Klez Fest Midwest

What people are saying about Klez Fest MidWest 2025:

“Thank you so much – we were not familiar with David Krakauer — he and Kathleen and his band — wow — what an incredible gift to experience their artistry and spirit. Deep gratitude.”

“Tsuzamen infused the North Street Cabaret with excitement. Everyone was dancing, either on their ‘feets’ or in their seats.”

“Tsuzamen showed me how brilliantly the oboe and the French horn feature as klezmer instruments – everyone should know this!”

Klez Fest Midwest Events

Klez Fest Midwest
October 23-26, 2025 and March 19, 2026

All events are free and open to the public

Featuring klezmer clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer

Venues:
North Street Cabaret, 610 North Street, Madison

Lee/Kaufman Rehearsal Hall and Collins Recital Hall
Located in the Hamel Music Center
740 University Avenue, Madison

Thursday, October 23

7 pm: Local bands Tsuzamen and Yid Vicious

North Street Cabaret
610 North Street, Madison, WI

Saturday, October 25

4 pm: Lecture/demo by David Krakauer

David Krakauer presents a musical and personal journey through klezmer.

Lee/Kaufman Rehearsal Hall
Hamel Music Center

7:30 pm: SoundWaves, sponsored by the Wisconsin Science Festival

Scales: Atomic and Klezmer

Gaze into the world of the unimaginably small with an evening exploring the atomic scale. What is quantum computing and how does it work? How do atoms in metals organize themselves into hierarchies? As part of Klez Fest Midwest, this special SoundWaves event will feature more live music than ever, with the duo of Krakauer & Tagg, featuring brilliant klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg, performing and explaining what gives klezmer music its characteristic style and sound (it’s all in the scales!).

Swamit Tannu, Computer Sciences

Danny Fredrickson, Chemistry

Daniel Grabois, Music

With special musical guests David Krakauer (clarinet) and Kathleen Tagg (piano)

Collins Recital Hall
Hamel Music Center

Sunday, October 26

11 am: Children’s concert with ELM Duo

Our father-daughter duet has been performing together for over a decade. We are: the award-winning vocalist and fiddle champion Eleanor Mayerfeld (the EL in Elm Duo) and the guitarist and prize-winning composer Mike Bell (the M in Elm Duo). We like to call our style folk cabaret, an eclectic blend of acoustic music from bluegrass to jazz to klezmer and more.

Lee/Kaufman Rehearsal Hall
Hamel Music Center

2 pm: Showcase Concert, David Krakauer’s Lower East Side Legacy

Collins Recital Hall
Hamel Music Center

March 19, 2026

7:30 pm: Laura Elkeslassy and her band

Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile
Singer Laura Elkeslassy and her band present the songs and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from midcentury North Africa

Collins Recital Hall
Hamel Music Center

PERFORMER BIOS

Photo by Collette Benjamin

Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet with his own unique sound and approach, David Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music.

In addition, his work has been recognized by major jazz publications around the world. He received a Grammy nomination as soloist with the conductorless chamber orchestra “A Far Cry“, received the Diapason D’Or in France for The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Osvaldo Golijov and the Kronos Quartet/Nonesuch) and the album of the year award in the jazz category for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for The Twelve Tribes (Label Bleu). Abraham Inc’s Tweet Tweet (co-led by Krakauer with funk legend Fred Wesley and renegade beat architect/multi-instrumentalist Socalled) peaked at #1 in Funk and #1 in Jewish and Yiddish Music, and #35 in music sales on Amazon. It reached #7 in Jazz on Billboard and was featured at #40 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart for fastest sellers.

Grammy-nominated classical, world music artist David Krakauer and South African pianist/composer/producer Kathleen Tagg have created a body of work that defies stylistic confines and embodies a celebration of identity, communication and cross-cultural connection. Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. Tagg is an award-winning pianist, composer and producer who has performed on four continents, produced a catalog of classical, and multi-genre albums, had her work performed around the world, and is becoming known for her distinctive sound that mixes together acoustic and electronic sounds, loops, samples and extended techniques.

Laura Elkeslassy is a singer, actor and educator based in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Paris to a Moroccan and Israeli family, Laura Elkeslassy’s work draws inspiration from her Moroccan roots, exploring North-African folk, Andalusi nubas, and Maghrebi Jewish sacred music from a feminist standpoint. Laura has performed music at countless venues including Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe’s Pub, and has taught sacred as well as folk music across the country.

Yid Vicious has been engaging and delighting audiences throughout the Midwest since 1995. The group has released four CDs and has received numerous Madison Area Music Awards for its unique blend of traditional and contemporary klezmer. In 2009, Yid Vicious became the first performing arts ensemble in Wisconsin to receive a USArtists International grant, to perform at Argentina’s KlezFiesta, an international klezmer festival spanning three cities and including bands from ten countries. Yid Vicious is committed to keeping traditional klezmer music and dance alive, and collaborates frequently with internationally renowned klezmer dance instructor Steve Weintraub. The group has presented concerts, workshops, and clinics at performing arts centers, cultural festivals, universities, and K-12 schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan, and has performed to statewide audiences on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.

Tsuzamen is an indie klezmer band based in Madison, Wisconsin. Performing both original and traditional songs, the group draws from rock, bluegrass, jazz, funk, and other traditions, bringing them into conversation with klezmer and Yiddish music. Tsuzamen means “together” in Yiddish, and the band seeks to build community and connections through its music. Band members include:

Eleanor Mayerfeld, lead vocals
Meg Lamm, violin
Alina Plourde, oboe
Daniel Grabois, French horn and Continuum
Michael Bell, guitar/mandolin/banjo
Samantha Bosco, bass
Todd Hammes, percussion

Father-daughter duet Elm Duo has been performing together for over a decade. We are: the award-winning vocalist and fiddle champion Eleanor Mayerfeld (the EL in Elm Duo) and the guitarist and prize-winning composer Mike Bell (the M in Elm Duo). We like to call our style folk cabaret, an eclectic blend of acoustic music from bluegrass to jazz to klezmer and more.

Mead Witter School of Music

Klez Fest Midwest Events

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