About me
Clarinetist and ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin has been one of the leading figures in the international klezmer movement as performer, scholar, author, educator, and producer for more than forty years. Rubin studied clarinet with Richard Stoltzman and Kalmen Opperman and learned klezmer from old-time klezmer musicians like Max Epstein and Sid Beckerman. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from City St. George’s, University of London, is an Adjunct Researcher at the University of Bern, and was Associate Professor and Director of Music Performance at the University of Virginia for fifteen years, where he also directed the UVA Klezmer Ensemble. Rubin is the author of New York Klezmer in the Early Twentieth Century: The Music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras (U. of Rochester Press, 2020). He has collaborated regularly with Veretski Pass for over a decade, has led the Joel Rubin Ensemble since 1994 and was a founder of the pioneering klezmer revival bands, Rubin & Horowitz and Brave Old World. His most recent recording is The Peacock and the Sunflower with Veretski Pass (Borscht Beat 2024). Rubin has held workshops at Yiddish Summer Weimar, the International Klezmer Festival in Fürth, the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow, KlezKamp, KlezCalifornia, Klezfest London, KlezmerQuerque, KlezKanada and Klezcadia. Rubin has also been on the faculties of Cornell University, Ithaca College, Syracuse University and Humboldt University in Berlin.
