Join us for a beautiful lecture/performance with Abigale Reisman/klezmer violin and Hankus Netsky/piano that honors the rich tradition of the Jewish violin in Eastern Europe. Learn about the complex history, enjoy music for dancing and Yiddish song, and experience the joy of the violin and piano coming together to express the wide range of emotions that klezmer music gives.

With over 15 years of experience playing klezmer music, Abigale Reisman has established herself as an expressive and thoughtful fiddle player with a lot to say. She is particularly interested in mimicking the human voice through the violin and connecting her playing to the rhythms and accents of the Yiddish language. Abigale is a performer, composer, and arranger with the International Jewish Music Festival award-winning band, Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band. She regularly performs in a duo with renowned klezmer scholar and performer Hankus Netsky. Abigale is also a co-founder of Thread Ensemble, an experimental trio that creates music out of interactions with their audiences and a member of Tredici Bacci, which was featured in Rolling Stone’s “10 Artists You Need to Know: November 2016.” Abigale earned her Bachelor's degree at The Manhattan School of Music in Classical Violin Performance and went on to receive her Master's degree at The New England Conservatory in Contemporary Improvisation.

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Hankus Netsky is co-chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. He has composed extensively for film, theater, and television, and collaborated closely with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Brustein.

Abigale Reisman’s website: https://www.abigalereisman.com/about

Hankus Netsky’s website: https://necmusic.edu/faculty/hankus-netsky