Joel Rubin Ensemble
Rubin has long been considered by many to be one of the leading performers of Jewish instrumental klezmer music in the world today, earning accolades from sources as diverse as klezmer giants Dave Tarras and Max Epstein, international clarinet soloist Richard Stoltzman, avant garde composer John Zorn, and Nobel Prize Laureate and poet Roald Hoffmann. Rubin holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from City University (London) for his pioneering work on improvisation and ornamentation in klezmer clarinet music. Rubin has spent the last 14 years in Germany and Eastern Europe researching and performing the old Russian Jewish klezmer tradition.

From  one of the  most famous line of  Roma, (Gypsy) musical families in Hungary, Kalman Balogh is considered to be the greatest living cimbalom (Eastern European hammered dulcimer) virtuoso.  In Midnight Prayer Rubin & Balogh join forces with an all-star ensemble to recreate some of the most fascinating repertoire in the history of Jewish music. In putting together a band with Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) musicians, Rubin’s theory is that the Roma can provide essential insight to klezmer since the two traditions are so interconnected and Gypsies often played with Jews for Jewish events. Midnight Prayer brings together two diverse, yet partially overlapping repertoires: the instrumental music of the klezmorim – the professional Jewish instrumentalists who graced every traditional Jewish wedding in Eastern Europe from at least the 16th century onwards – and the mystical nigunim (religious melodies of spiritual elevation) of the hasidic movement.  Midnight Prayer creates its own sonic universe, full of depth, virtuosity, playfulness and introspection, exposing the many historical layers of traditional Jewish music through the lenses of the multifarious musical backgrounds of the band’s members, ranging from classical to Gypsy to free jazz to contemporary art music. 

1. Khabno 2. Zeydl Rovner 3. Vinnitsa 4. Kiev 5. Brusilov 6. Midnight Prayer 7. Rebbe of Medzhibozh 8. Volynsk 9. Cherniavsky 10. Yosele Tolner 11. Rabinovitsh 12. Nikolaev

Joel Rubin  clarinet Kálmán Balogh   cimbalom  Sándor Budai   violin David Chernyavsky   violin Claudio Jacomucci   accordion Ferenc Kovács   trumpet Csaba Novák   string bass Pete Rushefsky   tsimbl