Isle of Klezbos Photo
Photo credit: Anita Briggs                                   

This soulful, fun-loving powerhouse klezmer sextet approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. Since their 1998 debut, Isle of Klezbos has toured North America and Europe, from Seattle's Bumbershoot to Brooklyn's BAM cafe to Vienna's KlezMORE: concert stages, nightclubs, synagogues, festivals, colleges, and even studio sessions for The L Word. Their OutMusic Awardwinning recordings have topped world music charts at home and abroad, and their exuberance led the Village Voice to proclaim: "These women will make you shake your tushies!" Read more

Trumpet/flugelhorn artist Pam Fleming toured nationally with Natalie Merchant in Lilith Fair, where she was also a frequent soloist with the Indigo Girls. She appeared with Bonnie Raitt on VH1 and with Rufus Wainwright on Late Night with David Letterman. Composer/leader with her jazz project Fearless Dreamer, which has just released its second CD, Climb, she also plays styles from salsa to swing to funk, and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. In addition to international touring with Hazmat Modine and reggae stars Burning Spear, Maxi Priest, The Easy All-Stars' RadioDread and Dub Side of the Moon, she has been a guest artist with "Li'l" Jimmy Scott ( Sessions at 54th Street on PBS), Cab Calloway, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Palmer, Arrow [Hot Hot Hot], Queen Latifah, Sarah McLachlan, Toots & The Maytals, and The Klezmatics. Performing and composing for both Metropolitan Klezmer and the all-female Isle of Klezbos, she appears on all five of the klezmer bands' CDs.

Hailed as "brilliant" by The New York Times and given high marks by The New Yorker and Wall Street Journal, vocalist Melissa Fogarty's wide range of experience includes performances with NYC Opera, NY Collegium, Opera Omnia, Sequitur and Seattle Baroque Orchestra, as well as Metropolitan Klezmer, Isle of Klezbos, and innovative rock band Clever Adam. A graduate of Eastman Conservatory, she plays several instruments and sings in styles from baroque and early music to Billie Holliday and the Beatles, with world-class melismatic and scat solo skills. Melissa appeared in City Opera's VOX 2007 and 2008 showcase of new opera, and this season sang lead soprano several performances in Mark Morris' production of "King Arthur." She won glowing praise as Empress Ottavia in Monteverdi's "Coronation of Poppea" at Le Poisson Rouge. A favorite of composer David Del Tredici, she performed "Dracula", "Miz Inez Sez" (both with the composer), "Paul Revere's Ride" with Canticum Novum, and two world premieres at Symphony Space, written with Melissa in mind. Numerous awards and fellowships are to her credit, mostly recently 2006 Outmusic Award (OMA) for her recording "Handel: Scorned and Betrayed" on Albany Records. Past fellowships include the Adams Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival and the Giorgio Cini Foundation Fellowship for study in Venice.
Clarinetist/alto saxophonist Debra Kreisberg has performed in a wide range of genres, from jazz, Latin, klezmer and funk to classical and musical theater. A graduate of Eastman School of Music with an MM in Jazz Studies from Manhattan School of Music, she currently performs, composes, arranges, and records with the Latin jazz group Los Mas Valientes, as well as Metropolitan Klezmer, and the all-female Isle of Klezbos, and various other projects. She has also performed with the avant-jazz group Joe Gallant and Illuminati, Canadian jazz/cabaret Yiddish star Theresa Tova, the Rochester Philharmonic featuring Natalie Cole, and the New York City funk band D'Tripp. On the production side, she has co-produced mixes on Metropolitan Klezmer/Isle of Klezbos' award-winning CDs Mosaic Persuasion, Surprising Finds, and Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos. In addition to her performing work, Debra is Managing Director of Educational Outreach at the 92nd Street Y's School of the Arts.
A San Francisco native, Saskia Sunshine Lane (double bass) a San Francisco native, began her classical training on the violin at age 4, and took up the bass the day she turned 11. Her musical path led to NYC, where she received her Masters Degree from The Juilliard School. Now based in Manhattan, she performs with a variety of jazz, world, pop, and classical artists. Saskia tours internationally with Dan Zanes & Friends and nationally with her critically-acclaimed cocktail pop quartet The Lascivious Biddies. She also performs in the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. Saskia's TV credits include a national commercial for Chili's Restaurants and appearances on Discovery Channel, The Food Network, Fuse TV, and CBS Evening News, and she can be seen in the movie Mona Lisa Smiles. Her discography includes recordings with Nicole Paiement, featuring the works of Lou Harrison (New Albion Records), The Gotham Ensemble (Albany Records), along with three albums and a concert DVD (Eastway Records) with The Biddies.
Drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular has played klezmer, rock, r&b, Cajun/zydeco, samba, swing, Balkan and Middle Eastern music with such artists as David Krakauer, The Voodoobillies, The Mazeltones, Pink Noise, and Charming Hostess. She founded Isle of Klezbos in 1998, and Metropolitan Klezmer in 1994, and has produced (and occasionally composed for) the two bands' five CDs on Rhythm Media Records, receiving several Outmusic Awards and nominations. This music has graced soundscapes for SITI Theatre Co and London's Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. Eve's arrangements are also heard on episodes of Showtime Network's The L Word. Her many live musical theater performances include Molly Picon is Alive Well Living in Brooklyn. In the world of vintage cinema, she worked for the groundbreaking Yiddish film series Bridge of Light: Between Two Worlds at NYC's Museum of Modern Art before becoming curator of the Film & Photo Department at YIVO Institute. In addition to animating her own musical short film Vegetable Rag, she has lectured and published internationally on The Yiddish Celluloid Closet. An original member of the Lesbian Avenger Marching Band, Eve has also taught at KlezCamp, Buffalo on the Roof, and Mame-Loshn. She received her B.A. cum laude in Russian History & Literature from Harvard-Radcliffe, writing her honors thesis, Ideology & Montage, on early Soviet documentary pioneer Esther Shub.
A native of Seattle, WA, jazz pianist and accordionist Carmen Staaf has performed at Festa do Jazz do Teatro Sao Luiz in Lisbon, Panama Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Holland's North Sea Jazz Festival, and at Concurso de Jovenes Jazzistas (Young Jazz Musicians Contest) in Havana, Cuba, where she studied and performed for six months. A winner of the 2004 IAJE Sisters in Jazz Competition, she performed at IAJE's Conference in Long Beach, CA and the Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. Carmen has worked with Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone and Stefon Harris, and has shared the stage with musical greats including Dave Liebman, Rufus Reid and Ernestine Anderson. She leads her own group, and co-leads the Staaf Quartet, which released its eponymous debut in 2004. She has also recorded with New Jewish group Khevre and with Richie Barshay (drummer, Herbie Hancock and Kenny Werner) and trumpeter Peter Kenagy. Carmen is on faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and studied at the New England Conservatory with Danilo Perez and Bob Brookmeyer while simultaneously completing a degree in anthropology at Tufts University. She has been coached by James Moody, Johnny Griffin, David Baker, and George Cables. Carmen's compositions and arrangements have also been performed by pianist Ran Blake and the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra.

Isle of Klezbos first emerged as an organic offshoot of New York's Metropolitan Klezmer. Formed in 1998, the frolicsome six-piece women's band soon became an acclaimed, dancing-in-the-aisles hit at a wide variety of venues from coast to coast, and made their European debut as the final feature for Vienna's first KlezMORE festival. A versatile, neo-traditional ensemble, the group plays imaginative versions of eclectic Eastern European-rooted Jewish folk music, Yiddish swing and tango, plus an ever-expanding repertoire of vibrant originals.

The sextet brings together a rare combination of talent inspired by extensive experiences in an kaleidoscopic array of styles, from klezmer to Cajun, funk, reggae, classical, punk, and Latin jazz. In 2003, the band released their long-awaited debut full-length CD, "Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos," including both studio tracks and live cuts from Joe's Pub and The Knitting Factory. Enthused reviews, awards, and international airplay have abounded. In TV and cable land, Isle of Klezbos has been seen and heard on CNN "WorldBeat," Showtime's "The L Word," and PBS' "In The Life." Live radio broadcasts have included Northeast Public Radio, Europe's eMap fm, and NYC-area iconoclastic station WFMU, and lovely Klezbian photo spreads have graced arts sections from Jewish Week to The Advocate to Vienna's Der Kurier.

Exciting collaborations have emerged when Isle of Klezbos shares the stage with creative performers who both likewise savor and subvert cultural expectations. Recent pairings have included Klezbos with Sanda Weigl and her Gypsy in a Tree, for a double bill of female-fueled Eastern European sounds (for Mardi Gras at Drom); The Lascivious Biddies all-female cocktail pop quartet (at NYC clubs Drom and Comix, with Klezbos musicians joining in on a Biddies original); Circus Amok's ringleader / juggler Jennifer Miller (MC for KlezBiGay Pride Show at El Sol Brilliante Garden); comedian Marga Gomez (at The Knitting Factory, with a musical rendition of "Me & My Shadow" for Groundhog Day); spoken word / electric violin sensation Bitch (jamming together at The Knitting Factory, Mo Pitkins, and Michigan Womyn's Music Festival); women's Western band Cowboy Envy (St Louis' Edison Theatre at Washington University, a joint encore of "Jambalaya"); "Klezmer on Ice" holiday show with Stonewall Chorale at a packed Merkin Hall in Manhattan; and Pharaoh's Daughter (Jewsapalooza Festival).

Repeat engagements have taken Isle of Klezbos touring nationally and internationally, including four Night Stage shows 1998-2008 at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and a return by popular demand to Austria's KlezMORE festival -- playing for full houses at the prestigious Porgy & Bess nightclub in 2007 as well as concert sets at the heart of Vienna's Praeter in 2004. Isle of Klezbos has received two consecutive performance grants from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, as well as a post-production award from the Sparkplug Foundation. Recent new work includes original compositions including pieces heard in 'J. EDGAR KLEZMER: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files,' and the latest Isle of Klezbos release: Yinglish/Latin groove reworking of "Comes Love," appearing as the 'Klezbonus' track on Metropolitan Klezmer's Best of 2007 CD, "Traveling Show." Isle of Klezbos bandmates have recently returned to the studio, creating arrangements requested for a certain world-famous group's next CD.