Yale Strom
Yitztyco@aol.com
 www.yalestrom.com

"Through his art, Strom has brought back his spiritual Klezmer ancestors"
-TIME magazine

"Yale Strom is a klezmer whirlwind."
-The Valley Advocate -Northhampton , MA

"Like a Yiddish Indiana Jones, Strom continues to dig up artifacts of Jewish music, introducing audiences to something they might have missed."
- San Diego Jewish Journal

"Strom and his band hot klezmer, kinetic energy flaying in all directions."
-Time Out - NYC

Yale Strom (violin, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer, playwright) is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities.  Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music among these two groups.  Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present.  From more than 2 decades and 70 such research expeditions, Strom has become the world's leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer music and history. 



His klezmer research was instrumental in helping form the repertoires of his klezmer band, Hot Pstromi in New York and San Diego .  Since Strom'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 and dance  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 twelve CDs run the gamut of traditional klezmer to "new" Jewish music.   His CD, Garden of Yidn , debuted in the Top 20 of Canada's major music critic's poll.  His CD, Klezmer:  Cafe Jew Zoo was released by Naxos World Records in June of 2003 to international acclaim. Strom has performed with many world renown musicians including Andy Statman, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark O'Connor, Alicia Svigals, Salman Ahmad, et al. 



Yale Strom was the first klezmer violinist to be invited to instruct master classes at both the American String Teachers Association and the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp. Strom's research has also resulted in photo documentary books, documentary films, as well as CD recordings.  He is the author of The Book of Klezmer: The History, The Music, The Folklore ( 2002)" is a 400 page history with original photos and sheet music gathered by Strom during his sixty-plus ethnographic trips to Central and Eastern Europe.  A Wandering Feast: A Journey Through the Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe written in collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Schwartz, is part cookbook, part travelogue (2005). He is also the author of   The Absolutely Complete Klezmer Songbook (2006).   His first children's book The Black Wedding will be published in 2008.



New York 's Jewish Week writes: “He's a gifted photographer and author, a talented documentary filmmaker and has his own klezmer band... Strom's multifaceted career is a wonder, and his work schedule is downright fiendish.”  He has directed  six award-winning documentary films ( At the Crossroads, The Last Klezmer, and Carpati:  50 miles, 50 Years.  L'Chaim 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.  The Last Klezmer was short-listed for an Academy Award, Klezmer on Fish Stree t won the 2003 Palm Beach International Film festival's Special Jury Selection award.  He directed the documentary A Man from Munkacs:  Gypsy Klezmer for  Hungary 's Duna Television, and is in pre -production on the feature film Canary and the documentary Detroit:  In Black and White . Most recently, he is in post-production on the feature documentary “The Harry Agganis Story”.



His 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 and group photo exhibits (depicting Jewish and Rom life) throughout the U.S. and Europe .   His photos are part of many collections including Beth Hatefusoth, The Skirball Museum, The Jewish Museum of NYC, The Frankfurt Jewish Museum and the The Museum of Photographic Arts .



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 ).  His new play Verdigis   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 May 31, 2004 issue of Time Magazine for this play, and the scholarship behind it.



Strom has lectured extensively throughout the Untied States and Europe and taught at NYU for the 4 years, where he created the course “Artist-Ethnographer Expeditions”.   He is on the advisory board of  the Center for Jewish Creativity, based in Los Angeles .  At present he is Artist-in-Residence in the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University .



Strom is the guest curator for the Eldridge Street Project's A Great Day on Eldridge Street-- a musical and photographic celebration of the newly restored Eldridge Street Synagogue that will take place in October 2007 with a parade, a historic archival photo shoot, numerous panels and performances and a New York statewide tour.

Yale Strom is an affiliate artist of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity