Yale Strom
| Yale Strom | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Yale Strom |
| Genres | Klezmer |
| Occupation(s) | Violinist, composer, film director, writer, photographer, playwright |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Years active | 1981 - present |
| Associated acts | Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi, Elizabeth Schwartz |
| Website | yalestrom |
Yale Strom is an American violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright. Strom is a pioneer among klezmer (musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe) revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities since 1981. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music between these two groups. Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present. He was among the first of the so-called klezmer revivalists to identify the connection between klezmer and lautare (Rom/Gypsy musicians) and explore that connection in his scholarly and artistic works.
In the more than two decades since his initial ethnographic trip, Yale Strom has become one of the world's most productive and influential scholar-artists of klezmer culture and history.
Yale Strom's klezmer field research helped form the base for the repertoires of his two klezmer bands, Hot Pstromi in New York and Klazzj in San Diego (combined in 2006 under the Hot Pstromi umbrella). Since Strom's first band began in 1981, he has been composing his own New Jewish music, which combines klezmer with Hasidic nigunim, Rom, jazz, classical, Balkan and Sephardic motifs. These compositions range from quartets to a symphony, which premiered with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He composed original music for the Denver Center production of Tony Kushner's "The Dybbuk". He also composed all the New Jewish music for the National Public Radio series "Fiddlers, Philosophers & Fools: Jewish Short Stories From the Old World to the New", hosted by Leonard Nimoy, as well as numerous film scores. Strom is also one of the only two composers of Jewish music to carry on the tradition of writing original songs, with Yiddish lyrics, about humanitarian and social issues.
List of CD recordings: "Cholent With Huckleberry" (Rounder, 1985), "Eclectic Klezz" (Rounder/Global Village, 1987), "With A Little Horseradish on the Side" (Global Village, 1993 - featuring original Hot Pstromi lineup of Strom, Andy Statman, Mark Dresser, Ismail Butera and Seido Salifoski), "The Last Klezmer" (Global Village, 1994), "Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years" (Global Village, 1996), "Wandering Jew" (Global Village, 1997),"Tales Our Father Sang" (Global Village, 1998), "Garden of Yidn" (Naxos World, 2000) "Cafe Jew Zoo" (Naxos World, 2002), "Dveykes/Adhesion" (Global Village, 2005) "Absolutely Complete Klezmer" (Transcontinental Music, 2006), "Borsht with Bread, Brothers" (ARC Music UK, 2007), "Absolutely Klezmer, Vol. II" (Transcontinental, 2007), "The Devil's Brides: Music from The Witches of Lublin" (ARC Music UK, 2011, featuring narration by actress Miriam Margolyes).
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