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David Krakauer

Internationally acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer redefines the notion of a concert artist. Known for his mastery of myriad styles, he occupies the unique position of being one of the world’s leading exponents of Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, and at the same time is a major voice in classical music. As one of the foremost musicians of the vital new wave of klezmer, David Krakauer tours the globe with his celebrated Klezmer Madness! ensemble. While firmly rooted in traditional klezmer folk tunes, the band “hurls the tradition of klezmer music into the rock era” (Jon Pareles, The New York Times). In addition to his annual European tours to major international festivals and jazz clubs, recent seasons brought Krakauer and his band to the Library of Congress, Stanford Lively Arts, San Francisco Performances, the Krannert Center, Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, the Venice Biennale, Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, BBC Proms, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, Transmusicales de Rennes, La Cigale, New Morning in Paris, and many others. His newest project, The Big Picture, re-imagines familiar themes by such renowned film music composers as John Williams, Marvin Hamlisch, Randy Newman, Wojciech Kilar and Vangelis, and interprets melodic gems by the likes of Sidney Bechet, Sergei Prokofiev, Mel Brooks, Ralph Burns, John Kander & Fred Ebb and Jerry Bock that have appeared in popular films. In addition, Krakauer is in demand worldwide as a guest soloist with the finest ensembles including the Emerson, Orion and Kronos String Quartets, as well as orchestras including the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Detroit Symphony, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Phoenix Symphony, the Dresdener Philharmonie, and the Seattle Symphony. Krakauer’s discography contains some of the most important klezmer recordings of the past decade including six CDs under his own name: two on John Zorn's Tzadik Label and four on Label Bleu; plus collaborations with the Klezmatics, Itzak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet/Osvaldo Golijov and Socalled. Abraham Inc’s "Tweet-Tweet" on his own label, Table Pounding Records (and Label Bleu in Europe) was released in early 2010. Composers who have written major pieces for him include David del Tredici, Paul Moravec, Ofer Ben-Amots, Jean Philippe Calvin, George Tsontakis, Anthony Coleman and Wlad Marhulets. David Krakauer is on the clarinet and chamber music faculties of Mannes College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, NYU and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. His unique sound can be heard as soloist in Danny Elfman's score for the film "Taking Woodstock" and throughout "The Tango Lesson".

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Jonathan Salamon

Jonathan (Jon) Salamon is a harpsichordist and scholar specializing in Baroque music. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard, where he directs the Bard Baroque Ensemble and teaches courses in music theory, ear training, and music history. 

Jonathan has performed across the U.S. and abroad in concerts and festivals, including at the Bach Virtuosi Festival, Midtown Concerts Series, and Harpsichord Heaven, and at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Jewish Museum, the Guggenheim, the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, among others. He was awarded Third Prize at the Mathieu Duguay Early Music Competition. Jonathan is currently the Principal Keyboardist with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in J.S. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D minor. 

A committed educator, Jonathan was previously Adjunct Assistant Professor at SUNY Purchase, where he taught courses in music history and writing. 

Jonathan’s research focuses on the keyboard music of Bach, Handel, and their contemporaries, using schema theory and the partimento tradition to examine issues of style transmission and pedagogy in the long eighteenth century. He has presented research at conferences hosted by the American Bach Society, the American Handel Society, the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, and the Society for Music Analysis, among others. Jonathan’s writing has appeared in the journal Min-Ad, in Harpsichord & Fortepiano Magazine, and in La Voce di New York, where he was formerly a concert reviewer. Since 2023, he has co-convened several virtual conferences on galant schema theory. Ongoing projects include a co-edited volume on schema theory and an article on J.S. Bach’s embodied keyboard practices in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.

His research has been supported by a Fulbright grant to the Netherlands and a Gates Cambridge Scholarship at the University of Cambridge. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from NYU and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Harpsichord Performance from the Yale School of Music.

www.jonathansalamon.com