The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble was founded in 1984 and is one of the oldest klezmer ensembles in America. "In the late 1980s they played the most authentic and most exciting Jewish instrumental music in America," said expert Walter Zev Feldman. By this time, the ensemble's leader, Kurt Bjorling, had mastered the entire Klezmer repertoire and was an active teacher. The ensemble is particularly unique
… because it jumped in the gap between the European klezmer music that has developed continuously this century and the klezmer of the immigrants in America, who mainly focused on providing the Jewish community with dance music. In Europe, klezmer was and is much more than dance music: it is both ecstatic dance music and exalted listening music. The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble has succeeded in transferring this way of klezmer companies to America. (GO) _more