Frank London (born 1958 in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) is an American

klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...

who also plays

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and world music.

Early life

London was born to a

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

family and grew up in New York and Connecticut. He started playing the trumpet in fourth grade.

Career

London received a B.A. in Afro-American music from the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...

in 1980. He is on the music faculty of the State University of New York at Purchase. He is a member of

The Klezmatics The Klezmatics are an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins. They have ...

Hasidic New Wave Hasidic New Wave is an American experimental klezmer music group. Its members, all of whom were improvisational jazz musicians from downtown Manhattan, formed for the purpose of fusing Hasidic musical styles (such as freylekhs and horas) with ele ...

, and leads Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars. He was a co-founder of Les Misérables Brass Band and the

Klezmer Conservatory Band The Klezmer Conservatory Band is a Boston-based group which performs traditional klezmer music; it was formed by Hankus Netsky of the New England Conservatory of Music in 1980. Originally formed for a single concert, they have gone on to release ...

. He served as conductor and music director for

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

and Robert Wilson's ''The Knee Plays'' and has collaborated with the Palestinian American violinist

Simon Shaheen Simon Shaheen (Arabic: سيمون شاهين, he, סימון שאהין; born Tarshiha, Upper Galilee, Palestine, 1955) is a Palestinian-American oud and violin player and composer who holds Israeli citizenship. At the age of 2, Shaheen moved ...

. He has worked with

Chava Alberstein Chava Alberstein ( he, חוה אלברשטיין, born 8 December 1946 in Poland) is an Israeli musician, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger. Biography Born Ewa Alberstein in Szczecin, Poland, her name was Hebraized to Chava when she ...

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Maurice El Mediouni Maurice El Mediouni, French El Médioni ( ar, مــوريــس الــمــديــونــي, born on 18 October 1928 in Oran, Algeria) is an Algerian-Jewish pianist, composer and interpreter of Andalusian, rai, Sephardic and Arab music. He i ...

Natalie Merchant Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American alternative rock singer-songwriter. She joined the band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and was lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the group. She remained with the group for their first se ...

, David Murray,

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

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Marc Ribot Marc Ribot (; born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wait ...

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Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

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, and

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

Discography

As leader

*Glass House Orchestra – Astro-Hungarian Jewish Music *''Invocations'' (cantorial music) *''Hazonos'' (cantorial music) *"Scientist at Work" (produced by John Zorn) Frank London with

Lorin Sklamberg Lorin Sklamberg is a vocalist, accordionist, pianist, guitarist and founding member of American Klezmer band The Klezmatics. He began performing Jewish music at age fifteen, and moved to New York in the early 1980s to incorporate klezmer into his ...

(Klezmatics singer): *''Nigunim'' (Jewish mystical songs) *''The Zmiros Project'' (Shabbes songs) *''tsuker-zis'' (holiday songs, featuring Knox Chandler, Ara Dinkjian & Deep Singh) Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars: *''Di Shikere Kapelye'' *''Brotherhood of Brass'' *''Carnival Conspiracy'' The Shekhina Big Band: *''The Shekhina Big Band'' Film and theater music: *''The Debt'' (film and theater music) Soundtracks: *''The Shvitz'' *''Divan'' (film by

Pearl Gluck Pearl Gluck is an American filmmaker and professor. Her films, which explores themes of class, gender, and faith, have appeared as a part of the Sundance Lab, as well as played at Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and on PBS. Early c ...

) Hasidic New Wave: *"Jews & The Abstract Truth" *"Psycho-Semitic" *"Kabalogy" *"Live In Krakow" (on Not Two records) *"From The Belly of Abraham" With

Jon Madof Jon Madof (born May 28, 1974) is an American guitarist, composer, and leader of the bands Rashanim and Zion80, who has performed extensively with other artists including John Zorn, Matisyahu, Marc Ribot, and Frank London. PopMatters' Sean Mur ...

's Zion80 *''

Zion80 ''Zion80'' is the debut album by guitarist Jon Madof's Zion80 which was released in 2013 on John Zorn's Tzadik Records as part the Radical Jewish Culture series. The album combines music written by Shlomo Carlebach performed in the Afrobeat styl ...

'' (Tzadik, 2013) *'' Adramelech: Book of Angels Volume 22'' (Tzadik, 2014)

Compositions

London has composed numerous works for theater, dance, and film, and is the recipient of several Meet the Composer grants. Some of his major works include the folk opera ''A Night in the Old Marketplace'' (based on Y. L. Peretz's ''Bay nakht oyfn altn mark''); ''Davenen'', a dance for the Pilobolus Dance Theatre and the Klezmatics; Great Small Works' ''The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln'', and Min Tanaka's ''Romance''. In 2011, A Night in the Old Marketplace was workshopped and premiered at MassMOCA. He has also composed music for films, including

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and ''L ...

' ''

The Brother from Another Planet ''The Brother from Another Planet'' is a 1984 American science fiction film, written and directed by John Sayles. The low-budget film stars Joe Morton as an extraterrestrial trapped on Earth. Plot A mute space alien crash-lands his ship on Elli ...

'' (1984) and ''

Men With Guns ''Men with Guns'' ( es, Hombres armados) is a 1997 American political drama film written and directed by John Sayles, inspired by the 1992 novel ''The Long Night of White Chickens'' by Francisco Goldman. It stars Federico Luppi, Damián Delgado, ...

'' (1997),

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

's ''Murder and Murder'', th
Czech-American Marionette Theater
s ''Golem'', and Tamar Rogoff's '' Ivye Project''.

Other activities

He has been featured on HBO's ''Sex and the City'' soundtrack, at the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam. This is because the Statenhal where the festival w ...

, and at the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Summer Festival. He attends various workshops throughout the year, including

KlezKanada KlezKanada () is a Canadian organization for the promotion of klezmer music and Yiddish culture. Its principal program is a week-long Jewish music festival founded in 1996 that takes place annually in August at Camp B'nai B'rith in Lantier, Quebe ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, where he teaches aspiring musicians the art of klezmer music. He has taught Jewish music in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, and the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

and is Artistic Director of KlezFest London in London, England.

External links

*
Interview from ''Montreal Mirror''

Short Biography and Interviews With Frank London

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:London, Frank American male composers 21st-century American composers American trumpeters American male trumpeters New England Conservatory alumni Jewish American composers Klezmer musicians Jewish American musicians Tzadik Records artists Living people 21st-century trumpeters 21st-century American male musicians The Klezmatics members Hasidic New Wave members 1958 births