Biography

Lorin Sklamberg is a founding member of the Grammy Award–winning Yiddish American roots band the Klezmatics. His composition “Happy Joyous Hanukkah,” with lyrics by Woody Guthrie, has been published in choral arrangements by Hal Leonard. He can be heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration with such diverse artists as Jane Siberry, Odetta, Chava Alberstein, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer, Neil Sedaka, Natalie Merchant, and Tony Kushner. He has written and performed for film, dance, stage, and circus, and has produced a number of recordings of world and theater music. Projects include Saints and Tzadiks with Susan McKeown; the score for Erik Anjou’s documentary Deli Man; the Semer Ensemble, a celebration of Jewish recordings made in Berlin 1933–38; the award-winning Yiddish Bavarian Alpen Klezmer with Andrea Pancur and Ilya Shneyveys; Sklamberg and the Shepherds featuring traditional and original Yiddish, Russian, and South Mediterranean music; and composer Jocelyn Pook’s Drawing Life, a multimedia song cycle commissioned by the Jewish Music Institute of London. By day, Mr. Sklamberg serves as sound archivist of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.