A multi-instrumentalist, composer and ethnomusicologist, Hankus Netsky is chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, a pioneering multicultural music department now in its 41st year, and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble.
He has composed extensively for film, theater and television, collaborated closely with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel and Robert Brustein, and produced many recordings, including 10 by the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
He was the recipient of the Yosl Mlotek Award and a “Forward Fifty” honor for his role in the resurgence of traditional Eastern European Jewish ethnic musical culture and a New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni Award, as well as its Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser honors for excellence in teaching. He has also taught at McGill University, Hampshire College, Wesleyan University and Hebrew College.
His essays on Jewish music have been published by the University of California Press, the University of Pennsylvania Press, the University of Scranton Press, Hips Roads and the University Press of America. Temple University Press published his book “Klezmer, Music and Community in 20th Century Jewish Philadelphia” in 2015.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
