Since its formation in 1980 the Klezmer Conservatory Band has performed concerts from coast to coast. In April of 1990, it made its debut tour abroad, performing several concerts in Germany and giving a performance at the first-ever International Yiddish Festival in Krakow, Poland. The band has toured Europe regularly, and has also appeared at Australia's Adelaide Festival, New Zealand's International Festival of the Arts and Womad.
The band has made numerous appearances on Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor. In 1994 the band performed with Joel Grey in his recreation of Mickey Katz’s Borscht Capades and appeared in a PBS special with renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman called In the Fiddler's House, filmed in Krakow, Poland and New York. We are joined by two members of The Klezmer Conservatory Band, now.
Yaeko Miranda-Elmaleh grew up in Cambridge, MA and has played the violin since she was three. A finalist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra youth competition and First prize winner in the Arlington Philharmonic competition. She graduated from New England Conservatory in 2002 having studied and performed in the Jewish Music ensemble under the direction of Hankus Netsky. She currently performs and freelances in the Boston area.
Grant Smith has studied drumset, Arabic drums, table, Afro-Cuban percussion, and Handancez. Grant has toured extensively, including Thailand, Australia, and both Europes. He is also a part of many world music, jazz, classical, orthodox, deconstructed, and free projects. Theatre and dance credits include the American Repertory Theater's production of "The King Stag," featuring a solo multi-percussion score (with staging and costumes by Julie Taymor). He’s played tympani with Itzhak Perlman, borscht drums with Joel Grey, tabla with the Violent Femmes – and - the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Kermit the Frog and Big Bird.
