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Trumpeter Pam Fleming has toured internationally with BlackRock Coalition's Nina Simone Tribute, Hazmat Modine, and reggae stars Burning Spear and Maxi Priest, to name a few. An Eastman School of Music graduate, she is on all five of Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos CDs, and composes for these bands, as well as her own world jazz project, Fearless Dreamer. On Sarah McLachlan's national Lilith Fair tour, Pam was a member of Natalie Merchant's band, and was a guest soloist with Sarah McLachlan, The Indigo Girls and Queen Latifa. Other credits: VH1 - Bonnie Raitt; Late Night with David Letterman - Rufus Wainwright; Sessions at West 54 St. [PBS] - Jimmy Scott; comedian Denis Leary; soca star Arrow [Hot-Hot-Hot]; Cab Calloway; and Easy Star All-Stars: Dub Side of the Moon / RadioDread / Lonely Hearts Dub Band. Pam's flugelhorn solo from Metropolitan Klezmer's Mayn Rue Plats in HBO's feature film Schmatta released this fall. Her original recordings are available at: FearlessDreamer.com |
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Hailed as "brilliant" by the New York Times, soprano Melissa Fogarty sang Empress Ottavia in Opera Omnia's Coronation of Poppea at Le Poisson Rouge, as well as lead soprano in Mark Morris' King Arthur for City Opera, and VOX 2007 - 2009. She has performed works for Pulitzer-winning composer David Del Tredici (some written specifically for Melissa), including world premieres at Symphony Space. A graduate of Eastman School of Music, she has also sung extensively with Seattle Baroque. Her debut solo CD Handel: Scorned & Betrayed (Albany Records) won an OUTmusic Award. She has received the Adams Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival and the Giorgio Cini Foundation Fellowship for study in Venice. She is vocalist for both Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos. For more on Melissa: melissafogarty.com |
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Clarinet/saxophonist Debra Kreisberg performs, composes, arranges and records with the NYC-based Latin jazz octet Los Mas Valientes, singer-songwriter Matt Singer, as well as klezmer bands Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos. A graduate of Eastman School of Music with an MM in Jazz Studies from Manhattan School of Music, she has also performed with avant-jazz ensemble Joe Gallant & Illuminati, Canadian cabaret Yiddish star Theresa Tova, Rochester Philharmonic featuring Natalie Cole, and the NYC funk band D'Tripp. Debra is also Managing Director of Educational Outreach at the 92nd Street Y's School of the Arts, where she develops and implements arts programming for NYC public schools. |
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Bassist Saskia Lane, a San Francisco native, began her classical training on the violin at the ripe old age of 4, and took up the bass the day she turned 11. Her musical path eventually put her on a train bound for New York City, where she received her Masters Degree from The Juilliard School. The Manhattan-based musician performs throughout the tri-state area with a variety of jazz, world, pop, and classical artists. Currently, Saskia tours internationally with Dan Zanes & Friends and nationally with her critically-acclaimed cocktail pop quartet The Lascivious Biddies. She can also be seen sharing the stage with the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncˇ, Natalie Merchant and Enya. To read more about Saskia, head to: saskialane.com |
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Drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular formed Metropolitan Klezmer (in 1994) & Isle of Klezbos (1998) and has produced their five CDs, receiving NYSCA and Sparkplug Foundation grants, Outmusic Awards and more for creative work with both bands. Her arrangements have been heard in the HBO feature documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, Showtime's The L Word, The Royal Ballet's First Drafts at Covent Garden, and SITI CO's Score (NY Theatre Workshop & national tour). Her original musical theater piece J. EDGAR KLEZMER: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files, a 2008 TimeOut NY Critics Pick with support from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, played Dixon Place, The JCC in Manhattan and beyond, featuring most Klezbos bandmates in its cast. A Harvard honors graduate in Russian History & Literature, she has published & lectured on The Yiddish Celluloid Closet throughout North America & Europe, as well as working for YIVO Institute, Andy Warhol Archives, and MoMA's Yiddish film series Bridge of Light. Drumming since age eight, she has played samba, R&B, Balkan, swing, zydeco & klezmer with The Voodoobillies, The Mazeltones, Charming Hostess and many more, on both East & West Coasts. |
| Guest klezbian Patrick Farrell, accordionist & pianist, moved to Brooklyn from New Orleans 2-1/2 years ago and has quickly integrated into the NYC music scene. He plays in many different genres and musical situations around the city, from dance accompaniment and cabaret to club gigs, concerts and weddings. Farrell leads his own group, Stagger Back Brass Band, playing original brass circus music, and is a member of the new-music chamber ensemble Ljova and the Kontraband, Russian and Romanian Roma-music band Romashka, Michael Winograd's Klezmer Ensemble and Serbian-style brass band Veveritse, as well as appearing with numerous other groups and individuals. He has studied music in Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and Hungary and has played for clubs, theaters, streets, and serenades all over the US and Europe as well as Canada and Mexico. He can be found at pattysounds.com | |
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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.
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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