Klezmer clarinetist Margot Leverett
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Margot Leverett, one of the greatest living exponents of klezmer clarinet, will be joined by her trio for a free concert, open to the public, at The Chatham Synagogue on Friday, May 31, at 7:45pm.
Leverett’s appearance is part of a special musical evening ushering in the Sabbath at the unaffiliated, lay-led house of Jewish worship housed in the former Chatham Town Hall in the hamlet of Chatham Center. The evening service, or Kabbalat Shabbat, begins at 6pm, followed by a light dinner (requiring advance reservations). The klezmer concert will begin at 7:45pm.
A founding member of the Grammy Award-winning modern klezmer group the Klezmatics, a cofounder of the all-women klezmer supergroup Mikveh, and the leader of Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, Leverett has been performing klezmer – the festive music based in the sounds of Eastern-European Jewish wedding bands of the 19thcentury — for more than 40 years. Her current band, Margot Leverett’s New Klezmer Trio, features world-class musicians Ron Caswell on tuba and Matt Schreiber on accordion.
The group will join the Chatham Synagogue’s in-house ensemble — featuring mandolinist Elaine Khosrova, keyboardist Michele Ritholz, vocalist Rachel Weisman, and guitarist Seth Rogovoy — to create a spiritual musical accompaniment for the Friday evening service ushering in the Jewish Sabbath.
Classically trained at Indiana University School of Music, Margot Leverett was involved in avant-garde music when she first heard klezmer. Leverett was a founding member of the Klezmatics before moving on to establish a thriving solo career. Her first solo album, The Art of Klezmer Clarinet, codified the sound of modern klezmer clarinet, much of which Leverett learned directly from immigrant-era klezmer musicians, forming a musical chain connecting her style to the sounds of the Old World. Leverett was a staff instructor at KlezKamp for over 10 years and has also taught at KlezKanada, Klezkamp West, Klezmerquerque, and at colleges, music festivals, and Jewish organizations across the country and in Europe.
For more information, visit the Chatham Synagogue website or phone the synagogue at (518) 392-0710.