An Exploration of Klezmer Music w/ Abigale Reisman

Klezmer music has always been very close to my heart, even as a
classical violinist. During the pandemic I attempted to learn
Klezmer clarinet, and soon I began collaborating with the great
Klezmer(and classical!) violinist Abigale Reisman on her work for
Klezmer band and orchestra called Gedanken. Abigale taught me so
much about Klezmer music, including the fact that despite its
reputation as a clarinet-centric genre, the violin is actually
the original voice of the Klezmer sound. I've been wanting to do
a show about Klezmer music for a while, and Abigale was the
perfect person to talk to, as she has experience in both the
classical and Klezmer worlds, and was able to talk about the
differences between the two sounds, as well as all of the
characteristics that make Klezmer music so instantly
recognizable. We also talked about the similiarites between
classical and Klezmer music, which classical violinists had the
most Klezmer like sound, and how to tell the difference between a
traditional Eastern European folk tune and a Jewish Klezmer folk
tune. I so enjoyed this conversation and I hope you will too!
You'll hear an excerpt of Abigale's band Ezekiel's Wheels at the
end of the show, but check them out here: 


https://www.youtube.com/@ewklezmer/videos


Link to the concert I mentioned at the top of the show: 


https://www.br-klassik.de/audio/20240308-on-demand-so-joshua-weilerstein-vilde-frang-strawinsky-schostakowitsch-100.html