Schmaltz & Pepper made their auspicious debut at Toronto Summer season Music in 2024. Since then, together with performing, they’ve been within the recording studio arising with their first launch as an ensemble.
The concept is to fuse components of classical chamber music, jazz, klezmer, and Yiddish swing into a novel sound.
The album is self-titled, and consists of 11 tracks. The album launch occasion can be held on Could 18 at Heliconian Corridor.
Schmaltz & Pepper is made up of Eric Abramovitz, the principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist and arranger Drew Jurecka, violinist/vocalist/composer Rebekah Wolkstein, JUNO-nominated bassist Michael Herring, and JUNO-award successful pianist Jeremy Ledbetter.
The items on the forthcoming are written by members of the ensemble, together with Eric Abramovitz’s Stirring the Pot, impressed by the heat of a bustling kitchen throughout Jewish holidays, and Mozart the Mensch, which re-imagines what the Viennese composer may need seemed like if he had been Jewish.
Rebekah Wolkstein contributes a number of tracks, together with a number of written with husband/violinist Drew Jurecka. The Yiddish Bullfighter is a chunk impressed by the actual life determine of Sidney Franklin (Sidney Frumkin), an Orthodox Jew from the Bronx who grew to become a revered bullfighter in Spain. Her Gefilte Fugue takes a klezmer motif and offers it a Bach-style remedy.
Schmaltz & Pepper: Members
Eric Abramovitz: Clarinet, Composer, Arranger, Co-leader/Founder
Eric Abramovitz is a local of Montreal, the place he graduated from McGill College’s Schulich College of Music with a Bachelor’s diploma, adopted by graduate research on the College of Southern California. He grew to become the Affiliate Principal and E-flat Clarinet of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2018, and was appointed Principal Clarinet in 2021. Eric has additionally held positions with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Barbara Symphony, and infrequently performs as visitor principal clarinetist with the Canadian Opera Firm Orchestra and the Nationwide Ballet of Canada Orchestra.
Rebekah Wolkstein: Violin/Vocals/Composer/Co-leader/Founder
Rebekah is a chamber musician, and founder and chief of Payadora Tango Ensemble. Payadora’s third CD, titled Silent Tears: The Final Yiddish Tango, which prominently featured Wolkstein’s compositions and violin efficiency, reached No. 1 on the European World Music Charts. Rebekah studied violin on the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Doctorate in Violin Efficiency from the College of Toronto.
Drew Jurecka: Producer, Arranger, Multi-Instrumentalist, Composer
Drew Jurecka is a flexible multi-instrumentalist, and a GRAMMY-nominated producer and arranger. He studied violin on the Cleveland Institute of Music, and on graduating, he went on tour with Jeff Healey’s ‘ Jazz Wizards’ band for five years. He’s a busy session musician and arranger, and has contributed to tracks on over 300 albums, together with artists like Dua Lipa, Dermott Kennedy, Mastodon, Ron Sexsmith, Jill Barber, Donovan Woods, and others.
Jeremy Ledbetter: Piano
Over a 35 yr profession as a performer, and greater than twenty years as a musical director, bandleader, producer and arranger, Jeremy Ledbetter has studied, carried out, and produced music in 26 international locations on 5 continents. The JUNO Award-winning pianist performs repeatedly with a wide range of excessive profile ensembles, together with the Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, the Larnell Lewis Band, Wealthy Brown’s Abeng, the Pleasure Lapps Undertaking, David Rudder (Trinidad), Eliana Cuevas (Venezuela), OKAN (Cuba), Mark Kelso’s Jazz Exiles (Canada), Alexis Baro (Cuba), Marito Marques (Portugal), and others.
Michael Herring: Bass
JUNO-nominated double-bassist and composer Jeremy Ledbetter writes and performs throughout a number of genres, together with jazz, people, world, and pop/rock. He performs and contributes authentic music to varied ensembles, together with the Michael Herring Quartet, Method North, a collaboration with Petr Cancura, Rebecca Hennessy and Richie Barshay, and jazz ensemble Peripheral Imaginative and prescient. The latter has recorded six albums. He has additionally carried out and recorded with musicians equivalent to Joel Frahm, Ernesto Cervini, Kevin Breit, Ab Baars (ICP/Amsterdam), Dave Clark, David Braid, Mansa Sissoko (Mali, Africa), Kevin Turcotte, Bucky Pizzarelli, Percy Sledge, and Ernest Ranglin, amongst others.
- Discover extra particulars and tickets for the Could 18 album launch [HERE].
In the event you can’t make it on the 18th, Schmaltz & Pepper can be showing at festivals throughout Canada in summer season 2025, together with Toronto Summer season Music, Ottawa Chamberfest, Stratford Summer season Music, Elora Music Competition, and the Tuckamore Competition in Newfoundland.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
