Big Galute

Winner of the Simcha Prize at the 2017 International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, Big Galut(e) has been described as 'soulful and unselfconsciously poignant', 'jubilant', 'a real treat for open minds', and 'a serious band with lousy American humor'. Big Galut(e) performs a unique repertoire of Jewish music spanning five continents and six ce... nturies. Highlights of the 2017 season include appearances in Amsterdam, at the prestigious Glimmerglass Festival, and on the New York Klezmer Series. Noted by critics for "the virtuosity of its members", the band has been heard on APMs Performance Today, PRI's The World, and WNYC's New Sounds, among many radio and TV outlets. The band has appeared as soloists with orchestra, at the National Yiddish Book Center, at chamber music venues (sharing season series with Dawn Upshaw and Zuill Bailey, among others), at colleges from Stanford to Oberlin to Hebrew Union, and at temples, synagogues, and JCCs from Hawaii to the East Coast. Big Galut(e)'s repertoire includes Klezmer originals and new twists on old tunes; classical pieces by Mahler, Musorgsky, Brahms, Shostakovich, Salomone Rossi, and Kurt Weill; tangos from Buenos Aires and Broadway; comical songs; and much more. They offer a variety of programs: Classical-folk programs, designed for museums and chamber music series, and presenting works that exist in the borderland between Jewish and Roma folk music, and the classical world (e.g. by Mahler, Shostakovich, Brahms, Musorgsky) Workshops for college students and adult amateurs, culminating in old-fashioned klezmer play-alongs Clarinetist Robin Seletsky is a multi-faceted performer with interests in the classical music world as well as folk and avant garde styles. After graduating from New England Conservatory she attended the Juilliard School and for many years was Principal Clarinetist with the Binghamton Philharmonic and the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. In 2008 she was cited by the New York Times for her work with Glimmerglass: "Robin Seletsky, the principal ...Read More