David Krakauer

Internationally acclaimed clarinetist DAVID KRAKAUER redefines the notion of a concert artist. Known for his mastery of myriad styles including classical chamber music, Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, and avant-garde improvisation, Krakauer lies way beyond “cross-over”. His best-selling classical and klezmer
recordings further define his brilliant tone, virtuosity and imagination.

David Krakauer is in demand worldwide as a guest soloist with the finest ensembles. Recent collaborations have included the Tokyo String Quartet, the Kronos Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, Eiko and Koma, the Orquesta Sinfonica del Barcelona and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. He had an 8-year
tenure with the Naumburg Award-winning Aspen Wind Quintet, and has also enjoyed long relationships with prestigious Summer festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival.

As a leading figure in world music, clarinetist David Krakauer has redefined klezmer through his innovative recordings and passionate stage performances. With his band Klezmer Madness!, Krakauer has forged alliances between his branch of world music and a multitude of musical genres including jazz, rock, funk and most recently hip-hop. Touring internationally to major venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, BBC Proms, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, New Morning, WOMEX and La Cigale has enabled Klezmer Madness! to leave a lasting impression on the myriad and diverse music scenes of the world.

In the Spring of 2003 Krakauer performed at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall as soloist with the Kronos Quartet in a performance of their renowned collaboration on Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. In 2004 he was invited to perform with his band, Klezmer Madness!, for the inaugural season of Carnegie Hall's new theater, Zankel Hall. That program involved a collaboration with renowned jazz pianist Uri Caine. He also performed at Zankel in a program with Dawn Upshaw of Golijov’s Ayre which was released as a CD on Deutsche Grammophon, and which continues to tour. Krakauer performed music written for him by Osvaldo Golijov for the BBC documentary Holocaust, A Music Memorial from Auschwitz, which won the International Emmy in the performance category (2005). In the ‘05/’06 season he toured with the Emerson String Quartet.

2007 was a busy year for Mr. Krakauer in which he performed in the New York premiere of the string orchestra version of the Golijov work and then toured with the Orion String Quartet featuring a new work by composer David del Tredici commissioned specifically for them by Music Accord. Also in 2007, he premiered a new clarinet concerto composed for him by Ofer Ben-Amots at Colorado Music Festival under the baton of Michael Christie, and with the Walla Walla Symphony.
Krakauer’s discography contains some of the most important klezmer recordings of the past decade. His first release on the prestigious French jazz label Label Bleu (harmonia mundi usa), “A New Hot One!” was hailed a masterwork. His CD “The Twelve Tribes”, released in Fall ’02, was designated album of the year in the jazz
category for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in Germany. The band’s newest release entitled “Bubbemeises: Lies My Gramma Told Me”, marks the first full collaboration between Krakauer and sampler master Socalled. Krakauer cites this CD as “. . . a whole new chapter in my life as a composer, a musician and a
producer.” Other CDs include the aforementioned recordings with the Kronos Quartet and with Dawn Upshaw, as well as chamber music recordings on the Musical Heritage and New York Philomusica labels, and two CDs in the Milken Archives series on American Jewish music recently released by Naxos.

Krakauer has had major profiles in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The International Herald Tribune, and Downbeat, Jazz Times, Jazziz and Chamber Music magazines. He is on the clarinet and chamber music faculties of Mannes College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.