The klezmer movement was never just a fad. But now, with his new album ‘Storm Game,’ clarinetist Michael Winograd is moving the genre one step further.
Courtesy of Daniel Kahn
Photo by Frank Vena
I never learned to speak Yiddish. As a child in the 1950s and ‘60s, it was the language of my grandparents, the language that my parents only spoke when they didn’t want me or my brothers to understand what they were talking about (and I don’t think they spoke it when my childhood friend Michael Wex was in the house). And yet, there is something about Yiddish theater and song (and, of course, Yiddish theater songs) that makes me feel very connected to my Jewish heritage.
It was no run-of-the-mill Halloween-themed wedding when Jewish musical royalty married on Sunday, October 31st. The bride, Katie Down, is a sound artist, composer, performer and sound designer, and her groom was Grammy winner Matt Darriau, of Klezmatics and Paradox Trio fame.
Mark Rubin is a musician based out of Austin, Texas, who has played at the International Accordion Festival since 2001. His latest project is the Atomic Duo.
Michael Winograd is mostly known as a star klezmer clarinetist, as well as for his multi-instrumental work with bands such as Yiddish Princess and Xylopholks. But this October Winograd, together with percussionist Richie Barshay, will don a different hat as the curator of a new acoustic music space in Brooklyn, Ditmas Acoustic.
It’s hard to beat Yiddish Princess’s own self-description (as per their MySpace page):