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Klezmer Music in the 21st Century
May 14 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Join the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and the Yiddish Culture Club of Berkeley for Klezmer Music in the 21st Century, a musical discussion with clarinetist, composer, and educator, Nat Seelen.
You’ve seen Fiddler on the Roof and know what freylekhs means. Maybe you’ve even seen the Klezmatics at Freight and Salvage. Now, it’s time to talk about klezmer music today. What does it sound like, who plays it and why, and what makes the music of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish life so much fun in 2026? Join Nat Seelen, artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, for a lively discussion of the current state of klezmer, with plenty of musical examples.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
2:00 – 3:00 pm
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
RSVP
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at magnes@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.
About the speaker
Nat Seelen is a Boston-based clarinetist, composer, and educator whose work explores the intersections of tradition, innovation, and community in klezmer music and beyond. A dynamic performer and creator, he is the founder and artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, a concert series that has presented over 180 artists and reached thousands of audience members with original, culturally rooted music since its inception in 2021. As a performer, Seelen is a founding member of the internationally recognized Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, winners of awards at the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, Brazil’s Bubbe Awards, and more. With Ezekiel’s Wheels and other ensembles, he has performed at major venues including the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood Music Center, and Jordan Hall, and internationally in China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, and Canada.
About the Yiddish Culture Club of Berkeley
The Yiddish Culture Club of Berkeley is a student-run organization at UC Berkeley that promotes Yiddish language and heritage through activities funded by grants. It organizes bi-weekly meetings, film screenings, and klezmer events to foster a new generation of Yiddish cultural engagement.
