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!"

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.

Vocalist Deborah Karpel's background fuses musical theater, jazz standards, cabaret, opera, and Yiddish repertoire from her grandfather. She performed regularly in Jeff Weiss's Obie award-winning Hot Keys, is a frequent song recitalist at NYC's Donnell Library Auditorium, and recently sang the role of Contessa Almaviva ( Le Nozze di Figaro) in concert at Weill and Merkin Halls in NYC. Deborah was a founding member of the improv comedy group "Shock of the Funny" and has written and presented plays and performance pieces at P.S. 122 and Dixon Place, as well as appearing on Comedy Central's Strangers With Candy. She performs on all Metropolitan Klezmer and Klezbos CDs, and just released her solo project, Songs My Mother Never Taught Me.
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.

In the last several years, exciting collaborations have emerged when Isle of Klezbos shares the stage with like-minded creative performers. Recent pairings have included a joint encore with women's Western band Cowboy Envy at St Louis' Edison Theatre; backing comedian Marga Gomez on a musical tribute to Groundhog Day; jamming with electric violin sensation Bitch at NYC's Knitting Factory; and the "Klezmer on Ice" holiday show with Stonewall Chorale at a packed Merkin Hall in Manhattan. Klezbos has also shared a double bill at the Jewsapalooza festival with Pharaoh's Daughter, as well as performing three times on Night Stage at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival by popular demand. Recently they returned to Austria's KlezMORE festival, performing for a full house at Vienna's Porgy & Bess club on opening night. Upcoming shows include a co-bill with The Lascivious Biddies all-women cocktail pop quartet and a concert at New York's Harvard Club. The band's latest recording is a Yinglish/Latin groove reworking of "Comes Love", released as the 'Klezbonus' track on Metropolitan Klezmer's new CD, "Traveling Show."