Brad Simon Organization

Last dance: The Klezmer Conservatory Band's Dec. 3 concert at Avery Fisher Hall marks the final performance for co-founder and vocalist Judy Bressler (second row, far left). The Borough Park native is deve

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Unusually rich in both spirit and history is traditional Jewish klezmer music. Its unique blend of jazz, folk and even classical idioms results in an exuberantly irresistible and completely contagious musical form.

The holidays are a particularly special time for performances of klezmer music, and the long-running Klezmer Conservatory Band is one of its foremost proponents. The 11-piece band’s annual holiday concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Dec. 5 is part of several holiday programs presented by the New York Philharmonic throughout the month.

"We’ve done six or seven of them now, and it’s usually sold out or close to it," says one of the group’s founders, Borough Park native Judy Bressler. "I think Lincoln Center gives us a certain kind of audience, a broader spectrum of people who attend our concerts."

One constant for the group when performing live klezmer music - whether at a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a club, or a large concert hall like Avery Fisher - is how infectious it is to the audience.

"People get up and dance all the time - even at Lincoln Center," Bressler, 51, says with a laugh. "We always encourage people to take to the aisles. Normally, I even go out into the hall itself and lead dances during the concerts, but at Lincoln Center, I can’t [because of the way the stage is set up].

"But people always know what to do. It’s a great sight at Avery Fisher Hall to see hundreds of people dancing in the aisles. When you give people the opportunity to do something they don’t normally get to do, it’s a lot of fun to watch."

That klezmer causes such reactions in its listeners isn’t surprising because, after all, klezmer’s roots are in instrumental dance music of the Jewish people from Eastern Europe.

"There are many traditional dances, and it’s party music, celebratory music played at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs," Bressler explains. "[During concerts] I sing Yiddish folk songs, which was the common language in Eastern Europe. I introduce the songs to bridge the language gap.

"All of this music has a very universal appeal. The subject matter is universal: whether it’s love songs, or lullabies, or drinking songs, these are all things that transcend the Jewish culture."

The Klezmer Conservatory Band was founded in 1980 while Bressler and several others were students at the New England Conservatory of Music.

"Our band leader, Hankus Netsky, was a member of the faculty," she explains, "and I was studying different kinds of music at the time, like jazz and world folk music. My main interest was Yiddish song, and several of us started having klezmer ’jam sessions’: we’d hear old 78 records, and we’d try to reproduce and play the music.

"At first, [the sessions were] very informal. Then the idea came that we should do a concert. That first concert was very well-attended, and afterward, people came up to us and asked us to play weddings and other social events. So the band just took on a life of its own."

The band has performed all over the world, including many jazz and folk festivals. Bressler sees many similarities between these musical styles.

"We’ve played jazz festivals because there is a certain amount of improvisation in the klezmer tradition, as there is, of course, in jazz," she says. "And there’s fusion in the mixing of styles as well, which appeals to the jazz audience. Jewish people have historically moved around so much that there’s a lot of cross-pollination. You can view klezmer as Jewish folk and jazz music."

As much as she is looking forward to this annual holiday performance at Lincoln Center, it will also be bittersweet for Bressler: Dec. 5 is her last concert as a member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

"It’s been a great pleasure to work with them for all these years, but I am looking forward to my new show, ’Cabaret Jude,’" she says, referring to her new performance piece that encompasses American and Yiddish songs, music, comedy, drama and dance, in which Bressler will be accompanied by a quartet.

"I will be concentrating on song repertoire rather than instrumental music, which we do now in the band," says Bressler.

But after nearly a quarter-century of performing with her colleagues in the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Bressler knows that she can never say never.

"They are all my dearest friends," she says. "I’m sure I will play with them again one day."

The Klezmer Conservatory Band performs at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall (located on the southwest corner of Broadway and West 65th Street in Manhattan) on Sunday, Dec. 5, at 3 pm. Tickets are $55, $45, and $25. For more information, visit www.newyorkphilharmonic.org or call (212) 875-5656.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group