Village Klezmer and Jewish music

"Impressive."
VPRO 3voor12, Wouter de Waal, about our concert at the International Gipsy Festival Tilburg 2013

Shtetl Band Amsterdam: village klezmer and Jewish music; band photo

Shtetl Band Amsterdam is a klezmer band from the Netherlands, playing Village Klezmer. With its mix of very old and very new klezmer music the band is one of the most pure and exciting klezmer bands west of the Wolga.

What is Village Klezmer?

Shtetl Band Amsterdam brings back the village sound of a small klezmer ensemble from the old Eastern Europe. During hundreds of years the Eastern European Jewish folk music had a sound quite different from what we have been hearing since the klezmer revival that started around 1980. This older group sound, having the violin's melody as its basis, is mild, rich and nuanced. In its relatively short life Shtetl Band Amsterdam has become an inspired and much in-demand exponent of this Village Klezmer style.

HIP

Shtetl Band Amsterdam's way of performing klezmer music is HIP: Historically Informed Performance. That means that the band bases its approach and group sound on knowledge about the history and the ongoing style elements of klezmer music. The Yiddish roots music, that the musicians bring alive again in this way doesn't come from a museum but straight from the heart. The spontaneous and playful performance style, leaving a lot of room for variations, makes for unusually powerful and sensitive music.

Our music

The repertoire includes dance tunes as well as sensitive melodies that once were being played at Jewish weddings as table music. The band brings mostly the oldest and the newest klezmer music: melodies that were recorded (or published as sheet music) a hundred years ago, tunes re-discovered in archives, alongside compositions by artistic director Gregor Schaefer.

What we can offer

Read more about our Concert programs, Music for parties and our Extras (dance leading, lecture, singer, and more...)

Info & contact

Marion Cohen, band manager for Shtetl Band Amsterdam Marion Cohen
band manager for Shtetl Band Amsterdam
Tel: +31 6 5881 4871

E-mail: info@sba-klezmer.com

You can use the contact form for receiving a price quote or to ask about our availability for a performance.

20 Sept. 2013, Den Bosch (NL)
De Toonzaal: concert 'The Klezmer Village'

26 Sept. 2013, Baarn (NL)
Klezmerfestival
concert 'The Klezmer Village', with clarinetist Christian Dawid

Klezmer band Shtetl Band Amsterdam: CD The Klezmer Village, jewish music, village klezmer, Yiddish roots music
A beautiful mix of very old melodies and new compositions. Newly rediscoverd tunes are heard for the first time in 90 years and well known klezmer classics are played with that deep and energetic village sound.
"... moving, lyrical melodies, played in an intimate, non-pretentious and emotional way [...] awfully gorgeous, so enormously beautiful" - Moors Magazine
The Klezmer Village: Jewish music, village klezmer, Christian Dawid, clarinet
Ages old sounds from 'Fiddler-on-the-roof villages', freshly performed by Shtetl Band Amsterdam together with the exceptional clarinetist Christian Dawid (Berlin).
"Klezmer music in its purest form"
– NIW, Jewish weekly