Music / Film & TV
Yale Strom
born 1957 · violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer
Detroit-born violinist and klezmer revivalist whose field research among Jewish and Romani musicians in Eastern Europe since 1981 shaped the modern klezmer repertoire.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Strom was born in Detroit in 1957, the eldest of eight children in a traditional Jewish family with socialist leanings, and lived there until the family moved to San Diego when he was twelve. He studied American studies and art at San Diego State University, where he was also an All-American distance runner, and earned a master's degree in Yiddish studies at New York University while working at the YIVO institute. From 1981 he made repeated field trips through Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, documenting the music of Jewish and Romani communities, and he was among the first revivalists to trace the ties between klezmer and the lăutari, the Roma professional musicians. His research fed the repertoire of his bands Zmiros and Hot Pstromi, and he composes New Jewish music ranging from string quartets to a symphony premiered by the St. Louis Symphony. He has also made documentary films and written books on klezmer history.
Highlights
- Klezmer field research in Eastern Europe since 1981
- Founded the bands Zmiros and Hot Pstromi
- Symphony premiered by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
- Composed the music for NPR's Fiddlers, Philosophers & Fools, hosted by Leonard Nimoy