Internationally renowned klezmer trombonist Dan Blacksberg sits down for in-depth and informal conversations with musicians and other artists whose work has made them an integral part of the klezmer world. Listeners get to go behind the scenes of the lives and work of the individual artists, and the modern history of klezmer music. We’ll talk about memorable moments in our artistic development, bring up wild performance stories, and ruminate what it’s like to be connected to this international community that makes up the klezmer world.
The Team
Dan Blacksberg – Host
In addition to creating the Radiant Others Podcast, trombonist, composer, and educator Dan Blacksberg is leading klezmer musician in the field and preeminent klezmer trombonist active today. His album of original and traditional klezmer, also titled Radiant Others was the first klezmer album to feature the trombone as the primary lead instrument. Dan’s work in bringing the traditional klezmer trombone style and his work creating a new contemporary melodic style for the trombone in klezmer music is in high demand by students and performers. Dan has led the instrumental program at Yiddish New York with Deb Strauss, and is a mainstay at many Jewish music festivals such as Klezkanada. As a performer, he regularly works with Michael WInograd and Susan Watts, and has performed with Frank London, Adrienne Cooper, Elaine Hoffman-Watts, and was a founding member of the klezmer and Lautari super-group, The Other Europeans.
His own projects in Ashkenazi Jewish music, Dan finds unique kinships between the sounds and practices of Yiddish music and other, far-flung styles. These include the bands Electric Simcha, which combined classic Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish Wedding music with the sound of Hardcore Punk Rock, Deveykus, which combined trance-inducing, devotional Hasidic melodies with Doom Metal and Drone music, and his jazz and Jewish music suite Name Of The Sea, which was commissioned by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Dan also is a respected voice in the jazz and experimental music communities, where he has contributed to the world of free jazz with his Dan Blacksberg Trio, to new music with duo Archer Spade, to noise music with duo Superlith. In addition he has worked closely with musicians like Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, and experimental bands like Liturgy and The Body.
A 2012 Pew Fellow in the Performing Arts, Dan has been awarded a UCross Fellowship, and Subito and Community Partners grants from the American Composers Forum.
Beila Ungar – Producer
