Isle of Klezbos

Isle of Klezbos approaches tradition with playful irreverence and deepest respect. Now celebrating two decades together, the soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-gal klezmer sextet has toured from Vienna to Vancouver since 1998. Band repertoire ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: Neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies, Yiddish swing and retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking songs, re-grooved standards, and genre-defying originals. Twenty years ago, Alicia Svigals released her groundbreaking album Fidl, the first contemporary recording of the deep and ecstatic klezmer fiddle music which had been beloved across Jewish Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. In 2018 she followed up Fidl with Beregovski Suite: a project with Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer. Together they bring to life long-lost melodies from the early 20th-century fieldwork of Moshe Beregovski, and re-imagine them for the 21st century.