balogh-kalman.fw.hu
director, piano, accordion
founding director of Yiddish Summer Weimar and other music e.V. and director of Brave Old World, Alan Bern is considered one of the finest pianists, accordionists and composers in Jewish music today. He has performed and recorded with Itzhah Perlman, the Klezmatics, Andy Statman, the trio Bern, Brody & Rodach and many others. Program director of Yiddish Summer Weimar and Winter Edition, Bern is also renowned as an educator, in which capacity he has worked at Klezkanada (Montreal), Klezfest London, YiddishFest Moscow and elsewhere. His compositions have received awards in the USA, Europe and Israel. Bern also writes and directs music for theatre and modern dance. In 2006, he earned a doctorate degree in Music Composition at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, he has been based in Berlin since 1987. In 2009, he received an Ruth Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dance and Folk Festival Rudolstadt.
www.alanbern.net
www.othermusicacademy.eu
www.yiddishsummer.eu
violin
belongs to one of the most powerful musical dynasties of lautari in Moldova. Born in 1969 in the small town of Donduseni, North Moldova, he is a fifth generation musician in a family of mostly fiddlers.
Marin started playing violin at age six 6 and graduated from Chisinau conservatory in 1997, in the class of Valeriu Hancu. He played in several ensembles and performed in many countries, such as Belgium, France, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Russia and the Ukraine. His repertoire includes traditional Romanian music, fiddler's music, classical music and many traditional pieces from different nations and cultures. Currently, Marin plays in one of the most famous traditional restaurants from Chisinau, "La Taifas", and is the violonist and conductor of the presidential „Doina" orchestra of Chisinau.
Marin Bunea on Youtube
trombone
A native of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, he has become involved in klezmer music only in the last few years. In that short time, he has played with many of the field's top artists such as Frank London, Michael Alpert, Alan Bern, Hankus Netsky, Adrienne Cooper, Alicia Svigals, Michael Winograd, Alex Kontorovich, Daniel Kahn, Aaron Alexander and the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra. He has appeared at the Krakow Jewish Music Festival, at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto and Klezmer Festival Fürth as well as many concerts all across the US and Europe. He has taught at both Klezkamp and Klezkanada. Dan received his Bachelor of Music in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory, where he completed studies with Bob Brookmeyer, Joe Morris, Ran Blake, Joe Maneri and Hankus Netsky. He remains deeply involved in the world of jazz and creative improvised music and has performed with Joe Morris, Joe Maneri, Gunther Schuller and Anthony Braxton. He has been a member of the Danilo Perez Big Band and is on the recent release The Panama Suite.
www.danielblacksberg.com
double bass
Born in 1962 in Szolnok, Hungary, Csaba stems from an all musicians family. Thus, it was only natural for him to start learning music at the early age of 6. First he studied the piano, but as his father was a double bass player, he was more interested in the double bass. At the age of 9 he continued his musical studies on double bass. At the age of 12 he became a member of the world famous Rajko Music Band and School, where he continued both his general and musical studies. After finishing school he went to play Gypsy music in restaurants in Budapest. He did that for almost 20 years. But something was missing… It was then when he met cimbalom player Kalman Balogh, and became a member of his world music group. Since then he has played with many fine and famous musicians in Hungary. At this moment, Csaba is a member of two world famous Hungarian music groups: the Balogh Kálmán Gipsy Cimbalom Band, and the Palya Bea Quintet.
www.balogh-kalman.fw.hu
Paul Brody Berlin
trumpet
is from San Francisco and studied trumpet and composition at Boston University and the New England Conservatory. His band, Paul Brody's Sadawi, has three CDs on the Tzadik label. The latest recording, 'For the Moment,' features John Zorn and Frank London. Paul lives in Berlin and has worked with such greats as Barry White, Wim Wenders, The Supremes, Blixa Bargeld and The Einstürzende Neubauten, Theodore Bikel, Carlos Bica, The Klezmer Conservatory Band, David Moss, Shirly Bassy, David Krakauer. He has been featured at many major festivals from the Berlin Jazz Festival to the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival to the Chicago World Music Festival. In addition to his solo career, Paul composes and produces children's music for Oetinger Publishing and radio shows for WDR. His songs have been on the top 10 hits at WDR radio and on a 'Favorite Songs' sampler put out by EMI/Virgin records.
www.paulbrody.net
www.myspace.com/paulbrodyskidsmusic
www.myspace.com/paulbrodysadawi
accordion
was born 1961 in the village of Poibrene, Pazardzhik district. Aged 5 only, he played by ear the first folk tune he heard from his uncle, an amateur musician. His parents enrolled him in music school and it was there that he began from the very first grade, to learn the secrets of the accordion under the guidance of Kostadin Milarov. Later he was admitted into the Mihail Mihailov’s class in Plovdiv. Those were the years which provided a solid basis that has influenced his overall growth as musician. In 1977 he was awarded the First Prize at the Young Musician Competition held in Chirpan while later on, at the International Competition in Klingental, Germany, he was acknowledged for his performance of a Bulgarian piece. Today Petar works with almost all prominent musicians in his sphere. Within a couple of years he made nine releases of his performances, both solo and with ensemble. He takes part in different festivals and performs throughout Bulgaria, in Germany, Hungary, Norway, Russia, Austria, Holland and other countries. In 1991 he toured the major USA cities with “Bulgary”, a quintet performing traditional Bulgarian folk music. Petar participates in different musical projects and seminars with European musicians: Stian Karstensen and Jovan Pavlovich from Norway; Monique Lansdrop – Holland, Kornel Horvath and Kalman Balogh – Hungary, Milcho Leviev – Bulgaria, Enver Izmailov – Ukraine, Teodosii Spasov- Bulgaria and others.
Petar Ralchev on YouTube
flutes, saxophon, clarinet
saxophonist, clarinetist, ethnic-woodwind specialist and composer has made several innovative contributions to the New York music scene. His background in the fertile and eclectic milieu of the New England Conservatory of Music’s Third Stream Program in the early 80’s, and the continued practice of Balkan, Klezmer and Celtic folk idioms, have helped shape his esthetic and passion for creating new and unusual music. He is active as composer-musician in the Klezmatics, Paradox Trio (his veteran Balkan-Jazz fusion group, 3 CD's on the Knitting Factory label and the most recent CD, GAMBIT, on the ENJA label), Ballin’ The Jack (avant-swing septet - 2 CD’s on KF records), Disastro Totale (with Yuri Lemeshev of Gogol Bordello), Roberto Rodriguez Septet (Tzadik), FRANK LONDON’S Klezmer Brass Allstars (Piranha) and his recently formed Yusef Lateef project and the Recycled Waltz Orchestra. He has been awarded grants and commissions from the NEA, Chamber Music America (2005) and is a regular in New York’s downtown jazz scene.
www.myspace.com/mattdarriau
clarinet
at the age of 12 Adrian started playing clarinet in Moldova. A young virtuoso, he performed traditional Moldovan music at an international clarinet meeting in 1999, in the Bretonic village of Glomel, together with cimbalom player Alex Ciobanu. There he discovered a lot of new facets of clarinet repertoire from all over the world. Afterwards he enrolled at the national conservatory of Boulogne-Bilancourt.
Adrian studied classical clarinet in Jean-Max Dussert’s master class. He also took part in ambitious courses of ensemble coaching, workshops for chamber and orchestral music and theory courses. An equally virtuosic and sensitive performer, Adrian lives in Paris today and regularly performs East European music, in concerts and at world music festivals.
clarinet, saxophone
studied Western classical music, went on to diverse stylistic experiences from a-capella-pop to alpine brass music, to finally specialize in Yiddish instrumental music. Counting as one of today's leading klezmer clarinetists, he has performed extensively throughout Eastern and Western Europe and North America. He has worked with numerous international artists, among them Boban Markovic, Frank London, Brave Old World, Socalled, Budowitz, Theodore Bikel, Lorin Sklamberg, the Smyrna Trio, Shura Lipovsky and DJ Yuriy Gurzhy. He has been teaching at festivals and academies from Canada to Russia to Japan, such as Yiddish Summer Weimar, KlezKanada, Klezfest St Petersburg, Klezmer Paris, Klezkamp, Klezfest London or the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow. His latest recordings include two highly acclaimed CDs, Budowitz: "Live" and Paul Brody's Sadawi: "For the Moment". Dawid is currently producing the second CD for his newest, widely noticed project, the Ukrainian hipster family brass band, Konsonans Retro.
www.konsonans.com
www.khupe.de
trumpet
is considered one of the finest living practitioners of Moldavian and Romanian trumpet styles and recognized for his comprehensive knowledge of both traditional and modern styles and repertoires. He was born in 1962 in the village Zirnesti, district Cahul, Moldova. In 1985 he successfully graduated from the Institute of Arts “Gavriil Muzicescu” from Chisinau.
He collaborated with many orchestras like “Lautarii”, “Busuioc Moldovenesc”, “Mugurel”, “Joc” and has played countless concerts in countries like Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, in Latin America and elsewhere.
Adam has recorded two CDs and a DVD as a soloist and can be heard on numerous other recordings.
Adam Stinga on Youtube
violin
born in Ukraine, the land called the cradle of klezmer a 100 years ago, Stas today counts many international performances on festival stages between Europe and North America. One of a few violinists to be deeply engaged in traditional Yiddish violin style, he has performed as a soloist, with his Kharkow Klezmer Band and Kedem at festivals such as Klezfest London, Donafest Moscow, Ashkenaz Toronto, Kalaka Folk Festival, SKIF Festival, Festival of Jewish Culture Krakow, Klezmerfestival Fürth, X-block Barbican Festival, Helsinki KLezmer Festival, Altonale Hamburg, Klezmerwelten Gelsenkirchen and others.
He has been teaching regularly at Klezfest St. Petersburg and was a faculty member of Klezfest Kiev, Kharkov Klezmer Teg, KlezKanada, Klezmerseminar Wien and Yiddish Summer Weimar. Since 2003, Stas lives in Germany, and recently moved to Berlin.
tuba, double bass
was born to musician parents who met on the University of Arizona marching band and nurtured their son's connection to Judaism and his eclectic musical tastes. A life long musician, the multi-talented Rubin is reknown as one of the America’s most versatile sidemen, adept at a variety of musical style and traditions. He was the founder of the seminal American Alt-Folk pioneers The Bad Livers as well as an in-demand sideman on the Texas honky tonk and ethnic dancehall scene. He has also produced music for two major motion pictures, writes regularly for publication, hosted a popular late night radio program in Austin for nearly a decade and has produced dozens of American folk music CD's, including the Grammy nominated Corason de Piedra for Tex-Mex accordion legend Santiago Jimenez, Jr. He was recently elected Noble Grand of his local Odd Fellows Lodge. Mark is an experienced Klezmer bass and tuba player having played with a virtual who’s-who of the modern Jewish music scene. He is a member of Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and Henry Sapoznik & the Youngers of Zion and has also worked on the faculty of Klezmer festivals around the world including KlezKamp, Festival of Jewish Culture in Kracow, Klez Fest London and many others. A noted teller of tall tales and a master of hyperbole, Rubin currently holds the title as “Best Pete Sokolow” impersonation, Southwest Division.
www.markrubin.com
percussion
Described by fROOTS magazine as “one of the most versatile and interesting percussionists working in the UK today” percussionist, dancer and independent record producer, Guy Schalom has performed in the Middle East, throughout Europe and North America. Having graduated with a degree in Popular Music and Recording, Guy is particularly sought after in the field of Jewish music and is among the most in-demand klezmer drummers in Europe. It is however the field of World Music in which Guy is most well known. He has a busy touring schedule and has worked with the likes of Frank London, The Klezmatics, Josh "SoCalled" Dolgin, Michael Alpert, Susan Watts and David Krakauer. He is a founding member of the pan-European “Klezmer Alliance” as well Ukrainian Village Brass Band “Konsonans Retro” featuring Berlin's Christian Dawid and also runs his own duo: “Schalom-Bakhshayesh”. Music and Dance are closely linked and Guy works regularly with Arabic dancers to convey this connection combining choreographies and on-the-spot Improvisations. He is co-artistic director of Egyptian Dance and Music company “Raqs Wa Musica Al Masraya Ltd” presenting the artistic and theatrical side of Raqs Sharqi and Egyptian music.
www.guyschalom.com