Hankus Netsky
Hankus Netsky
Hankus Netsky is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist. He chairs the Contemporary Improvisation Departments at the New England Conservatory. Netsky is founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble, and serves as research director of the Klezmer Conservatory Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of traditional Eastern European Jewish music...
copying england eventually generation learning music older played stories taking talking teaching
When I was 19, I started taking it seriously. I started copying my grandfather's 78s and talking to the older generation who played it, learning their stories and their music and eventually teaching it at the New England Conservatory of Music.
archaic broadway corny generation ignore mother musician pushed raised saw
I was raised to ignore it. It was something my mother's generation saw as an embarrassment. It was corny and archaic and not pushed as something an up-and-coming musician wanted to learn. My mother wanted me to write Broadway shows.
relatives teach willing
When I was 19 I started pestering my relatives who were willing to teach me.
church express identity
If they (the audience) are Jewish, they can express their identity without going to church or praying. It is not about beliefs, it's about music.
jewish liked music people sort stopping weddings
People were sort of stopping having the traditional Jewish music in weddings and ceremonies. And I kind of liked that stuff.
good motivated trying
We're trying to keep it interesting and keep motivated to new stuff-especially with vocalists. It's good to be doing new things.
grew seems speaking
It seems like she grew up speaking Yiddish. It's really part of her life, like if she did not do this it would be weird.
audience gone instead people playing stuff
All of a sudden, instead of 100 or 200 people in the audience we were playing for 1,000 to 2,000 people. People wanted to re-discover this stuff that was gone for 60 years.