David Krakauer to perform with vocalist
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 23, 2000) -- For clarinetist David Krakauer and vocalist Stephen Merkel, both classically-trained musicians, the leap to Yiddish art music came easily and naturally.

For Krakauer, the internationally-acclaimed clarinetist who has performed worldwide as a guest soloist with the likes of the Tokyo String Quartet, the Eroica Trio, the Kronos Quartet and the Lark Quartet, there was something immediately warm and familiar about the sound of Yiddish music. It was the sound of his grandmother's Yiddish-inflected voice.

And for Merkel, the deeply felt passion of Yiddish folk-based music has an integrity, depth of feeling and universality that crosses all boundaries.

Thus, Krakauer, Merkel and pianist Joyce Rosenzweig, another classically-trained musician, will join forces on Monday night, July 31, at 7:30 p.m. at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire for a recital of Yiddish art music intended for audiences of all backgrounds. Merkel, a cantor at Westchester (N.Y.) Reform Temple, put together the program, called "Klezmer and More: Songs of the Jewish Life Cycle." The recital strings together Yiddish songs -- including art songs, folk songs, theater songs, lullabies and nigunim, or Hasidic devotional melodies - into a "mini-drama."
"The songs, some of which will be familiar to audiences, some of which won't, are interconnected with a narration," said Merkel in a recent phone interview. "Although the songs speak very strongly to the individuality of Jewish culture, they are also universal, inasmuch as they talk about love, marriage, children, what parents foresee in their children, and the spirituality of life.

Merkel said the program is performed as a musical drama, with the reading of texts describing vignettes of life in Eastern Europe, from out of which grow the songs.
"Although the program does talk very specifically about the lives of Jews and Yiddish as a culture, it also talks very strongly to anyone who wants to listen. What I find so fascinating is, does it matter that the man lost his love in Poland or in New York? I don't think so. Not if the artist is good. And the songs are in Yiddish, but listeners don't have to speak Yiddish to understand them."

In David Krakauer, Merkel found a musician who is well-versed both in the Yiddish idiom and in getting across the music to diverse audiences. A former member of the Klezmatics, one of the leading contemporary klezmer groups, and currently the leader of his own critically-acclaimed band, Klezmer Madness, Krakauer is widely recognized as one of the primary exponents of modern klezmer, and one of those building upon the music's solid foundation to create a vital, new sound for 21st century listeners.

Merkel first met Krakauer a few years ago when he brought the Julliard-trained clarinetist to his temple for a musical program during the High Holidays. The one-time event was a success, and when Merkel and Rosenzweig, who have known each other since their student days, were putting together the current program, they both thought of Krakauer as the obvious person to fill out the trio.

For Krakauer, the program gives him a chance to work with a vocalist again, which he hasn't done since leaving the Klezmatics in the mid-'90s. "For me, it's great to hear the Yiddish language," said Krakauer in a recent phone interview. "It always makes me want to learn a few more Yiddish songs to sing myself. I love the feeling when they're singing and there are words and people are connected to those words."

While Krakauer's band Klezmer Madness plays instrumental music, he said he hopes to integrate vocals into the repertoire at some point. Krakauer himself has been known to sing a bit of Yiddish or Hebrew on occasion; at a recent concert during the Passover holiday at the downtown New York nightclub Tonic - where Krakauer curates a weekly klezmer brunch on Sunday afternoons -- he sang a klezmerized version of the seder staple "Chad Gadya."

Krakauer's original klezmer music can be heard on several recordings by the Klezmatics, including "Jews with Horns" and "Rhythm and Jews," as well as on his own CDs, including "Klezmer Madness!" and "Klezmer, N.Y.," a tribute to Krakauer's two clarinet idols: the klezmer great Naftule Brandwein and the seminal jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Krakauer also appears on Itzhak Perlman's "In the Fiddler's House" recording - the top-selling klezmer album of all time -- and with the Kronos Quartet on Osvaldo Golijov's "The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind," a piece of klezmer-inspired contemporary art music.

A dynamic performer who integrates a host of influences, including funk, r&b, rock, jazz, experimental and avant-garde music into his original compositions and recordings, Krakauer has longstanding musical associations with Music from Marlboro, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and John Zorn. He is a member of the clarinet and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and Queens College.

Krakauer said he started playing klezmer as a "musical hobby," a kind of pleasant diversion from his full-time career as a classical musician. Then, he said, "it just became my life."
"Sometimes you can't really know exactly where you're heading because there's so much going on. And something comes up that's interesting and you just gravitate towards it. That's what happened with klezmer. Suddenly it became my passion and my focus."

Pianist Joyce Rosenzweig has performed as a soloist, chamber player and accompanist throughout North America and Europe. A soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Texas Festival Orchestra, her recent appearance have also included the National Holocaust Museum and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Rosenzweig serves on the faculty of Hebrew Union College, where she teaches courses on Yiddish, Ladino, Israeli and synagogue music, and frequently accompanies cantors in concert. She can be heard on the recent recording, "Dreaming in Yiddish," with the renowned contemporary Yiddish vocalist Adrienne Cooper.
"It's like being on a magic carpet with these two instrumentalists," said Merkel. "And it transcends the hackneyed….It's a very beautiful vignette of life."

Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. For ticket information call 528-6378.

[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 28, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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