Alexander Freudenthal

Composings, Confusings and Musings

Jewish Culture in the making

 

Photo: David Krantz

Bio

Alexander Freudenthal was born in 1971 into a musical, Jewish home. Since an early age he has been involved in exploring and combining these two worlds, the musical and the Jewish. During his late teens he was playing klezmer clarinet at too many Bar Mitzvahs to remember and pursuing studies in architecture, biblical Hebrew, acting, history, Jewish philosophy and basically anything that came in his way. During the 90's he was honing his skills as an arranger, mainly working with Swedish student orchestras. In 1999 he formed the Freudenthal Yiddish Big Band in an attempt to combine the worlds of Yiddish folk music and big band jazz.  In the fall of 2006 Freudenthal composed a concerto for Cello and Yiddish Big Band which was performed in the Great Synagogue of Stockholm.

Since 2009 the Freudenthal Yiddish Orchestra (FYO) has served as a project based ensemble for his larger works. This Orchestra continues in the tradition of the Freudenthal Yiddish Big Band.  In 2013 the Concerto for Adam and Yiddish Orchestra, featuring eminent Swedish jazz pianist Adam Forkelid, had it's premier at Nalen in Stockholm. In december of 2017 Swedish national radio recorded and broadcasted "Klezmer Kristmas with the Freudenthal Yiddish Orchestra". 

In 2019 Nalen was once again the venue for “Bad Rabbi” a concert based on the excellent book with the same name by Eddy Portnoy. Swedish national radio recorded and broadcasted this as well.

Besides the FYO, Freudenthal has received several commissions from the Jewish Museum in Stockholm for compositions as part of their exhibits, these include works on Kabbalah, Nobel laureate Nelly Sachs and architect Josef Frank.

Alexander also explores the jazz and klezmer worlds in the smaller ensembles Freudenthal Klezmer Band and Freudenthal Yiddish Ensemble.

As of 2023 Freudenthal has also begun exploring the combination of synthesizers and klezmer with his one-man-band Rise of the Yiddish Machines

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