Alex Jacobowitz Biography

Alex Jacobowitz (born 19 May 1960 in New York) is a classically trained street performer who plays the marimba and xylophone.

New York

During the 1980s and 1990s he played in New York City, including at the Lincoln Center's "Meet the Artist" program, Yeshiva University, Zabar's, Central Park, the 84th Street Synagogue, International House, the New York Hilton, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Coney Island's "Sideshows by the Seashore". He was an Official Street Performer at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, a member of Musicians Under New York, and Young Audiences of Rochester. He has performed at Arts Councils and Imagination Celebrations throughout New York State. He has performed on Entertainment Tonight, and has been an artist-in-residence at Artpark (New York) and Holland Village (Japan).

Europe

In 1991, he moved to Europe, mainly performing in Germany, and living in Berlin. Jacobowitz performed classic and Jewish traditional music on German television (ARD, ZDF, Third Programmes), and occasionally in Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Russia and Ukraine. In 2006, he was invited to perform at the Busker's Festival in Ferrara, Italy. Since 2015 he has been accepted into the Artists' Program of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland).

Klezmer

In 1994, he began the study of traditional Jewish instrumental music (klezmer) with Giora Feidman. In 1997, he saw Brave Old World in concert, and trained under Alan Bern, their musical director.

Solo klezmer appearances include festivals in Jerusalem, Schleswig-Holstein, Safed, Krakw, Frth, Bamberg, synagogues throughout Germany, including Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, Chabad Houses in Prague, Geneva, Zrich, the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Hackescher Hoftheater in Berlin, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Kibbutz Ma'ale HaChamisha, and settlement Mitzpe Jericho.

He has performed with Shelly Lang's Neshoma Orchestra (NYC), the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Kammerphilharmoniker. He has performed Jewish music at Pisa's Jewish Festival (Italy, 2011) Sydney's Shir Madness festival (Australia, 2010), the Warsaw Jewish Festival (Poland, 2012), the Trondheim Jewish Culture Festival (Norway, 2012), the Dsseldorf Jewish Film Festival (2012, Germany), the Budapest Jewish Film Festival (Hungary, 2012) and the 4th Munich (Mnchen) Jdische Filmtage (Jewish Film Festival, January 2013), the Jewish Cultural Days in Vienna (2014), Jewish Week in Leipzig (2015).

Since 2010 he has been performing klezmer music with violinists Yona (Stas) Rayko or Mark Kovnatskiy at Jewish cultural festivals throughout Europe. His book Ein Klassischer Klezmer: Reisegeschichten eines jdischen Musikers was published in German in 1998, 2000 and 2016.

Awards

He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer award. His Art of Xylos CD was released in 2002 by Sony-BMG under the Arte Nova label, and was nominated for the Echo Prize under the crossover category. He won competitions in Montreal (1981), Lucerne (1994), Ludwigsburg (2004) and Osnabrck (2007).

Recordings

• Marimba! - Bach, Beethoven, Couperin. Analogue. (1986)
• Aria - Classical works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Scarlatti, Albniz, Trrega. Digital. (1995)
• The Art of Touching Wood - the music of J.S. Bach. Digital. (1996)
• Spanish Rosewood - the music of Spain: D. Scarlatti, Granados, Trrega, Albniz, etc. Digital (1997)
• Etz Chaim (Tree of Life) - Jewish traditional: Synagogue music, Yiddish and Israeli songs, klezmer. Digital (1998)
• The Art of Xylos - de Falla, J.S. Bach, Trrega, Mussorgsky, Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Satie, etc. Surround (2002) BMG Entertainment
• Fantasy - the music of J.S. Bach. Surround (2006)
• Feast of Xylophory - Albniz, Beethoven, Couperin, Klezmer, Mozart, Satie, Fissinger, Wilder, etc. (2014)

Film appearances

• Heavenly Sounds (?????? ??????) - Dir. Idit Gideoni, Channel 2, 1991, Israel
• Spielmnner - Bayerischer Rundfunk, 1995, Germany
• Denk ich an Deutschland...: Ein Fremder. - Dir. Peter Lilienthal, 2001, Germany
• Magic Marimbas - Dir. Eveline Hempel, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, 2003, Germany
• Klezmer on Fish Street - Dir. Yale Strom, independent, 2004, USA
• Da Spielt die Musik - Dir. Benedikt Kuby, Bayerischer Rundfunk, 2005, Germany
• Auf jdischem Parkett - Dir. Esther Slevogt & Arielle Artsztein, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, Germany, 2005
• Klezmer in Germany - Dir. Caroline Goldie & Krzysztof Zanussi, BBC, WDR, Czech TV. England & Germany, 2007
• Jewish Blues - Dir. Marian Marzynski, PBS, USA, 2011
• Married to the Marimba - Dir. Alan Rosenthal & Larry Price, independent, Israel, 2011
• Held der Strasse - Dir. Sigrid Faltin, Sdwestrundfunk, German Television, July 2012