YALE STROM
Director, Composer, Musician, Writer and Photographer

Yale Strom was a pioneer among klezmer 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. In the more than two decades since his initial ethnographic trip, Yale Strom has become the world’s leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer.

MUSIC:

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. Since Yale’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 top composers of Jewish music to carry on the tradition of writing original songs, with Yiddish lyrics, about humanitarian and social issues. His CD, “Garden of Yidn”, debuted in the Top 20 on Canada’s major music critic’s poll (Mundial) and has been hailed by Sing Out! Magazine as “a landmark in modern Yiddish song.” His CD, “Klezmer: Café Jew Zoo” was released by Naxos World Records in June of 2003 to international acclaim. In autumn 2005 he will have a new CD out on the Global Village Music label called “DVEYKES.” This cd will feature Yale’s new klezmer/jazz/improvisational compositions with world renown jazz musicians Mark Dresser and Marty Ehrlich.

Yale’s violin has been heard on numerous recordings and soundtracks. He was the first klezmer violinist in history to be invited to instruct master classes at both the American String Teachers Association and the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp.

Yale has been hailed as “a commanding bandleader and composer” (Pulse! Magazine), “one of the best klezmer musicians in the country” (Houston Public News) and “an all-around musical visionary” (Seth Rogovoy). Dirty Linen sums it up most concisely: “Yale Strom is a Jewish roots trip unto himself”.

BOOKS:

Strom’s research has also resulted in nine books (including “The Last Jews of Eastern Europe” and “Uncertain Roads: Searching for the Gypsies”. He was the first photographer since Roman Vishniac to publish photographs of Jews in the Eastern Bloc countries. His “The Book of Klezmer: The History, The Music, The Folklore”, a 400-page history with original photos and sheet music gathered by Yale during his 60+ ethnographic trips to Central and Eastern Europe, was published by A Cappella Books in September, 2002; this was soon followed by the publication of the world’s first “Music Minus One” Instructional Guide to Klezmer (Universal Edition, Vienna Austria, April 2004). Strom’s most recent book, written in collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Schwartz, is “A Wandering Feast: A Journey Through the Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe” (Jossey-Bass Publishers, January 2005). Strom’s newest book “The Absolute Complete Klezmer Songbook will be published Nov. 2005 by Transcontinental Music.

FILM:

Strom has directed five award-winning documentary films (“At the Crossroads”, “The Last Klezmer,” “Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years”, “L’Chayim, Comrade Stalin!” and “Klezmer on Fish Street”) and has composed music for countless others. He was the first documentary filmmaker in history to be given his own run at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Walter Reade Theatre, where “The Last Klezmer” broke previous box office records; this record was only exceeded by “Carpati”’s run there. Both films went on to strong theatrical runs both in the U.S. and abroad, and were featured on major Top Ten Lists (The Last Klezmer on the N.Y. Post’s for 1994, and Carpati on the San Diego Union Tribune’s for 1997). “The Last Klezmer” was short-listed for an Academy Award. “Klezmer on Fish Street” won the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival’s Special Jury Selection award. He has just completed the documentary “A Man From Munkacs:The Gypsy Klezmer ” for a German-Hungarian production company, and is in pre-production on the feature film “Canary” and the documentary “Detroit: In Black & White”.

PHOTO EXHIBITS:

Strom’s solo photo exhibit, “The Rom of Ridgewood”, about Gypsy communities in Queens, New York, was mounted at the Queens Museum of Art; he has had numerous solo exhibits throughout the U.S. and Europe (complete exhibition list upon request). His solo exhibit of portraits of klezmer musicians in Bessarabia, “Klezmorim”, is currently touring throughout Europe.

PLAYS:

Strom’s original stage play, “…from man… to beast… to crawling thing…”, was given a fully-staged workshop in June of 2001 by the Streisand Festival (La Jolla, California) and has been optioned for production. His new play, “Verdigris” (formally Yiske Labushnik) was workshopped by the San Diego Rep, North Coast Rep as well as in New York City, Connecticut and Los Angeles. Yale was featured in the 5/31/04 issue of Time Magazine for this play, and the scholarship behind it.

Strom has lectured extensively throughout the US and Europe, and has taught at NYU for the past 4 years. He is on the advisory board of the Gallatin School at NYU and the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, based in Los Angeles.