Ilana Cravitz (Violin)

Artistic Advisor

Ilana is one of a handful of professional violinists in the UK playing klezmer music in the traditional style. She has introduced thousands of people of all ages to klezmer through her performances, courses and workshops at festivals, venues of all shapes and sizes, and universities, colleges and schools. Her book, Klezmer Fiddle – a how-to guide, is published by Oxford University Press. Ilana also leads and calls for Yiddish dances and is a founder member of the London Klezmer Quartet, which within five years has produced three well-received CDs, toured Australia three times and appeared on national radio in a number of countries. She has worked with leading Sephardic music group Los Desterrados, and regularly plays English and Celtic music with ceilidh band The Muckers. Ilana studied baroque violin and viola da gamba at post-graduate level at the Royal College of Music in London, and can still sometimes be heard in concert playing on gut strings.

Dr Alan Bern (accordion)

Alan Bern is the creator and artistic director of Yiddish Summer and co-founder and chairman of other music e.V., both based in Weimar, Germany. A pioneer of the American klezmer revival, he is a composer/arranger, pianist, accordionist, educator, cultural activist and philosopher. He is co-founder and director of Brave Old World, founder and director of The Other Europeans and Diaspora Redux. He has performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman, Andy Statman, the Klezmatics, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, among others. He also performs with Bern, Brody & Rodach and with Guy Klucevsek. His education included classical piano with Paul Badura-Skoda and Leonard Shure, jazz with Karl Berger, the Art Ensemble of Chicago,  Anthony Braxton and others, contemporary music with John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, Joel Hoffman and others, and philosophy and cognitive science with Dan Dennett. He received his master’s degree in Philosophy and his doctorate degree in music composition. In 2009, he was given the Ruth Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a musician and educator.

Joel Rubin - Clarinet

Clarinettist and ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Virginia. For over 30 years, he has been a leading figure in klezmer as performer, scholar, author and educator. He wrote his PhD at City University, London (2001) on the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. He was a founder of Brave Old World, has led the Joel Rubin Ensemble since 1994, and collaborates with musicians like Cookie Segelstein and Josh Horowitz, Steve Greenman and Pete Rushefsky, Alan Bern, and Uri Caine. Rubin has worked closely with traditional musicians including the Epstein Brothers, Sid Beckerman, Leon Schwartz, Moussa Berlin, Bronya Sakina and Ben Bazyler. He has recorded seven CDs under his own name, most recently Azoy tsu tsveytwith Uri Caine (Tzadik, 2011) and The Nign of Reb Mendel (Joel Rubin Ensemble, Traditional Crossroads, 2010), and published extensively.

Frank London - Brass (USA)

Frank London is a New York City-based trumpeter, bandleader, and composer active in klezmer and world music. He also plays various other wind instruments and keyboards, and occasionally sings backup vocals. With The Klezmatics, he won a Grammy award in Contemporary World Music for “Wonder Wheel (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)”.

London is best known for his role as trumpeter in the New York City-based klezmer band The Klezmatics. He is also a member of Hasidic New Wave and leads Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars. He was a co-founder of both Les Misérables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

In addition to his work in klezmer music, he is in demand as a sideman, and has performed or recorded with such diverse artists and groups as John Zorn, John Cale, Itzhak Perlman, Allen Ginsberg, LL Cool J, Mel Tormé, David Murray, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, La Monte Young, Natalie Merchant, They Might Be Giants, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds Five, Marc Ribot, Reggie Workman, Chava Alberstein, Anne LeBaron, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Luna, Maurice El Medioni, Gal Costa, Ljova (Lev Zhurbin), Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh, Avraham Fried, Iggy Pop, and countless others. He played at Carnegie Hall with Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N’Dour and Omara Portuando. He played the trumpet solo on LL Cool J’s “Goin’ Back to Cali.”

He served as conductor and music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson’s The Knee Plays, and is featured on over 300 CD’s.

Susi Evans – Clarinet (UK)

Susi “has a deep knowledge of the klezmer idiom” (Evening Standard), and her performances have inspired press reviews remarking on her “nimble solo features and excellent tone control” (The Scottish Herald). Susi is a founder member of She’Koyokh – an award-winning klezmer & Balkan band that was nominated for ‘Best Group’ in the Songlines World Music Awards 2012 and has performed internationally at festivals and venues such as WOMAD and the Concertgebouw. Susi also plays with the London Klezmer Quartet who have toured in Australia four times. She appeared regularly on the West End stage in the National Theatre’s smash-hit production of War Horse and has collaborated with the Aurora Orchestra, composer Jocelyn Pook, Frank London (Klezmatics) and Kalman Balogh & Alan Bern (The Other Europeans). Susi graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with a first class degree in 2004 and having studied in Istanbul with Selim Sesler, at the Plovdiv Music Academy in Bulgaria with Nikola Iliev and with leaders of the klezmer revival, is now in demand as a teacher herself.

Francesca Ter-Berg – Cello/Bass (UK)

Francesca is one of the leading Klezmer musicians of her generation. She has studied with internationally renowned musicians and teachers including Tcha Limberger, Frank London and Dr Alan Bern. She has collaborated with acclaimed folk band Sam Lee and Friends as well as Mercury Prize Winner Talvin Singh, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Klezmer Quartet. Francesca was also Creative Programmer for the Jewish Music Institute and has taught klezmer at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Guy Schalom – Percussion (UK)

Guy Schalom has delivered drumming and percussion masterclasses at leading conservatoires such as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of music and Dance, Birmingham Conservatoire and Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy.International festival teaching positions have included Rhythm Stix Festival (Southbank), Klezfest (London), Klezfest (St Petersburg), Klez Kanada (Montreal), Yiddish Summer Weimar (Germany), International Festival Furth (Germany) and Sfat Festival (Israel).As a teacher, Guy is uniquely positioned having both formal qualifications (First Class (hons) Degree) and broad practical experience in both commercial and ethnic styles.

Vanessa Vromans - Violin (Germany)

Berlin-based violinist Vanessa Vromans (AU/NL) was born in Curacao to a Dutch father and an Australian mother. She holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in solo violin performance from the Conservatorium in Rotterdam, where she studied Classical and World music. Already inspired by and drawn towards the music of Eastern Europe from an early age, upon the completion of her formal studies Vromans dedicated herself to learning the language of East European violin. She has since undertaken intensive studies of Klezmer fiddle with Michael Alpert (Brave Old World), Steven Greenman (Khevrisa), Cookie Segelstein (Budowitz/Veretski Pass), Alicia Svigals (Klezmatics), and Deborah Strauss, as well as Romanian/Moldovan violin studies with Marin Bunea of Chisinau, (MD). Vromans plays with Kol Ishe (DE), Figelin (DE/US), Gimpel Theater Project (DE/MD), and has appeared as a guest with Khevrisa (US) & Shtetl Band Amsterdam (NL). She has performed and taught at festivals in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland and the United States, and since moving to Berlin in 2013 has played in various theater productions at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Neuköllner Oper and the Hauptstadtoper.