Isle of Klezbos: soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women's klezmer sextet
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NYC-based ISLE of KLEZBOS approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. The soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women's 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 & retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking song, re-grooved standards, and genre-defying originals. ISLE of KLEZBOS concert footage has been broadcast internationally on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN World- Beat, and PBS In The Life, more…

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Hidden Musical Gems from Yiddish Soundtracks

Opening night of the Detroit Jewish Film Festival, Thursday, April 27, 2023

Isle of Klezbos & Friends: live concert, Yiddish movie clips, and interactive talk. This captivating "tour" features musical moments from famous Yiddish films such as The Dybbuk and Molly Picon's Mamele, as well as comic and dramatic tunes from a variety of lesser-known movie masterpieces. Enjoy the songs and hear fascinating insights into the movies and the music of bygone days. Featuring vocalist Mikhl Yashinsky.

Yiddish Project / Film

In her essay Samy Szlingerbaum’s Heymish Avant-Garde Kino der Mamen: Mysteries, Music, & Immigrant Life in “Brussels Transit” published by In Geveb, Isle of Klezbos bandleader/film scholar Eve Sicular offers an exegesis of Samy Szlingerbaum's recently restored autobiographical cinematic masterpiece, which depicts a Jewish family’s displacement in the aftermath of World War II. Read more on Yiddish film Brussels Transit

And Just Like That...
Seeing the Light

Did you catch the Klezbos and Metropolitan Klezmer bandmembers in HBO Max's episode #10, season #1 finale of AJLT, the Sex and the City sequel? Our trio plays They Mitzve scene. Check out our 'behind the scene' pictures on our instagram feed.

The Yinglish Mikado,
from Tamiment to Hollywood

Watch Der Richtiga Mikado led by Eve Sicular for Ner Shalom Yiddish Tish.

Eve Sicular presents her ongoing Yiddish popular culture research in a zoom program featuring cameos by luminary Yiddish Tish participants, from Congregation Ner Shalom - Sonoma.

Live At MoMA PS1

In September 2021, Isle of Klezbos joined as the houseband for Gregg Bordowitz in his three-part performance Benyamin Zev's Succos Spectacular! at MoMA PS1. You can watch all three shows on YouTube: Night 1, Night 2, Night 3.

Press Bits

A new klezmer tradition takes root in Brooklyn’s Prospect Parkarticle in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency with a few words from US Klezmer scene veteran, Eve Sicular.

The klezmer band described in Ezra Bookman's Hey Alma article: How to Hora Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger was our bandmates at Brooklyn’s Picnic House: “I don’t remember much about my brother’s wedding (thanks a lot, open bar), but I do remember the hora. It felt like it lasted for hours, around and around, circles on circles, reprise after reprise, a mess of sweaty joyous Jewish ecstasy. Eight years later and whenever it gets mentioned, someone in my family still inevitably sighs, looking wistfully into the horizon: Ahhh, that hora though… I’ve craved that feeling ever since...”

Rye The News Guy in-depth interview gives our Isle of Klezbos back-story as the band celebrated Women's History Month at City Winery.

And Roz Chast loves Isle of Klezbos!

» NEWS ARCHIVE

Isle of Klezbos: J. Edgar Klezmer: songs from my Grandmother's FBI files

J. EDGAR KLEZMER: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files — musical documentary theater adventure, by grandchild & bandleader Eve Sicular. more

Isle of Klezbos and Eve Sicular: Yiddish Celluloid Closet

Yiddish cinema as you've never seen it, plus live reinterpretations of movie music from the vintage soundtracks! more

PHOTO CREDIT Angela Jimenez