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You don’t need to wait till some special day to appreciate Mozart’s music, love, and good vibes. Today is the day. Cheers from our family duo - with Mariana Slepovitch on the Belarusian bass cimbalom and me on the clarinet. German and English subtitles provided. 

Bulgar from the Funeral Season documentary directed by Matthew Lancit, that I scored back in 2012. Here's the Quarantine-2020 version.

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A Niggun (Jewish Hasidic religious song, often and in this case without words) recorded by the eminent Russian / Soviet ethnomusicologist Sofia Davydovna Magid in Sudilkov / Sudylkiv, Volyn, Ukraine, in August 1928, from Shmuel Bronshvayg,  Motl Shtromberg, Mikhl Gess, and Shlomi Roytshteyn . Transcribed and performed by Zisl Slepovitch (bass ( Read more... )

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRIDA! It's been a year since I acquired the basset horn that is really becoming my voice. I have played it on recent klezmer quarantine videos, as well as in live performances with Zisl Slepovitch Trio, Dance Clarinets, and even Yiddish Fiddler. As some other of my instruments, this beautiful and truly versatile instrument has ( Read more... )

The clarinets (chair and subs) of the New York production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (off-Broadway, 2018-2020, directed by Joel Grey, stage direction / choreography by Staś Kmieć) have joined their effort to record the iconic Wedding Dance, part of which is Bottle Dance. At the trying times of the coronavirus/ COVID-19 pandemic, we have done ( Read more... )

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Skochne No. 42 from Moisei Beregovsky's collection, originally from B.Sakhnovskii's manuscript. The numeration is the same in Goldin ‘87 and Slobin/ Rothstein/ Alpert 2001. Mariana Slepovitch, tsimbl; Zisl Slepovitch, basset horn & arrangement.

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Playing with Maestro Corrado Giuffredi. While saxophone isn't the instrument I play most of the time, I went for double trouble and recorded both parts of the Bolero theme.

This is probably the most international klezmer piece ever, it is known throughout the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Northern Africa under dozens of names and versions. My source was the old-time klezmer clarinetist Naftule Brandwein who recorded this piece as Der Terk in Amerike (The Turk in America) in 1924 in New York City. My ( Read more... )

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(when we still played public concerts) "Greed" by Joseph Daley feat. Warren Smith. Got to play this little solo on the basset horn, and the rest of this beautiful and very unusual program. Hopefully (!) we will perform again on May 16 in Brooklyn. Stay well and stay tuned!
Dance Clarinets big band, led by JD Parran, at Greenwich House Music School, ( Read more... )

Frederyk Chopin - Waltz op.64, No.2 in C Sharp Minor. Transcription for clarinet and piano by D. Zisl Slepovitch (Solo clarinet version).

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