Joel Rubin
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Joel Rubin (U.S.), clarinet, has long been considered by many to be the leading performer 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. He studied with Stoltzman and Kalmen Opperman, attended the California Institute of the Arts and received a BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase. Rubin holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from City University (London) for his pioneering work on improvisation and ornamentation in klezmer clarinet music. He is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Music Performance at the University of Virginia’s McIntire Department of Music, and has taught at Cornell, Syracuse University, Ithaca College, and Humboldt University in Berlin.
In addition to appearances with traditional performers such as the Epstein Brothers, Moshe “Musa” Berlin, Seymour Rexsite and Miriam Kressyn, Leon Schwartz, Sid Beckerman, Pete Sokolow, Danny Rubinstein, Ben Bazyler, and Leopold Kozlowski, he was the founder and clarinetist of some of the most internationally respected klezmer ensembles, including the pioneering revival group Brave Old World. Rubin’s albums Beregovski’s Khasene (Beregovski’s Wedding), Bessarabian Symphony, Zeydes un Eyniklekh (Grandfathers and Grandsons) and Hungry Hearts are considered to be masterpieces of classical Eastern European and American Jewish music. His music can be heard in several films, and the award-winning documentary portrait A Tickle in the Heart (Germany/Switz./USA 1996) about the Epstein Brothers Orchestra is based on his research and screenplay. Rubin has concertized throughout Europe, North America and Asia. As a clinician, he has taught together with Opperman and Stoltzman at the Clarinet Summit (2004) and held master classes and workshops at numerous institutions, including the New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and for the Israeli and Berlin Ministries of Education. Rubin is the co-author of the books Klezmer-Musik (Bärenreiter/dtv, 1999) and Jüdische Musiktraditionen (Jewish Musical Traditions; Gustav Bosse-Verlag, 2001), the author of Mazltov! Jewish-American Wedding Music for Clarinet (Schott Musik International, 1998), and the co-curator of the ongoing Jewish Music Series of CDs for Schott’s Wergo label (www.wergo.de).
