The Klezmatics play soul-stirring Jewish roots music for our time, recreating klezmer in arrangements and compositions that combine Jewish identity and mysticism with a contemporary zeitgeist and a postmodern aesthetic. Since their founding in New York City’s East Village in 1986, the Klezmatics have celebrated the ecstatic nature of Yiddish music with works that are by turns wild, spiritual, provocative, reflective and danceable.

Multi-instrumentalist/composer MATT DARRIAU plays reeds, flutes and ethnic woodwinds. His long-standing commitment to jazz, klezmer, Balkan and Celtic music informs all his work. In addition to his work with the Klezmatics, he leads his own Balkan rhythm quartet, Paradox Trio, whose third cd, SOURCE (Knitting Factory Works), explores the common ground between Balkan and klezmer music. Their second recording, FLYING AT A SLANT, was nominated for a 1998 German Critics Award. Paradox Trio regularly performs at major European jazz and world music festivals. Matt recently toured the US with his five-piece Recycled Waltz Orchestra playing the film music of Bernard Herrmann. His newest project, (along with fellow Klezmatic Frank London) is the septet Ballin’ the Jack, which plays early swing repertoire fused with contemporary improvisation. Their first cd, JUNGLE, led to performances at major international jazz festivals; their latest release is entitled THE BIG HEAD. Darriau is also a member of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Celtic band Whirligig. JAZZIZ magazine named Matt Darriau one of the 150 most influential jazz musicians of the last fifteen years, citing the impact he has had in bringing Balkan and world rhythms to jazz.

Fiddler/composer LISA GUTKIN is one of New York City’s busiest musicians. Her unique synthesis of Irish and Scottish traditions and a varied ethnic musical palette led to the formation of the acoustic Celtic/world/jazz/fusion band Whirligig. Co-founded with multi-instrumentalist/producer Greg Anderson, Whirligig’s debut cd, THE WHEEL, was issued in 1996; their latest release is SPIN (Prime CD). For the past ten years Lisa’s focus on Irish and Scottish music has led to her work with a host of renowned singers and players from both sides of the Atlantic, including Tommy Sands, John Whelan, Ed Miller, Jerry O’Sullivan, Steve Cooney, Peter Knight and Tim Harries (both of Steeleye Span), Susan McKeown and, most recently, Cathie Ryan. Having appeared on over 100 recordings, Lisa also composes and performs for film, radio, television and theater, and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Lisa currently performs with Whirligig, the newly formed An Cr (a traditional Irish group featuring former Solas singer Sheila O’Leary), the occasional gathering of Lisa’s Pieces (a bluegrassy band featuring her original compositions) and solo and duo concerts with Brendan Dolan. Her solo cd which, after recording sessions in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland and London, is now being completed in New York, features collaborations, traditional tunes and originals.

DAVID LICHT (drums) was born in Detroit and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he played many styles of music, including jazz, blues, folk, rock, Brazilian and African. In the early 1980s he recorded and toured the world with the psychedelic rock-parody band Shockabilly, which featured guitar wild man Eugene Chadbourne. Moving to NYC in 1985, David quickly became part of the second wave of the klezmer revival, listening and learning from vintage 78rpm recordings, which continue to be his biggest influence. He was the manager of the recording studio Noise NY, recorded and toured with the legendary band Bongwater and composed and performed music for modern dance. He appears on over 30 recordings on the Shimmy Disc label. David has performed and recorded with Andy Statman, David Krakauer, Michael Alpert, Pete Sokolow and Klezmer Plus, Giora Feidman, Zalmen Mlotek and award-winning author and storyteller Nina Jaffe. He played on the Grammy-nominated cd PARTISANS OF VILNA (Flying Fish) and has been staff percussion instructor for Living Tradition’s KLEZKAMP since 1987. David has been an accomplished painter-plasterer for over 30 years, balancing his on-stage time with his on-the-ladder time! He delights in raising his two children, Jacob and Bess, with his wife, Karen Heifetz.

Trumpeter/composer FRANK LONDON is a member of the Hasidic New Wave, has performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa, and is featured on over 100 cds. His own recordings include INVOCATIONS (cantorial music); Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars’ DI SHIKERE KAPELYE and BROTHERHOOD OF BRASS; NIGUNIM and THE ZMIROS PROJECT (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); THE DEBT (film and theater music); THE SHEKHINA BIG BAND; the soundtrack to THE SHVITZ; and four with the Hasidic New Wave. His projects include the folk-opera A NIGHT IN THE OLD MARKETPLACE (based on Y.L. Peretz’s Bay nakht oyfn altn mark), DAVENEN for Pilobolus and the Klezmatics, Great Small Works’ THE MEMOIRS OF GLUCKEL OF HAMELN and Min Tanaka’s ROMANCE. He composed music for John Sayles’ THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, Yvonne Rainer’s MURDER AND MURDER, the Czech-American Marionette Theater’s GOLEM and Tamar Rogoff’s IVYE PROJECT. He was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson’s THE KNEE PLAYS, collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in Canada, Crimea and the Catskills, and produced a cd by Gypsy star Esma Redzepova. He has been featured on HBO’s SEX AND THE CITY, at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

PAUL MORRISSETT (bass/tsimbl) is a collector and accomplished player of traditional folk instruments of the Balkans and Scandinavia. He has traveled the world studying with ethnic masters such as Norway’s premier hardanger fiddlers Hauk Buen and Alf Tveit, and Bulgaria’s most esteemed folk artists: gaida player Kostadin Varimezov and gadulka players Misho Marinov and Atanas Vulchev. With Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band and the George Tomov Dance Ensemble Orchestra, Paul has recorded and performed in venues from Lincoln Center to Zagreb, on instruments including kaval, bass, zurla, violin, trumpet, accordion and tamburitza. He conducts workshops at festivals and has been on the staff of Lark in the Morning, Buffalo on the Roof and the Balkan Music and Dance camps.

Klezmatics founding singer LORIN SKLAMBERG’s work as vocalist/accordionist can be heard on over three dozen recordings, including SONGS ARE ALL I HAVE: THE MUSICAL LEGACY OF VLADIMIR HEIFETZ (YIVO), SOURCE with Matt Darriau’s Paradox Trio and KNITTING ON THE ROOF with Uri Caine (Knitting Factory), FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS with Jane Siberry and Marc Cohn (Six Degrees), DON BYRON PLAYS THE MUSIC OF MICKEY KATZ (Elektra/Nonesuch), REMEMBER THE CHILDREN (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) and LIVE IN THE FIDDLER’S HOUSE (EMI), on which he duets on his original tune, "Nign," with violinist Itzhak Perlman. He performed his score for Gregg Bordowitz’s film THE SUICIDE (in which he also appears), has contributed special material for New York City’s CIRCUS AMOK, and produced the Yiddish band Mikveh’s debut cd (Traditional Crossroads) and the cast recording of the New York Folksbiene Yiddish Theater’s KIDS AND YIDDISH. With Frank London and pianist/theremin player Rob Schwimmer he performs and records programs of Yiddish spiritual music, including NIGUNIM (Tzadik) and THE ZMIROS PROJECT (Traditional Crossroads), while he and co-creators Frank London and singer Adrienne Cooper travel the globe with ESN: SONGS FROM THE KITCHEN, an all-singing, all-cooking celebration of Jewish food. He co-founded the non-profit organization Living Traditions, coordinated its event, KLEZKAMP: THE YIDDISH FOLK ARTS PROGRAM (the world’s major instructional institution for klezmorim) for 14 years, and co-produced and recorded its children’s cd DI GRINE KATSHKE (THE GREEN DUCK). Lorin currently serves as the Sound Archivist of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.