Joel Rubin

Joel Rubin (b. Los Angeles, Oct. 14, 1955) is a Jewish musician known for being a leading performer of klezmer music.

He studied with Richard Stoltzman and Kalmen Opperman, attended the California Institute of the Arts and received a BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase. Rubin holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from City University London for his pioneering work on improvisation and ornamentation in klezmer clarinet music. He is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Music Performance at the University of Virginia’s McIntire Department of Music, and has taught at Cornell, Syracuse University, Ithaca College, and Humboldt University in Berlin.

In addition to appearances with traditional performers such as the Epstein Brothers, Moshe “Moussa” Berlin, Seymour Rexsite and Miriam Kressyn, Leon Schwartz, Sid Beckerman, Pete Sokolow, Danny Rubinstein, Ben Bazyler, and Leopold Kozlowski, he leads the international Joel Rubin Ensemble (also known as the Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble, US/Hungary/Italy) and was the founder and clarinetist of some of the most internationally respected klezmer ensembles, including the pioneering revival group Brave Old World. The Joel Rubin Ensemble features Kálmán Balogh on cimbalom, David Chernyavsky on violin, and Claudio Jacomucci on accordion. Rubin’s albums Midnight Prayer, Beregovski’s Khasene (Beregovski’s Wedding), Bessarabian Symphony, Zeydes un Eyniklekh (Grandfathers and Grandsons) and Hungry Hearts are considered to be masterpieces of classical Eastern European and American Jewish music. His music can be heard in several films, and the award-winning documentary portrait A Tickle in the Heart about the Epstein Brothers Orchestra is based on his research and screenplay. Rubin has collaborated with a number of artists as diverse as jazz composer-pianist Uri Caine, Israeli world musician, Yair Dalal, and Italian composer-clarinetist, Roberto Paci Dalò.

Rubin has performed in concerts throughout Europe, North America and Asia. As a clinician, he has taught together with Opperman and Stoltzman at the Clarinet Summit (2004) and held master classes and workshops at numerous institutions, including the New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and for the Israeli and Berlin Ministries of Education. Rubin is also the author of many Jewish musical books.