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Carl Shutoff (clarinet in C) and Laurie Andres (accordion) constitute the Kesselgarden Klezmer Duo in Seattle, WA, where we have been playing together for the last 20 years. Our name comes from the way Yiddish-speaking Jews pronounced "Castle Garden", the facility on the southern tip of Manhattan where Jewish immigrants entered this country prior to the opening of Ellis Island in 1892. Among first and second generation Jews, the term Kesselgarden was eventually generalized to mean any situation that was noisy, confusing and chaotic. We are a traditional band, playing Eastern European instrumental Jewish music of the 19th and 20th centuries, with original, sweet and joyful arrangements which are neither noisy nor confusing.
Upcoming Performances
Kesselgarden will be providing the music for the Yiddish Dance Extravaganza
at the Northwest Folklife Festival on
Monday, May 26, 2025 from 12:10pm to 1pm at the Fisher Pavilion.
Come and dance your hearts out, or just sit back and enjoy the music!
The music continues at the Harrison Busking Tent from 3pm to 4pm!
Join us for an afternoon of authentic Klezmer music from Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Moldova and beyond!
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Visit Bandcamp to order our CD and digital downloads!
Contact us at carlshutoff@icloud.com & lcandres@earthlink.net
Call Carl at 206-949-8562 ,
or
Laurie at (206) 465-8987.
Kesselgarden is now on ReverbNation! Click here to see our ReverbNation profile,
replete with songs and videos.
Visit us on Yelp!
A medley from our performance at the Seattle Folklore Society
Video by Mark Jaroslaw, JaroslawMedia, Seattle WA
Listen to a Sher from the collection of Moishe Beregovski,
and this Hora from the repertoire of German Goldenshteyn.
Reviews
They play with feeling and grace...
author: The Jewish Week - George Robinson
****1/2 Readers of a certain age may recognize the title of this spirited duet recording as a Yiddishized pronunciation of Castle Garden, located on the southern tip of Manhattan, where immigrants were processed upon their arrival in the Goldene Medina. Andres, who plays accordion, and Shutoff, a clarinetist, evoke the turn-of-the-century period with a deftly played album of well-chosen tunes from the period. They draw heavily on “International Hebrew WeddingMusic,” a 1916 portfolio of tunes, and as a result have found some delightfully unfamiliar material. More important, they play with feeling and grace.
This is a landmark Klezmer CD!
author: J.G.Wisnia
***** This is the very best Klezmer music that I have come across in many years! Kesselgarden is a landmark CD, performed by two superb musicians. A brilliant variety of musical selections are artistically and heartfully interpreted for clarinet and accordion. Kesselgarden deserves to be listened to over and over again.
Breathtakingly performed music of joy and sadness
author: J. Undank
***** This is Klezmer music played with superb craftsmanship and feeling. The arrangements for clarinet and accordion are magnificent, lively and overwhelmingly original. Dances, Shers, Khosidls, Kolomeykes, Horas, Bulgars, and--hold your breath--astonishingly lovely waltzes come in for breathtaking interpretations, lovingly performed. One doesn't have to be a musician to appreciate the beauty and nuances of the music--clearly born of happy and sad moments in Europe and the United States in the early century. What a pleasure to listen to! Bravo to Carl Shutoff and Laurie Andres, who bring all this triumphantly to us!
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