The return of the LKQ
The London Klezmer Quartet (LKQ) returns to Australia for a five-week national tour of the festival circuit and major venues from 28 February. And they have a hot new album with them!
The London Klezmer Quartet
In “stylish performances from four highly accomplished and in-demand musicians’” (Folk Roots Magazine) this all-female band will take Australian concert and festival audiences on a Jewish musical odyssey from Eastern Europe to Australia via the Balkans, Thailand, Turkey, the US and London.
Klezmer is the traditional celebratory and soulful music of Jewish Eastern Europe. From kley zemer (Hebrew: vessels of song) – music that kept Yiddish wedding parties on their feet for days!
Ilana Cravitz (fiddle), Susi Evans (clarinet), Carol Isaacs (accordion), and Indra Buraczewska (double bass) bring world music fans and fine music lovers the whirling, irresistible energy of Klezmer. You will want to laugh, to cry, and most of all… to dance! Their authentic sound has won praise from leading international exponents of this tradition, including Stuart Brotman of Brave Old World and Frank London of the Klezmatics.
The LKQ made a huge splash with their 2012 debut tour of the east coast of Australia, playing to sold out audiences. Following the enthusiastic reception the band received from very diverse audiences, they are back by popular demand just 12 months later with their newest CD, entitled “Butterfield Green N16” – full of traditional-style original material inspired by their travels and their London stomping ground. Track titles include ‘Chalk Farm Sirba’ and ‘Butterfield Green Kolomeyke’.
These innovators and leaders of the international klezmer scene will play up a storm at no less than 6 festivals including Port Fairy Folk Festival, the National Folk Festival, the Blue Mountains Music Festival, Brunswick Music Festival, Nannup Music Festival and Castlemaine State Festival, plus a wide spectrum of venues, including the Melbourne Recital Centre, Camelot, the Famous Spiegeltent, and Sydney Jewish Museum.
At the forefront of the international klezmer dance revival, LKQ boast one of only two UK dance callers. Those strutting their stuff at special dance events will have the chance to learn how to hot-foot it Yiddish style. The band will also be passing on their technical skills and knowledge of this style of playing at their 100% participatory workshops at festivals – and through Sydney Conservatorium’s Open Academy.
