A leading voice in the world of klezmer music and Yiddish song for more than 30 years, the Klezmer Conservatory Band continues to thrill audiences all over the world. With a repertoire ranging from Yiddish standards to rousing dance medleys and little-known gems, the band members have served as important ambassadors in promoting the universal appeal of Jewish music.
Over the years, the band has appeared at dozens of international music festivals in major venues across the United States, Europe and Australia, and on international broadcasts of “A Prairie Home Companion.” The band provided the musical accompaniment for “The Fool and the Flying Ship” (a 1991 video featuring Robin Williams), played an integral rode in Joel Grey’s “Borschtcapades ’94” and performed the music for the much-acclaimed American Repertory Theatre production “Shlemiel the First.”
Since the late 1990s, Itzhak Perlman has featured the band in his CD, video and touring project “In the Fiddler’s House,” including performances at Wolf Trap, Great Woods, Radio City Music Hall, the Ravinia Festival, the Saratoga Music Festival, Moscow’s Barvikha Concert Hall, the Mizner Park Amphitheatre in Boca Raton and the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia. In 2002, the band performed a concert of orchestral arrangements of klezmer and Yiddish music with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In 1988, world-renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones choreographed a piece based on music from its CD, “A Jumpin’ Night in the Garden of Eden,” for the Boston Ballet.
Recently, the band rejoined Maestro Perlman as an integral part of his cantorial/Hasidic/klezmer/Yiddish folk music project “Eternal Echoes,” and received rave reviews for its recent Sony CD release and live concert performances at venues including Boston’s Symphony Hall, Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center and the Hollywood Bowl. The band is featured in “Rejoice!,” a full-length PBS “Great Performances” special.
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.
