Alex Jacobowitz

Alex Jacobowitz ( born May 19, 1960 in New York) is an American Marimbaphonspieler, specializing since 1994 in klezmer music. Since 2002 he lives in Berlin -Charlottenburg.

Jacobowitz began eleven years to learn drums and studied percussion in New York. At age 19 he began playing xylophone, marimba and studied with Gordon Stout, John Beck and Leigh Howard Stevens in New York. He joined in the 1980s and 90s primarily as a street musician in New York and was booked at numerous events as an artist. As a result of staying in Israel 1982/83, where he also played with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, he converted to Orthodox Judaism.

Since 1991, Jacobowitz performs regularly in Europe with a klezmer program, he has appeared in the German public television; besides, he was occasionally seen on television in Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Russia and Ukraine. As a street musician in Germany and elsewhere he plays pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach to Satie, from tango to flamenco to klezmer. He was a juror at the National Marimba Festival ( South Africa, 2010 and 2013 ) and took part in Australia's first Jewish music festival in part (Sydney, 2010).

In 1994 he received as Giora Feidman Klezmer lessons since 1997, he played solo concerts and worked with Alan Bern together, the musical head of the klezmer band Brave Old World.

Solo performances

  • Lincoln Center, New York City
  • Chamber Philharmonic Hall, Berlin
  • Festivals in Jerusalem, Schleswig -Holstein, Safed, Krakow, Fürth, Bamberg, including
  • Synagogues in Germany, New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße in Berlin
  • Chabad Houses in Prague, Geneva, Zurich, inter alia,
  • Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Hackesches Court Theatre in Berlin
  • Jewish communities in New York, Basel, Berlin, Leipzig, Lisbon, Munich, Vienna and Others
  • Several kibbutzim in Israel

Discography

  • İMarimba! , CD, 1986 ( self-published )
  • Aria, CD, 1995
  • The Art of Touching Wood, CD, 1996
  • Spanish Rose Wood, CD, 1996
  • Etz Chaim ( Tree of Life ), CD, 1997
  • The Art of Xylos, CD, Arte Nova, Ltd., Sony Music Entertainment, 2002
  • Fantasy (same as Bach), CD, 2007
  • Alex Jacobowitz: A classic klezmer. Travel stories of a Jewish musician, Munich, Lucerne: Tree of Life Productions, 2nd edition 2002, ISBN 3-00-003226-6

Film appearances

  • Heavenly Sounds - ( צלילים לאלהים ) - Channel 2, Reg Idit Gideon, 1991, Israel
  • Game Men - Bayerischer Rundfunk, 1995, Germany
  • When I think of Germany ...: A stranger. - ARD, Gov. Peter Lilienthal, 2001, Germany
  • Magic Marimbas - MDR, 3SAT, Reg Eveline Hempel, 2003, Germany
  • Klezmer on Fish Street - Independent, Reg Yale Strom, 2004, USA
  • Because Plays music - BR, Gov. Benedict Kuby, Germany 2005
  • On a Jewish parquet - ZDF, Reg Esther Slevogt & Arielle Artsztein, Germany, 2005
  • Klezmer in Germany - WDR & BBC, Reg Krystof Zanussi & Caroline Goldie, Germany 2007
  • Jewish Blues - PBS, Reg Marian Marzynski, USA 2011
  • Married to the Marimba - Dir Alan Rosenthal & Larry Price, Independent, 2011, Israel
  • Hero of the road - Gov. Sigrid Faltin, SWR, Germany 2012
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