HBO's "Schmatta"now available on DVD!
Music from Metropolitan Klezmer's CD "Mosaic Persuasion" is part of the soundtrack of the HBO feature documentary SCHMATTA: Rags to
Riches to Rags, which aired October, 2010. This film tells
the history of the garment industry, and the related growth of the
labor movement and middle class in the US. ("Schmatta" is the Yiddish
word for 'rag,' commonly used with irony to mean the fashion trade.)
Metropolitan Klezmer's recording of 'Mayn Rue Plats' [My Resting
Place], featuring the haunting flugelhorn solo performed by Pamela
Fleming, plays in a poignant section covering a pivotal historic
moment in the struggle for workers' rights.
ISLE OF KLEZBOS made their debut at 92Y Tribeca on July 26th to celebrate New York State's long-awaited Marriage Equality law, which took effect on July 24. Along with Nedra Johnson who opened for us, we had a blast, ending a nice run of successful shows upstate (including Spiegeltent at Bard College). We're pleased to share the following review in The Forward's blog, The Arty Semite.
Our 13th annual KlezBiGay Pride show took place on June 14 and featured Isle of Klezbos & bandmates from Metropolitan Klezmer, plus special guests including MC Julian Fleisher. We honored the Triangle Fire centenary with Yiddish ballads from the 1911 tragedy as well as celebratory music from the Barsh klezmer dynasty of that era, and our genre-bending, newly-minted 21st century band repertoire. We are grateful to The Lower East Side's terrific independent bookstore, Bluestockings, who hosted us due to inclement weather which prevented us from performing at El Sol Brilliante Garden.
We are also grateful to the following organizations for whom this event would not have been possible: the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; and also, in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Thanks as well to our fiscal sponsor, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.
The New York Times front page article in the Metropolitan section on Sunday, May 20th, 2011, quotes and pictures drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular, the only woman in a motley crew of musicians, mostly drummers. The article, by Dan Wakin, is about the closing of a classic and rare LES rehearsal space. Click here to read The Last Jam Session.
Musician audio & portraits of those who were affected by the loss of this iconic space were posted as well on NY TImes online. To see Eve and hear what she has to say about her experience at 106 Rivington (along with the illustrious company she was in -- for example, George Coleman, Jr.), the link to Evicted from 106 Rivington.
On April 17th, 2011, drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular hosted "Beyond the Pale" on WBAI 99.5FM: the progressive Jewish radio hour, featuring audio from Metropolitan Klezmer's performance at Cooper Union Great Hall commemorating the centenary of the Triangle Fire on March 25, 2011.
Permalink, Triangle yiddish ballads approximately halfway through this broadcast: http://beyondthepale.org/episode/2011/04/17
Program includes "Di Fire Korbunes"-- a nearly forgotten Yiddish ballad of the Shirtwaist Factory disaster, from sheet music publised in 1911 and recently rediscovered at the Library of Congress. Melissa Fogarty sings with full octet (lyrics by Louis Gilrod; music by David Meyrowitz, arranged by Metropolitan Klezmer). Radio show theme is Seeking Freedom, fitting since it aired the day before Passover!
METROPOLITAN KLEZMER was honored to perform for the centenary observance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at Cooper Union's historic Great Hall, NYC .
Our repertoire included two Yiddish ballads from 1911, one of which we help revive from near-obscurity for this occasion.
The full band created new arrangements for both "Di Fire Korbunes" [see essay by bandleader Eve Sicular, with link for our live audio here] and "Mameniu".
We thank the Sparkplug Foundation, Remember The Triangle Coalition (particularly Ruth Sergel & Andi Sosin), and Professor Gerald P. Meyer for their support of this song research and our musical arrangements, as performed also at Cooper Union Great Hall on March 25, 2011 for "100 Years After: The Triangle Fire Remembered & Rethought."
Download: "Di Fire Korbunes" essay"Di Fire Korbunes" translation
Metropolitan Klezmer on BBC: Live "Uprising" commemoration
Hear Metropolitan Klezmer on this BBC segment, recorded live at the "Uprising of the 20,000" centenary (Nov 2009). Excellent radio spot describes historic labor action sparked by young Yiddish-speaking women. Three of our tunes appear in several spots, with Debra Kreisberg-clar/sax, Ismail Butera-accordion, Melissa Fogarty-vocals, and Eve Sicular-drums. Listen now!
Check us out on this CBS News video online! Isle of Klezbos is featured in this CBS Sunday Morning story on the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Our concert footage was videotaped in October when we were invited to play as celebration for the new stained glass window created by artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans. See our music near the beginning and again towards the finale of this piece, broadcast nationally on December 5, 2010:
Playing here are:
Debra Kreisberg, clarinet
Reut Regev, trombone
Shoko Nagai, accordion
Saskia Lane, bass
Eve Sicular, drums
Thanks to CBS News producer Douglas W Smith for his wonderful camera-work, and for keeping us posted on when the spot would be airing. Isle of Klezbos concert date, 10/10/10, was also trumpeter Pam Fleming's birthday! Enjoy. We've also posted our full-length musical performance of "Revery in Hijaz" from this concert on YouTube. More to come too.
"Your appearance on Sunday Morning has opened up a whole new world of music for me. I am a 20-something, southern, Christian, guy who knew almost nothing about this genre -- until y'all were featured during the recent episode. I can't get enough now. Thank you -- you are all so very talented, and passionate, about what you do!"
- J.C. (Jon) Thompson, 12/14/2010
"KRANKAYT! Jews, Hypochondria & Song" highlights, live at the Schmooze conference immediately following APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference) in NYC:
Tuesday, January 11
11:15am Art Burst - "Krankayt! Jews, Hypochondra & Song"
featuring Adrienne Cooper, Paul Shapiro, Dan Rosengard & Eve Sicular
Schmooze conference, at City Winery
155 Varick St @ Vandam, NYC
The Schmooze anuual conference, organized by International Jewish Arts Presenters
ISLE OF KLEZBOS footage from our Eldridge St concert aired Sun 12/5 around 9:45am on CBS Sunday Morning. Watch now
Tuesday, November 30th
"Krankayt!: Jews, Hypochondria & Song"
Musical explorations and multimedia by Eve Sicular and Adrienne Cooper with Dan Rosengard
at The JCC in Manhattan, 76th Street & Amsterdam Avenue Info:jccmanhattan.org
Klezmer drummer and band leader Eve Sicular, Yiddish songstress Adrienne Cooper, pianist Dan Rosengard, and reedman Paul Shapiro team up for a playful, hilarious, yet thought-provoking musical and multi-media review exploring traditional and popular songs which reflect a Jewish image of the body and morbid concern for health. From the medical treatises of Maimonides (who did advocate chicken soup), to the prophetic decrepitude of Kafka, to silly Yiddish nursery rhymes, to Jewish inflected Broadway show tunes, the night will musically explore the aches, pains, and plagues of the Jewish body and soul.
"Krankayt! Jews, Hypochondria and Song" is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council."
Metropolitan Klezmer featured on "Rhythm & Roots"
Full-length Metropolitan Klezmer episode for the world music series "Rhythm & Roots" is now online, posted on Ebru TV's site.
We're happy they've featured a number of our originals as well as our band arrangements of more familiar tunes. And you can hear one-on-one interviews with five of our Metropolitan Klezmer bandmates here too!
We were filmed last spring at City Winery, a show with special guests on accordion and piano.
Bandmates in this show (starting in order of onscreen interviews)
Eve Sicular - drums/leader; Pam Fleming - trumpet/flugelhorn/kudu shofar; Michael Hess - violin/nai flutes; Debra Kreisberg - clarinet/alto sax; Melissa Fogarty - vocals. Plus Dave Hofstra - tuba & upright bass; Terri Conti - guest accordion; Patrick Farrell - guest piano. Watch the trailer
"Have Your Brunch & Listen to it Too" by Amanda Petrusich (photo: Evan Sung) Read article
That's What She Said: 700 Working Women Musicians Tell It Like It Is. Read the NPR article featuring Eve, Pam, Saskia and Deborah Karpel.
Klezbos interview on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio listen now. And... .
Later in 2010, a live concert recording is to be broadcast from Isle of Klezbos' 3/14/2010 show onstage at The Linda: WAMC's Performing Arts Studio in Albany. Northeast Public Radio airdate TBA.
Klezbos interview on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio listen now. And...
This coming Wednesday, December 22: hear Isle of Klezbos live concert broadcast recorded onstage from our 3/14/2010 show onstage at The Linda: WAMC's Performing Arts Studio in Albany. Northeast Public Radio will air this show throughout upstate New York, Western Massachusetts, parts of Vermont and Connecticut... and of course it will also stream live as well at wamc.org
I GUESS I'M NOT GOING TO GET TO VEGAS
(2009) film by Sasha Wortzel: a short portrait of Florence Sterling, who passed away from lung cancer two years ago, told through the stories and memories of her lover of over 40 years, Aileen. This piece explores illness, love, and loss through the relationship between two elderly Jewish lesbians who came out before the emergence of a visible gay rights movement. With music from Isle of Klezbos & Metropolitan Klezmer: "Doyna Indigo" by Rachelle Garniez ("Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" CD) and "Dreaming Wizard" by Pam Fleming ("Surprising Finds" CD). Seen in festivals including Threat Level: Queer Shorts in Brooklyn & Chicago, and Short & Savory: film shorts by women directors at York College; its next screening will be at the CUNY Film Festival on March 20. watch video
Metropolitan Klezmer performed to a sold-out Yamaha Concert Series audience of over 700 listeners at St. Martha Church in Miami Shores on Sunday, Feb. 21 See article See article
KlezBiGay Pride 2010: Back to the Garden (El Sol Brilliante), supported in part by public funds from The Fund for Creative Communities/New York State Council on the Arts & LMCC; fiscal sponsor Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Full Isle of Klezbos sextet plus MC Jennifer Miller of Circus Amok. In NYC's East Village, at El Sol Brilliante community garden: E 12th St between Avenues A & B. Tuesday, June 15 at 7PM.
Hypochondria in Yiddish: A Musical Odyssey - aka Krankayt!
Supported in part by The Manhattan Community Arts Fund/NYC Department of Cultural Affairs & Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
An original performance by Eve SIcular & Adrienne Cooper, Fall 2010. Details tba.
"Traveling Show" tune nominated for OUTmusic Award
Metropolitan Klezmer is nominated for a 2009 OUTmusic Award for a track from our "Traveling Show" CD -- in the Outstanding International Song category. This year's awards ceremony will be held at NYC's Webster Hall on Tuesday, December 8th from 7PM. Details here: outmusic.com
We've won two OUTmusic Awards in past years for our Metropolitan Klezmer CDs: "Surprising Finds" (OMA 2004) - Outstanding Instrumental Album; and "Mosaic Persuasion"/Eve Sicular (OMA 2002) - Outstanding Producer. "Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" was also nominated for Outstanding Producer in 2004.
Our nomination this year is for the song "Miracle Melody: Hasidic Nigun/Poor Man's Tune," a medley of both instrumental and vocal music. This recording was made live in concert with Metropolitan Klezmer's full octet, including vocalist Deborah Karpel, at Mason Gross School of the Arts. We're excited to be among the 2009 OMA finalists, and look forward to the official OUTmusic Award winners being announced next month on 12/8!
Music by Metropolitan Klezmer is featured in the upcoming documentary "Grace Paley: Collected Shorts," by filmmaker Lilly Rivlin.
This cinematic portrait of author, poet, parent and activist Grace Paley includes two of our recordings:
"Terkisher Navratilova" from Metropolitan Klezmer's third album, Surprising Finds
& "Kostakowsky Sirba" from Metropolitan Klezmer's first CD, Yiddish for Travelers.
("Howie's Doyna" from Surprising Finds was also included in an earlier trailer for this moving picture.)
We are honored that our music will be heard in this remembrance of Grace.
The film is still a work-in-progress, due for completion in 2010. For more info, and to support this ongoing project, please see: gracepaleythefilm.com/
Monday, November 16
Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring
6:30pm - 8pm
45 East 33rd St, NYC
$5 students/members and $8 non members
For more information:
Call 212.889.6800 x 319
Email: ShelleyB@circle.org
Online Registration: http://www.circle.org/Film_regform.html
Mazel tov Yelena Shmulenson (of "J. Edgar Klezmer" & New Yiddish Rep), who co-stars in an all-Yiddish prologue to the new Coen Brothers' film! "A Serious Man" opens nationwide October 2nd.
Metropolitan Klezmer's TRAVELING SHOW is nominated for the final round
of the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards! Out latest CD is one of 10
albums in the Klezmer category.
The Sparkplug Foundation has awarded a grant for the development,
production and promotion of "J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs from My
Grandmother's FBI Files." We are grateful for this support of our
musical documentary project!
Eve SIcular performs, lectures, and teaches for the Klezmer Women's
Summit, July 3 - 10 at Circle Lodge (Dutchess County NY, a program of
The Workmen's Circle. Not for women only!
Reservations: 845-221-2771
x110, link at circle.org or email office@campkr.com
Metropolitan Klezmer's secret musical mission at Russ & Daughters Appetizing, High Holidays 2008 (special guest Michael Winograd, clarinet) Read article
"Grandma and the FBI" in NJ Jewish Standard: read article
The Very Best of Music
GO Magazine Editor's Picks (music) includes Klezbian Mardi Gras on the "Very Best" list, with our picture!
by Michelle Barnwell - Go Magazine
February 5, 2009 Read Article
Isle of Klezbos has been awarded a 2009 Fund for Creative Communities
grant, for a concert later this year to celebrate the 36th anniversary
of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, NYC's LGBT congregation. This is
Klezbos' second annual honor from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
on behalf of the New York State Council on the Arts. More details to
follow!
NYSCA, DCA & LMCC grants for Isle of Klezbos & "J. Edgar Klezmer"
Two 2008 grant awards by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council [LMCC]
supported Isle of Klezbos and Eve Sicular/Metropolitan Klezmer
performance events in NYC, with funds from NYSCA and DCA. "J. Edgar
Klezmer: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files," an original
music/theater/FBI files piece by Metropolitan Klezmer drummer/leader
Eve Sicular, based on 1940's surveillance records of Eve's grandma,
premiered at Dixon Place in November. Isle of Klezbos' tenth annual
KlezBiGay Pride show was held in June.
LMCC and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs [DCA] awarded a Manhattan Community Arts grant for Eve Sicular's original new performance with band, "J. Edgar Klezmer & Songs from my Grandmother's FBI Files." This musical documentary theater piece is based on the early Cold War surveillance on late community activist/musician/psychiatrist Dr. Adele Sicular, as well as myriad historical archives and family gossip. The piece features live music and multi-media, including original tunes and influences from klezmer to gospel, and boogie-woogie to Kodaly. Cast includes vocalist Melissa Fogarty, with bandmates Pam Fleming (trumpet/flugelhorn), Debra Kreisberg (clarinet/sax), Shoko Nagai (piano), and writer/composer/granddaughter Eve Sicular (drums), as well as returning actor Maureen "Moe" Angelos (fellow traveler). It premiered to a sold-out house at Dixon Place in November 2008, with special guests Robin Kurtz and Peter Cramer in his cameo as Dr. Silverberg, and was immediately honored as a Time Out NY Critics Pick. The show plays at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck NJ on Saturday,
February 28. "J. Edgar Klezmer" next returns to NYC, this time to the
play's ancestral roots on the Upper West Side - one night only at the
JCC of Manhattan: Thursday, June 4, 2009. For venue and ticket info, please click here.
The Fund for Creative Communitities, on behalf of LMCC and The New
York State Council on the Arts [NYSCA], awarded grant support to Isle
of Klezbos' tenth annual KlezBiGay Pride show! This performance took
place in El Sol Brilliante community garden on East 12th St between
Avenues A & B on June 9th, drawing wonderfully diverse crowds outside
despite the early heat wave. Here's a writeup of the magical event by Lucid Culture's blog. (This project was administered by Jews for
Racial & Economic Justice, JFREJ.)
They're taking klezmer to new places: feature interview, Metropolitan Klezmer
Thursday, December 18, 2008 - The Bergen Record & NorthJersey.com Read article
Eve Sicular will participate in the Symposium and Concert scheduled
for Tuesday December 16, 'Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st
Century' at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. For general
information, here's the CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Jewish
Studies website: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/cjstu/pages/BBKlezmerpage.htm
Isle of Klezbos at Le Petit Versailles - from NYC.com
"The best little concert of summer...soulful artistry of the fun and irreverent sextet" - read blog & see photos
"Surprising Finds" tracks in Chagall/Theater museum exhibit, NY & SF
Music from Metropolitan Klezmer's "Surprising Finds" CD is to be used in the museum exhibition Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, touring from NYC to San Francisco in late 2008 - 2009. Tracks chosen by senior curator Susan Goodman of The Jewish Museum for the video exhibit loop include "Tailor's Sher," a Metropolitan Klezmer arrangement of music from the Soviet Yiddish Theater (GOSET) which forms the basis of this museum exhibition: the 1923 version of this tune -- from the play DER GROYSER GEVINS [a.k.a. The 200,000 or The Big Win, based upon a Sholem Aleichem story of a poor tailor winning the lottery] -- was attributed to the theater's music director, Lev Pulver. Also to be heard is "Szol A Kakas Mar," a folk melody adopted by followers of the Kalever Hasidic rebbe from a Hungarian drinking song, as recorded in a live Metropolitan Klezmer set at NYC's joe's pub.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
The Jewish Museum, New York (November 9, 2008 - March 22, 2009)
Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (April 19 - September 7, 2009)
June 19 show at Abe Lebewohl Park, NYC
"...Since 1994, Metropolitan Klezmer has stuck to the [klezmer Jewish music]
form in its most traditional sense. The eight-piece band plays many of
the folk Jewish classics, but also the forgotten and lesser-knowns.
The group has covered material from the 1920's Moscow Yiddish Theater,
a Balkan musical based on "Oliver Twist" villain Fagin, and pieces by
the klezmer legend Howie Leess."
Jewish Week June 13, 2008 See full article
Mike Gerber, Songlines Magazine (UK), June 2008 4 Stars!
"Metropolitan Klezmer, one of the finest American klezmer bands, deliver a varied, highly enjoyable set of both traditional klezmer and swinging Jewish jazz, as befits Klezmer's roots as Jewish diaspora music." Click for full review
Debra Kreisberg's original composition, "Baltic Blue" (from Metropolitan Klezmer's latest CD, TRAVELING SHOW) provided music for the Off Broadway debut of Yisrael Campbell's new show, You Can Never Be Too Jewish. The November staging at NYC's Theater at St Luke's was a preview of what is hoped will be a 2008 Off Broadway run: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/events/comedy/30749/you-can-never-be-too-jewish
Metropolitan Klezmer's Jewish Museum Family Day show is shown in the
NYTimes.com "Xmas for the Rest of Us" piece: Read Article
"Great Day on Eldridge Street" photo shoot of klezmer players from all over the place. The session was on October 12, 2007. Eve Sicular is in front on the left; on my left are mother and daughter Susan & Elaine Hoffman Watts, of Philly's klezmer dynasty.
Isle of Klezbos at The KlezMORE festival in Vienna, Austria!!
Isle of Klezbos returned to play Vienna, Austria again for the KlezMORE festival, this year for the gala opening night at "Porgy & Bess" nightclub. Here we are after our encore backstage... the concert was a full house, hear our whole show at emap.fm and see a quick video clip from the national "Hello Austria" broadcast.
Isle of Klezbos in NYC's "The Villager" and on The L Word's spin-off "OurChart.com" The Villager Ourchart.com
Metropolitan Klezmer on National Radio (This Way Out) in June
In addition to The Style Network's "Whose Wedding is it Anyway," (episode premiering June 12th at 10PM), Metropolitan Klezmer will be featured on the nationally-syndicated radio program "This Way Out," during the music segment hosted by JD Doyle, featuring two tracks from our new "TRAVELING SHOW" and a quick sound-bite from Eve about this CD.
Metropolitan Klezmer quintet on The Style Network!
::: Tuesday 6/12, 10pm (re-airing through the week) :::
Including special guests Iliya Magalnyk on accordion & Oran Etkin on clarinet! MK was filmed at a Tribeca private party this April for the show "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" - immortalized for reality TV.
We were signed on as special surprise music for the bride's dad, the teevee stuff only emerged later ... It's episode #609, entitled 'Lofty Expectations'
Metropolitan Klezmer has been chosen to perform as a part of the 92nd Street Y's 2007 - 2008 Musical Introduction Series, an acclaimed outreach program for public school students in New York City.
Metropolitan Klezmer's new CD, Traveling Show, has just been released April 4th!
This disc is a live concert recording on Rhythm Media Records (distributed by Stern's Music worldwide). The 19 full-length tunes also include a Klezbonus track, "Comes Love" by Isle of Klezbos.
From early reviews of 'Traveling Show' -- full reviews at CDBaby:
"OUTRAGEOUSLY FANTASTIC!! Metropolitan Klezmer has done it again! A fresh and exciting new klezmer album that needs to be in the collection of every klezmer music lover..." - Barry Reisman, WNWR Philadelphia
Metropolitan Klezmer's "Farlangen" and an essay by Eve Sicuar are included in the latest issue of Scholar & Feminist Online from Barnard (volume 5, number 1), 'Jewish Women Changing America: Cross-Generational Conversations:' click here.
Metropolitan Klezmer track included on A Chanukah Feast Volume II
Last year the "hungry for music" folks in DC (they raise money to bring music into local classrooms) released a lovely Chanukah compilation. This year they've released a second volume, A Chanukah Feast Volume II, which includes "East(ern) Village Hanuka" from Metropolitan Klezmer.
Saturday Sept 9, 2006 - Unison Arts & Learning Center
Klezbos played to a packed house at Unison Arts, all the more fun since power was only restored to the building minutes before this show began.
Read the article from Chronogram
Eve Sicular presents the Yiddish Celluloid Closet program for the Seattle Queer Film Festival
Sunday, October 22nd at 2pm, in the Seattle Public Library's Microsoft Auditorium
Central Library branch, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle WA - free!
sponsored by the Three Dollar Bill Cinema
Learn more about Yiddish Celluloid Closet.
Paris Radio Live! Judaiques FM Interview to be broadcast later in 2006
Eve Sicular, Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos drummer/leader, was interviewed for Paris radio "Judaiques FM," Tuesday, May 16th by program host Lise Gutmann. Check back for broadcast and webcast date and times.
Royal Ballet experiments with Metropolitan Klezmer track at Covent Garden
A traditional klezmer piece from Metropolitan Klezmer's "Yiddish For Travelers" CD has been chosen as music to be included for a programme of new dance works at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, UK:
On 7 & 9 March 2006 two workshops of experimental choreography staged by ROH2 at the Royal Opera House are this year's 'First Drafts' programmes. The sold-out performances included the new work-in-progress Two's Company (II) by Royal Ballet dancer Vanessa Fenton which is choreographed to the Metropolitan Klezmer instrumental entitled "Fifth Floor Khosidl." Ms Fenton, an acclaimed rising choreographer, was recently promoted to 'first artist' at the Royal Ballet.
The 'First Drafts' ballets range from first attempts by new choreographers to first sketches from The Royal Ballet's more established choreographers. These programmes are performed in the Clore Studio (seating capacity circa 160).
Adventures in Yiddishland with Isle of Klezbos
The new book Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacluar Language & Culture (University of California Press, 2005), by maven supreme Jeffrey Shandler, features Klezbos' favorite graphic, our 2001 postcard which later came to grace the band's "Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" CD. The The author, who is a Rutgers professor of Jewish Studies, was also Eve's editor for her first research article on The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film when they both toiled in various aspects of the archives at YIVO Institute in the early/mid-1990s. To quote: "As members of Jewish subcultures, speakers of Yeshivish and those engaged in Queer Yiddishkeit seem poles apart; nevertheless, they have in common an approach to Yiddish that is distinctly postvernacular.... Queer Yiddishkeit contests established notions of what constitutes Yiddish culture and the nature of its transmission among its constituency."
More info: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10346.html
Eve Sicular's Yiddish Celluloid Closet research is also a key topic in Jeffrey Shandler's new article
"Queer Yiddishkeit: Practice and Theory"
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies - Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2006, pp. 90-113 Purdue University Press
From The New York Jewish Week, Manhattan edition, October 14, 2005:
ISLE OF KLEZBOS --
Of all the pioneers of the recent klezmer revival sweeping the town, drummer and bandleader Eve Sicular is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating artists. Don't let her band's punny name fool you: The Klezbos musicians produce a high octane blend of world music, funk, reggae and zydeco, with an overarching klezemr sensibiility and an approach that makes Old World values hip again. No wonder, then, that Showtime's Lesbian-themed hit "The L Word" was quick to include the band's tunes in the soundtrack to the popular show. Sicular will be joined by trumpeter Pam Fleming, clarinet/sax player Debra Kreisberg, vocalist Debby Karpel, bassist Anna Milat-Meyer, and guest klezbian accordionist Art Bailey in a free evening of feel-good, funky music. -The Buzz Arts Guide
Isle of Klezbos is featured in The Best of Pakn Treger issue, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the National Yiddish Book Center's astute and aesthetic quarterly magazine. The "Great Ears and Hearts" piece by Catherine Madsen, originally published after Isle of Klezbos' summer 2000 concert at NYBC, is reprinted with the band's latest color photo and an inset update for this Summer 2005/5765 edition. Isle of Klezbos has since returned to the Amherst MA venue twice more, and Metropolitan Klezmer is scheduled to perform there on Sunday afternoon, November 6th.
The solo theater piece SCORE, a portrayal of Leonard Bernstein produced in Spring 2005 at The New York Theatre Workshop, includes several Metropolitan Klezmer tracks from the band's debut CD, "Yiddish For Travelers." The one-man show, starring Tom Nelis, adapts Bernstein's own writings and enacts his passionate glorious relationship to music. Three tracks from YFT have been featured in the show's variegated soundscape since its inception at the Wexner Center in Ohio in 2002, as part of depicting Bernstein's roots and family dynamic. The two-month Off-Broadway run at the renowned downtown NYTW stage (www.nytw.org) was the culmination of the play's performance history to date, and further venues are to be announced. For information on the history and future touring of this piece by Anne Bogart's acclaimed SITI Company, see www.siti.org
Isle of Klezbos recorded a special Klezbian version of the new theme song for Showtime's series The L Word, to be heard during two shows airing in early May! Season Two's music producer, Elizabeth Ziff of BETTY and ezgirlmusic, invited Isle of Klezbos to create a klezmer variation on the show's signature music, on the soundtrack during the second season, two versions in episode 11 & episode 12. We had had an extra-interesting and fun time meeting Ilene Chaiken, the show's creator and exec producer, who came to hear our recording studio session after she finished shooting in NYC this September. You will also find the Isle of Klezbos on this season's L Word Sessions soundtrack CD being released in mid-May on tommyboy records. On the Isle of Klezbos session were Debra Kreisberg/clarinet, Pam Fleming/trumpet, Eve Sicular/drums, Metropolitan Klezmer [guest klezbian] bassist Dave Hofstra, and Klezbian emerita Rachelle Garniez/accordion. Click here to get updates on the L word.
Isle of Klezbos was awarded a Fall 2004 grant by the Sparkplug Foundation for ongoing recording and performance projects, including the Yiddish Celluloid Closet joint venture with Metropolitan Klezmer.
From Debra Kreisberg, January 2005: I have a little feature in an online zine called New Music Box, which comes out of the American Music Center. This month's issue explores klezmer and the ways that it has musically gone beyond its traditions. I was asked to write a statement about my experience, which is printed in the issue. Click here to read the article.
Metropolitan Klezmer's Surprising Finds is a 2004 Outmusic Awardwinner (OMA) for Outstanding New Recording - Instrumental (of course, the disc has plenty of vocals too, but they chose this category for nominating us this time!) Eve Sicular was also nominated for a 2004 OMA as Outstanding Producer for Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos (a category in which she won the 2002 award for Mosaic Persuasion.)
Metropolitan Klezmer tunes recorded live in October 2002 are featured on John Zorn's Tzadik label, in the From The Winery [fall 2004] compilation of performances from the klezmer brunch series at NYC's legendary downtown club, Tonic, curated by David Krakauer.
4 Stars!
So, Nu, You Wanna See a Movie?
UK Jewish Telegraph
Isle of Klezbos at The KlezMORE festival in Vienna, Austria!!
Metropolitan Klezmer track included on A Chanukah Feast Volume II
