Kick off the Hanukkah season with two of the founding members of the award-winning klezmer sensation The Klezmatics. Frank London and Lorin Sklamberg will chat about their more than 30 years working together as part of the world renowned Jewish roots band, how they approach their music selection for their holiday performances, and their long history together. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A with attendees. Frank London and Lorin Sklamberg are original members of the The Klezmatics, an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins. Their album Wonder Wheel, released in 2006, showcased lyrics by American folk icon Woody Guthrie, and won a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary World Music Album. Klezmer is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these would have been played at weddings and other social functions. The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including Ottoman (especially Greek and Romanian) music, Baroque music, German and Slavic folk dances, and religious Jewish music. As the music arrived in the United States, it lost some of its traditional ritual elements and adopted elements of American big band and popular music.
New York City, NY; NYC