Klezmer Concert for Lag Ba'Omer

 

The Old Broadway Synagogue, Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center present:

KLEZMER CONCERT FOR LAG B´OMER
Concert featuring Andy Statman (clarinet, mandolin), Dan Blacksberg (trombone) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/cimbalom)

Thursday, May 15, 2025, 8:30pm
at the Old Broadway Synagogue
(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)
Suggested donation: $10

A concert featuring three of the contemporary Yiddish music scene’s leading performers – NEA National Heritage Fellow Andy Statman (clarinet), Dan Blacksberg (trombone) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) exploring the repertoire of klezmer legends Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras, who was Statman’s teacher. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.

Biographies of performers:

A virtuosic musician known for his pioneering work in Klezmer, bluegrass, jazz, and other disparate styles, Grammy-nominated Andy Statman rose out of New York’s folk and string band scene in the mid-’70s, first establishing himself as a mandolin master then helping to ignite the klezmer revival as a clarinetist. He learned the craft of klezmer through a long-term mentorship with the legendary clarinetist Dave Tarras, and continues to draw inspiration from the recordings of Bill Monroe, the sounds of New York City, and his wife Barbara. Statman was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2012. He tours nationally with the Andy Statman Trio (Larry Eagle – drums, Jim Whitney – bass) as well as with violinist Itzhak Perlman, and has performed at the Grand Ole Opry with bluegrass guitarist Jake Eddy.

Philadelphia native Dan Blacksberg (trombone) has created a singular musical voice as a trombonist, composer, and educator. One of the foremost practitioners of klezmer trombone and a respected voice in jazz and experimental music, Dan is known for a formidable virtuosity and versatility. This has led to performances with artists such klezmer masters as Frank London, Elaine Hoffman Watts and Adrienne Cooper, and experimentalists like Anthony Braxton and extreme doom metal band The Body. Dan composes music from danceable klezmer melodies on Radiant Others, to genre-busting projects like his Hasidic doom metal band Deveykus and Name Of the Sea, Dan forges music that “aims to infuse the fearless avant-garde with timeless sounds and techniques, and vice versa.” (WXPN’s The Key) Dan currently teaches jazz and klezmer at Temple University, and coordinates the Instrumental and Dance programs at Yiddish New York with Deb Strauss. He also makes the Radiant Others Klezmer Podcast.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, Ira Temple, Lauren Brody, Avi Fox-Rosen and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

We are grateful for the support of the Atran Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.