David Krakauer

02.18.08 | Feb 20 - World Premiere Commision by David Krakauer and Socalled
Feb 20, 2008 @ 7pm
Winter Garden, World Financial Center

World Premiere Commission
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
music composed and performed by
DAVID KRAKAUER & SOCALLED

For the first musical score commissioned by arts > World Financial Center, clarinet powerhouse David Krakauer and beat scientist Socalled were invited and given artistic liberty to create a new score for a silent film of their choice. They found their inspiration on a Klezmer Heritage Cruise that traveled down the Ukraine’s Dnieper River, stopping in cities along the way to explore the remaining Jewish communities and perform. A visit to the legendary city of Odessa, the location for Sergei Eisenstein’s classic, The Battleship Potemkin, was the catalyst for these musicians’ first-time collaborative film composition.

Commissioned for arts > World Financial Center 20th Birthday.

This performance is part of New Sounds Live, which is curated by John Schaefer, host and producer of WNYC Radio’s popular shows New Sounds and Soundcheck.

10.16.07 | Upcoming European tour and other dates...
We've updated the Concerts section of the site to include the upcoming European tour for Klezmer Madness! in November, plus lots of solo dates for David, and some exciting upcoming shows for Abraham Inc. featuring David and funk legend Fred Wesley with Socalled. Check out the Concerts page for all the latest!

03.26.07 | New concerts added for spring and summer 2007!
Check out the Concerts page for recently added spring and summer shows for David Krakauer and Klezmer Madness!

03.10.07 | David Krakauer performs with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
David Krakauer will be guest soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic for the New York premiere of the string orchestra version of Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind on March 10, 2007 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). David’s seminal recording of the chamber version of Dreams… with the Kronos Quartet garnered rave reviews. Click the link below to purchase advance tickets.

02.26.07 | Klezmer Podcast
Check out the new interview with David Krakauer and Socalled on Klezmer Podcast, hosted by Keith Wolzinger. Click the link below to listen.

12.02.06 | DAVID KRAKAUER'S 50TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT ZANKEL HALL WITH SPECIAL GUEST FRED WESLEY!
In celebration of his 50th birthday, clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer takes his mission of revitalizing klezmer one step further in a collaboration with one of the great masters of funk/jazz, trombonist Fred Wesley-known for his work with James Brown, Bootsy Collins, and Parliament Funkadelic. This concert marks the world premiere of this new collaborative project between Krakauer and Wesley and will feature David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! ensemble, complete with hip-hop beat architect Socalled, and a three-piece horn section led by Wesley. The result is an all-out klezmer-funk dance party!

Concert: Saturday, December 2, 2006 at 7:30 pm at Zankel Hall. Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 PM in Zankel Hall: David Krakauer in conversation with John Schaefer, host of WNYC's Soundcheck and New Sounds. More information and tickets available at CarnegieHall.org

11.29.06 | Village Voice - Zankel Hall Concert Preview
Check out the great preview of David's upcoming sold-out Zankel Hall concert in the Village Voice...

Alt-Klez With Oblique, Demented Class
David Krakauer & Socalled With Klezmer Madness!

David Krakauer's latest foray into techno-klezmer has three things going for it that most alt-klez does not. The first is Krakauer himself, a classically trained clarinetist with a vibrato as wide as a Bulgarian wedding singer's. The second is his Klezmer Madness ensemble, a gang of downtown jazzers and lowdown groove merchants that can segue seamlessly from freilach to funk to free-jazz freakout. (Witness "Bus Number 9999," a deranged ode to public transportation featuring poet 99 Hooker.) The third is Socalled, a Montreal DJ whose massive Jewfro conceals one of the most deliciously demented minds in beat science. To hear him layer old-school klezmer and Romanian pan pipes over go-go rhythms on "Moskovitz and Loops of It"—or shuttle between James Brown riffs and wailing clarinet on "B Flat à la Socalled"—is to hear two very different ghettos slamming headlong into each other. The results are thoroughly contemporary yet strangely sepia-toned, with an oblique political subtext: The bubbemeises in question refer to both quaint old wives' tales and the pernicious falsehoods peddled by governments. The music, however, is as righteous as can be. -by Alexander Gelfand, Village Voice (November 28th, 2006)

11.28.06 | Bubbemeises featured on The World
David's latest CD Bubbemeises: Lies My Gramma Told Me was featured on the PRI nationally syndicated radio program THE WORLD. Clink on the link to listen to the podcast.

11.09.06 | Welcome to the new DavidKrakauer.com!
Welcome to the newly redesigned DavidKrakauer.com. We'll be continuing to update the new site frequently, so please take a look around and come back often. Hope you enjoy!