Biography
Centuries-old klezmer traditions, first carried by wandering Jewish musicians across Eastern Europe, find fresh extension through saxophonist, pianist, and composer Hankus Netsky together with his ensemble, the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Performing numbers in Yiddish, the group weaves an array of outside influences into its Jewish dance repertoire. Netsky, who chairs the jazz studies department at the New England Conservatory of Music, assembled the band in Boston during 1980. As grandson and nephew of 1920s klezmer players, he drew the idea from spontaneous Irish-music sessions and sought to replicate that approach with klezmer material. What began as a single concert drew such strong approval that the ensemble became ongoing. Several members were drawn from the Conservatory’s third-stream program. Although New York-born lead singer Judy Bressler already represented a third-generation line of Jewish-music performers, most of the other musicians arrived from jazz or folk backgrounds. The band appeared in the 1988 documentary A Jumpin’ Night in the Garden of Eden. It later supplied the scores for Enemies, A Love Story, Joel Grey’s Yiddish revue Berschtcapades ’94, and the children’s video The Fool and the Flying Ship, narrated by Robin Williams. Additional partnerships with the American Repertory Theater and the American Music Theater Festival yielded the stage musical Shlemiel the First, adapted from an I.B. Singer play. Beyond leading the Klezmer Conservatory Band and instructing at the New England Conservatory, Netsky serves on the faculty of the Yiddish Folk Arts Institute and has offered courses in Yiddish music at Hebrew College.
Albums
