Photo: Shendl Copitman
Mark Kovnatskiy Ensemble
The world premiere of the ensemble created by Mark Kovnatskiy at the end of 2023 called Mark Kovnatskiy Ensemble took place as part of the 25th Festival der Klesmer- und Weltmusik on May 25th open air at Klesmerplatz in Salzgitter- Bad, Germany.
In his ensemble, Mark has collected the crème de la crème of today's German klezmer scene, including:
Pianist, accordionist, composer, one of the pioneers of the klezmer revival of the 1980s; leader of such ensembles as Brave Old World, Semer Ensemble, and The Other Europeans; Director of the international festival Yiddish Summer Weimar, Dr. Alan Bern.
Contrabassist, poet, cabarettist, participant in many jazz and world music projects, such as Jürgen Kok Trio, André Krikula Trio, and Les Hommes du Swing, Axel Burkhardt.
Violinist, singer, frontman of one of the most successful klezmer-Balkan groups Dobranotch, member of the group Forshpil, Mitya Khramtsov.
One of the world's leading klezmer drummers, a percussionist, also a member of Dobranotch, member of the group Forshpil, Evgenii Lizin.
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The program "Di Naye Yidishe Melodyes“ (New Yiddish Melodies, Yiddish) the ensemble is performing, consists of Mark Kovnatskiy's original music written in the style of traditional Klezmer, Hasidic, Moldavian, and Ukrainian music, presented for the first time in 2020.
Mark started composing his own music back in 2004, just a year after he started playing Yiddish music. But his most productive period of composing began in 2018. In 2020, Mark had the idea to create a concert program consisting exclusively of his own music.
As a result, many of his melodies began to be performed by both klezmer and classical performers around the world, from the USA to Japan, for example, the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony (USA) and Neue Philharmonie Westfalen (DE), Steven Greenman (USA), "Klezmer Loshn" (FR), "Dreydel Orchestra" (JP).
Mark Kovnatskiy performs his program both with his ensemble, or solo, accompanied by the playback recorded by him using a variety of musical instruments, creating the effect of the sound of an ensemble of 2 to 12 participants.