The Klezmatics are the only Grammy Award–winning klezmer band and one of the most iconic and adventurous groups in modern Jewish music. Since emerging from New York City’s East Village in 1986, they have led a global revival of klezmer—complete with accordion, alto saxophone, cimbalom, clarinet, kaval, and violin—combining Yiddish tradition with radical sensibilities in jazz, gospel, punk, classical, Latin, and Balkan music. In addition to celebrating their 40th anniversary, The Klezmatics return to their acclaimed revivals of Woody Guthrie’s original lyrics from the 1940s that redefined Jewish-American musical storytelling. This holiday program builds on the ensemble’s 2006 recording Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah, a collection of a dozen songs by the folk singer in collaboration with the Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt. Living in Brooklyn, Guthrie immersed himself in the Coney Island Jewish community and became devoted to sharing the spirit of Hanukkah and Jewish history in song.
