| B i o g r a p h y |
David Krakauer
(born November 22, 1956) is an American clarinetist raised and based in
New York, NY. He is known for his work in klezmer music as well as
classical music and avant-garde improvisation. He is also considered an
accomplished jazz player. Krakauer's performance career focused on jazz
and classical music before he joined the Klezmatics in 1988. He sees
klezmer as his "musical home," saying "I can write music within klezmer,
improvise, do experimental stuff, be an interpreter and a
preservationist. Every side of me can be fulfilled within this form."
In 1996, he formed his own band Klezmer Madness! While firmly rooted in
traditional klezmer folk tunes, the band “hurls the tradition of klezmer
music into the rock era.” Klezmer Madness! has toured internationally
to major venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, the Library of
Congress, Stanford Lively Arts, San Francisco Performances, Hancher
Auditorium, the Krannert Center, the Venice Biennale, Kraków Jewish
Culture Festival, BBC Proms, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, La Cigale, the
Marciac festival, WOMEX, the New Morning in Paris and many others. In
2001, the rapper Socalled gave him an album that blended klezmer and
hip-hop rhythms. Impressed by how "clever and funky it was," Krakauer
incorporated Socalled into Klezmer Madness!, and the group began
attracting a younger audience.
In 2006, Krakauer and Socalled formed the band Abraham Inc. with
trombonist Fred Wesley (James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, Count Basie
Orchestra). Abraham Inc.'s music mixes klezmer, funk, and hip hop. The
band has performed at The Apollo Theater and Symphony Space in New York,
The Krannert Center in Illinois, Hancher Auditorium in Iowa, The Miller
Outdoor Theater in Houston, The Strathmore in Maryland, Cal
Performances, The Heineken Open’r Festival in Poland, The Cracow Jewish
Culture Festival, the Transmusicales de Rennes, and Jazz a la Villette
in Paris. Abraham Inc released the album Tweet Tweet in 2009 on
Krakauer's own Table Pounding Records label. The album peaked at No. 1
in Funk and No. 1 in Jewish and Yiddish Music, and at No. 35 in music
sales on Amazon. It reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Jazz Chart and was
featured at No. 40 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart.
Krakauer has performed with orchestras internationally including the
Dresdener Philharmonie, the Pacific Symphony, the Weimar Staatskapelle,
Detroit Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Colorado Music festival orchestra,
Quebec Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, New World
Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Komische Oper orchestra and the
Orchestre Lamoureux.
The clarinetist has also collaborated with composer Ofer Ben-Amots.
Ben-Amots' composition Klezmer Concerto was specifically written for
Krakauer to perform with string orchestra, harp and percussion.
Other career highlights include touring with the Emerson String Quartet;
performing during the inaugural season of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall
with renowned jazz pianist Uri Caine; an eight-year tenure with the
Naumburg Award-winning Aspen Wind Quintet; tours with Music from
Marlboro; composing the music for Offering, an homage to the victims of
September 11 by modern dance duo Eiko and Koma; numerous performances of
David Del Tredici's Magyar Madness, commissioned by Music Accord for
Krakauer and the Orion String quartet; and performing in the
International Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary Holocaust, A Music
Memorial from Auschwitz with music by Osvaldo Golijov.
Playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner has said "Listening to David
Krakauer had a tremendously powerful effect. It helped me discover
Yiddish again, which was hugely important.”