Margot Leverett

Klezmer Clarinet

Margot Leverett
photo by Melanie Wellner

Margot Leverett (bandleader, clarinet and alto saxophone) is one of the foremost of the new generation of klezmer clarinetists. Classically trained at Indiana University School of Music, she was involved in avant-garde music when she first heard klezmer, the dynamic East European music traditionally played at Jewish weddings. Leverett was a founding member of the Klezmatics in 1985 and Mikveh in 1999. She started her own band "Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys" in 2001. Her solo CD, "The Art of Klezmer Clarinet," was released in 2001 on Traditional Crossroads(CD4296) to glowing reviews. Liner Notes from "The Art of Klezmer Clarinet" She tours nationally and has performed and taught traditional and original klezmer music at festivals and workshops around the world.

Her current project, "Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys" is an all-star band combining the best of bluegrass and klezmer featuring bluegrass stars Kenny Kosek, Barry Mitterhoff, Joe Selly and Marty Confurius. Their self-titled CD, released to rave reviews in 2003, was choreographed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in a new work entitled "Klezmerbluegrass".

Margot Leverett has been a featured guest soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Udi Bar-David and the artists of Intercultural Journeys , a concert and cultural organization to promote intercultural dialogue. She has toured Japan twice with The New York Ragtime Orchestra and has been featured in several Off-Broadway productions.

Margot Leverett was a staff instructor at KlezKamp for over 10 years and has also taught at KlezKanada, Klezkamp West, Klezmerquerque, and at colleges, music festivals, and Jewish organizations across the country. She ran a monthly community Klezmer jam session in Queens for three years and has led open jam sessions around the world. For information about her klezmer workshops, klezmer/bluegrass lecture demonstrations and jam sessions visit Klezmer Mountain Boys

Her newest CD with the Klezmer Mountain Boys will be released in fall of 2008, featuring guest artists Jorma Kaukonen, Hazel Dickens, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and others. Watch for it at Traditional Crossroads