Presenting

Since 1982 The Wholesale Klezmer Band has performed traditional music for Jewish weddings and other simkhes, celebrations, on the concert stage and at school and college educational programs. These include performances and workshops at the Rural Judaism Conference, the Conference for the Advancement of Jewish Education, New England Festival of Folk Arts (NEFFA), the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall, hosted by Pete Seeger, and at the inauguration of President Clinton.

The band's repertoire includes klezmer dance music, Yiddish folk songs, Yiddish theater and vaudeville songs, and original compositions. Wholesale Klezmer makes its songs accessible to the English-speaking world with translations, stories, explanations or visual aids.

The Wholesale Klezmer Band performs music for both Jewish and general audiences that expresses Jewish values of justice and peace. By introducing Jewish music and culture to young audiences of diverse ethnic groups, religions and races they work to foster intercultural understanding.

The Wholesale Klezmer Band members are Yosl (Joe) Kurland, (vocals), Margo Leverett, (clarinet), Aaron Bousel (accordion), Brian Bender (trombone), Peggy Davis (flute & vocals), and Joanna Morse (fiddle).

We honor Sherry Mayrent, our long-time clarinetist and music director, and remember David Tasgal z"l who played clarinet and fiddle with us for many years, both of whom are heard on Wholesale recordings.

For information and bookings, call Joe Kurland at 413-624-3204 or e-mail at wkb@ganeydn.com

Yosl Kurland (vocals, dance leading, workshop leader) began singing Yiddish folk songs in his teens and later studied Yiddish at the university level. He founded the Wholesale Klezmer Band in 1982 and studied Yiddish singing and instrumental music with master teachers at KlezKamp and KlezKanada, learning the relationships between traditional folk and prayer singing and instrumental styles. Yosl volunteered for the role of High Holiday cantor at Temple Israel, Greenfield, MA, drawing upon his childhood memories and learning from traditional cantors, and recordings of early 20th-century cantors. A composer of Yiddish songs and of melodies for Hebrew prayers, his songs were twice selected for the Shalshelet International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music. Yosl created a complete set of Shabbos services using klezmer melodies, which the Wholesale Klezmer Band accompanies. He teaches classes on Klezmer Instrumental Style and Yiddish for Singers. He played fiddle for many years but now plays the baritone horn.

Margot Leverett (clarinet) is one of the foremost clarinetists of the klezmer revival. Classically trained at Indiana University School of Music, she was involved in avant-garde music when she first heard klezmer, the dynamic East European music traditionally played at Jewish weddings. Leverett was a founding member of the Klezmatics in 1985 before moving on to launch a solo career. Her first CD, "The Art of Klezmer Clarinet," is a tribute to classic Klezmer of the 20's and 30's, and was released in 2001 on Traditional Crossroads (CD4296) to glowing reviews. She tours internationally and has performed and taught traditional and original klezmer music at festivals and workshops around the world.

Aaron Bousel (accordion) began playing the instrument at age ten, though it wasn't until 1995 that he began to play klezmer. He has participated in workshops at Klez Kanada in Quebec and Yidstock at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. Soon after moving to Amherst, MA in 1997 he became accordionist for the band Hu Tsa Tsa, playing at many b'nai mitzvah, weddings, and local synagogue functions. He is accordionist for the Yiddishkeit Klezmer ensemble, has accompanied Mak'hela, the Jewish chorus of Western Mass., and performed as part of the Tunes at Noon series at the Amherst Survival Center. Aaron is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany. He worked as a piano technician, a graduate of the Piano Technology program at the North Bennett Street School in Boston and a Registered Piano Technician of The Piano Technicians Guild.

Peggy Davis (flute, vocals) grew up in Minneapolis, where she studied flute and guitar. She listened to recorded Yiddish songs and first met native singers when working with Russian Jewish immigrants during their stays in Italy, many of whom spoke with her in Yiddish, which she had begun studying at the YIVO Institute. In Minnesota, she was a founder of a band, "Yiddishe Folksmenshn" and sang Balkan folk songs in the Ethnic Dance Theatre Choir. She taught calligraphy classes and childen's activities at KlezKamp, and has taught in public and Hebrew schools. Peggy is a calligrapher in Hebrew, Yiddish and English.
Of klezmer, she says, "I think of the music as having been written in Yiddish, even if there are no words attached to it.''

Brian Bender (trombone) who hails from California, graduated from the New England Conservatory's Third Stream Studies Department, with an emphasis on Jewish music.
He says, "Klezmer has become the most meaningful way that I can experience being Jewish as a professional musician. It is a great honor to be involved in the revitalization of a culture." The trombone's role in klezmer is a fascinating one, says Brian, because it shifts from a pure bass line to rhythm to a tenor counter-line to pure melody.
Brian also actively plays jazz, Dixieland, reggae, rhythm and blues, Latin , Celtic, Brazilian and other music, and teaches trombone, trumpet and piano, as well as klezmer and jazz ensembles.

Joanna Morse (violin) began playing with the Wholesale Klezmer Band in 2015. She grew up steeped in the traditions of English and American traditional music and dance. After studying classical violin at Wesleyan University, Joanna began playing for English and contra dances in New England in 1999, with a focus on Quebecois repertoire. Her dance experience now energizes Yiddish dance, and she performs with the Wholesale Klezmer Band and the Yiddishkeit Klezmer Ensemble. When not playing fiddle, Joanna teaches history, religious studies and civics to middle school students.

We are often accompanied by a guest bass player and at present enjoy performing with Joe Blumenthal of Northampton MA.

Zikhrono l'vrakha

We mourn the loss of multi-instrumentalist David Tasgal z"l (violin, clarinet, bass, piano). He had performed in string quartets, marching bands, jazz ensembles, symphony orchestras and rock groups before joining Wholesale in 1998. Originally from Springfield, Mass., David studied clarinet, piano and cello, and later learned bass and violin. He taught stringed instruments and led and composed music for youth orchestras. Like many American Jews, he said, "I was suffering from a lot of cultural alienation. Playing with Wholesale filled an important need for me, especially when I saw how much the audiences appreciate being put in touch with a little Yiddishkeit. I think this kind of music is not just entertaining but of real importance because it delivers the easily forgotten message that there is fun in Judaism. In my spare time," said David, "I occasionally like to put on tefillin."
His memory is a blessing.