"Now, at last, the wonderful musicologists of Shirim have reconstructed the original klezmer nutcracker, restoring our national honor, while also deconstructing some of my other favorite composers (Brahms, certainly deserves deconstruction; Satie is only improved therein. And even an excerpt restoring Mahler's klezmer roots comes across splendidly."
-Ari Davidow, klezmershack.com


 

Klezmer Party!:
Shirim plays the long lost klezmer music of Tchaikovsy, Brahms, Rimsky-Korskov and others!!!! 
 
Shirim has unearthed the greatest klezmer story never told: the lost klezmer compositions of the great composers!  Shirim has revived these amazing musical monuments and presents them with their back-stories in a delightful concert that combines hilarity, profound music making, and the undeniable soul of klezmer music into one grand concert!
 
After years of relentless scholarly research, forensic analysis and naïve misreading of the facts, Shirim Klezmer Orchestra has discovered a slew of previously lost klezmer compositions by some of the greatest composers that ever lived!  It’s true: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Brahms, Mahler, even Satie, wrote fantastic klezmer music.  Prokofiev wrote under pen names, Brahms actually led a bar mitzvah band on the side (did you ever try and make a living as a composer?), and Tchaikovsky went through a heartbreaking moment when his publisher rejected his Hanukah ballet as “too Jewish” and he had to re-write it!  These are the fascinating stories of this long-lost music that were just waiting to be discovered!   

 
 
 

"In the hads of these talented musicians, no song is safe, but all's well that ends...well?"
 
-Matthew Robinson, All Music Guide