Hankus Netsky
Image by Courtesy of Hankus Netsky
When superstar violinist Itzhak Perlman and celebrity cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot appeared at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in February, their musical director was hardly at the top of the bill. That is par for the course for Hankus Netsky, who helped mastermind Perlman and Helfgot’s “Eternal Echoes” project. For more than 30 years, Netsky, 58, has been a quiet but powerful force affecting nearly every corner of contemporary Jewish music.
As the founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band in 1980, Netsky takes pride of place among the first generation of klezmer revivalists, who brought the genre back to the forefront of Jewish cultural consciousness. As a composer and musician, Netsky has created numerous albums as well as film, radio and musical scores. And as a researcher and ethnomusicologist, Netsky has written widely on music history, and as an avowed improvisational musician, he has helped push Jewish music into the future.
Perhaps most importantly, Netsky’s position as chair of the contemporary improvisation department at the New England Conservatory of Music has allowed him to mentor generations of Jewish musicians, who often attend the school specifically to study with him. The large number of young jazz and classical instrumentalists who have devoted their talents to innovating Jewish repertoire over the past few decades is a testament to Netsky’s influence.
In addition to his students, Netsky has found a wider audience for cantorial music in recent months, at packed venues like Barclay’s Center and Los Angeles’s Hollywood Bowl. His name might not be in lights, but that doesn’t mean his music isn’t heard.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
