The Shirim Klezmer Orchestra delivers an uncommon blend of traditions by refreshing longstanding klezmer melodies through buoyant contemporary rhythms. In parallel, the group recasts selections from Mahler, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky in its own klezmer idiom. Its Newport Classic album Klezmer Nutcracker showcases precisely this treatment of Tchaikovsky. Woody Allen drew on the ensemble’s singular timbre for the soundtrack of Deconstructing Harry. Festival appearances have included Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival of New Yiddish Culture, New Jersey’s Cape May Music Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Fest, while concert halls have ranged from Lincoln Center and the Smithsonian Institute to New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club and Jewish Museum, the Chicago Cultural Center, and Boston’s Berklee Performance Center, among numerous additional sites.
Clarinetist Glenn Dickson, trombonist David Harris, pianist Michael McLaughlin, banjoist and guitarist Pete Fitzpatrick, tuba player Jim Gray, and drummer Eric Rosenthal make up the current lineup; every member also participates in Naftule’s Dream. Dickson, who received a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant in 1997, has guided the orchestra for more than a decade and maintains a concurrent affiliation with the rock band Hypnotic Clambake. Harris earned the same council grant in 1997, directs the ensemble Brass Planet, and has collaborated with the Klezmer Conservatory Band as well as Les Miserables Brass Band. Fitzpatrick leads the Boston rock outfit Pee Wee Fist, which he founded, and has appeared with Hypnotic Clambake plus the groups 27, Mary Timony, and Clem Snide. McLaughlin likewise belongs to Pee Wee Fist; outside that project he composes and supplies piano for the performance-art collective Terra Nova, with his arrangements and original works having been presented by the Newton Symphony, Boston Chamber Ensemble, Trio Capriccio, and Arden String Quartet. Gray has performed on tuba with the Paramount Brass, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and Canton Symphony. Rosenthal concentrates on free jazz apart from Shirim, having worked with David Gross, Bhob Rainey, Anthony Braxton, Jack Wright, and Dave Bryant, among others, and has recorded with Hypnotic Clambake, the Pakula/Karayorgis Quartet, and Either/Orchestra.
