imported>JJMC89 bot III: Moving :Category:American buskers to :Category:American street performers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 May 13#Category:American buskers

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Moving Category:American buskers to Category:American street performers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 May 13#Category:American buskers

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{{Short description|American musician and street performer}}
{{BLP sources|date=December 2009}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Alex Jacobowitz
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Image:Alex Jacobowitz.jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1960|05|19}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]]
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| genre =
| occupation = [[Street performance|Street performer]]
| instrument = [[Marimba]], [[Xylophone]]
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'''Alex Jacobowitz''' (born 19 May 1960 in [[New York City|New York]]) is a classically trained concert artist and [[busking|street performer]] who plays the [[marimba]] and [[xylophone]].<ref name=ndr>{{cite news|url=http://www3.ndr.de/sendungen/kulturjournal/archiv/musik_und_theater/kj774.html |title=Mit dem Xylofon um die Welt |date=1 October 2007 |work=NDR |language=German |accessdate=15 December 2009 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==New York==
During the early 1980s he studied music at the [[State University of New York at Binghamton]], studying [[marimba]] privately with [[Gordon Stout]] at [[Ithaca College]], [[John Beck (percussionist)|John Beck]] at the [[Eastman School of Music]] and privately with [[Leigh Howard Stevens]]. Soon thereafter, he began a busking career in the late 1980's, playing on the streets of [[New York City]], including at [[Lincoln Center|Lincoln Center's]]<ref name=ndr/> "Meet the Artist" program, [[Yeshiva University]], [[Zabar's]], [[Central Park]], the 84th Street Synagogue, [[International House of New York|International House]], the [[New York Hilton]], [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and [[Coney Island's]] "Sideshows by the Seashore". Alex Jacobowitz commissioned [[Edith Borroff]] to compose "Concerto for Marimba and Small Orchestra" in 1981, and it was premiered on November 23, 1981 with the State University of New York at [[Binghamton]]'s University Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Paul Jordan. This work might be the first marimba concerto composed by a woman.

From 1984-1989 he was an Official Street Performer at the [[South Street Seaport]] in [[Lower Manhattan]], a member of [[Musicians Under New York]], and [[Young Audiences of Rochester]] and the [[Northeast Intermediate Unit#19]] (Pennsylvania). He has performed at Arts Councils and Imagination Celebrations throughout [[New York State]]. He has performed on [[Entertainment Tonight]], and has been an artist-in-residence at [[Artpark]] (New York) and Holland Village ([[Japan]]). He received his Master's Degree in Music Performance in 2021
from [[Ithaca College]] in New York.

==Europe==
In 1991, he moved to [[Europe]], mainly performing in [[Germany]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jrep/access/443724061.html?dids=443724061:443724061&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+08%2C+1998&author=Robby+Berman&pub=The+Jerusalem+Report&desc=The+Marimba+Man+of+Munich&pqatl=google|title=The Marimba Man of Munich|last=Berman|first=Robby|date=8 June 1998|work=The Jerusalem Report|accessdate=15 December 2009|archive-date=24 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024091905/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jrep/access/443724061.html?dids=443724061:443724061&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+08,+1998&author=Robby+Berman&pub=The+Jerusalem+Report&desc=The+Marimba+Man+of+Munich&pqatl=google|url-status=dead}}</ref> and living in [[Berlin]]. Jacobowitz performed classic and [[Jewish]] traditional music on German television ([[Das Erste|ARD]], [[ZDF]], [[ARD (broadcaster)|Third Programmes]]), and occasionally in [[Hungary]], [[Israel]], [[Italy]], [[Luxembourg]], [[South Korea]], [[Poland]], [[Portugal]], [[Switzerland]], [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]]. In 2006, he was invited to perform at the [[Busker's Festival]] in [[Ferrara, Italy]], and his music was often featured in radio, including NPR in the USA, Bayerischer Rundfunk in Germany and SFR1 in Switzerland.

==Klezmer==
In 1994, he began the study of traditional Jewish instrumental music ([[klezmer]]) with [[Giora Feidman]]. In 1997, he saw [[Brave Old World]] in concert, and trained under [[Alan Bern]], their musical director.

Solo klezmer appearances include festivals in [[Jerusalem]], [[Schleswig-Holstein]], [[Safed]], [[Kraków]], [[Fürth]], [[Bamberg]], [[synagogue]]s throughout [[Germany]], including [[Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue]] in [[Berlin]], [[Chabad Houses]] in [[Prague]], [[Geneva]], [[Zürich]], the [[Jewish Museum Frankfurt|Jewish Museum]] in [[Frankfurt am Main|Frankfurt]], [[Hackescher Hoftheater]] in [[Berlin]], Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Kibbutz Ma'ale HaChamisha, and settlement Mitzpe Jericho.

He has performed with Shelly Lang's Neginah
Orchestra (NYC), the [[Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra]], and the Berlin Kammerphilharmoniker.
He has performed Jewish music at Pisa's Jewish Festival (Italy, 2011) Sydney's Shir Madness festival (Australia, 2010), the Warsaw Jewish Festival (Poland, 2012),
the Trondheim Jewish Culture Festival (Norway, 2012), the Düsseldorf Jewish Film Festival (2012, Germany), the Budapest Jewish Film Festival (Hungary, 2012)
and the 4th Munich (München) Jüdische Filmtage (Jewish Film Festival, January 2013), the Jewish Cultural Days in Vienna (2014), Jewish Week in Leipzig (2015).

Since 2010 he has been performing [[klezmer]] music with violinists Yona (Stas) Rayko or Mark Kovnatskiy at Jewish cultural festivals throughout Europe. At [[Witwatersrand University]] in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa in 2013 he premiered [[Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph]]'s "Hebrotica" for solo marimba, a work dedicated to him. He has premiered ''Danse la princesse Dunya'', a work for solo marimba by French composer [[Serge Bach]] in 2020, and commissioned and premiered [[Alan Bern]]'s solo marimba work Gedanken (2021).

==Books==
*'''''Ein Klassischer Klezmer: Reisegeschichten eines jüdischen Musikers''''' in German, his autobiographical book was published by Tree of Life Productions in Munich, in 1998, 2000, 2016 and 2020.

*'''''Die Neue [[Görlitzer Synagoge]]''''' in German, about the history and architecture of the synagogue in [[Görlitz]], (Germany) was published in July, 2021 by Verlag '''[[Hentrich & Hentrich]]''' Berlin, ISBN 978-3-95565-463-4.

*'''''The New [[Synagogue]] in [[Görlitz]]''''' in English, about the history and architecture of the synagogue in [[Görlitz]], (Germany) was published in December, 2021 by Verlag '''[[Hentrich & Hentrich]]''' Berlin, ISBN 978-3-95565-507-5.

*'''''Orte für die Seele im Heiligen Land: Prominente und ihre Lieblingsplätze.''''' (Places for the Soul in the Holy Land: Prominent People and their Favorite Spaces), article about the Old City of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter, in German, St. Benno Verlag GmbH, Erfurt, November 2022, ISBN 978-3-74626-251-2.

*'''''[[Clara Hepner]]: Eine Lesebuch''''' in German; selections from the writings of German-Jewish author [[Clara Hepner]], a short biography, an exhaustive index of her works, and an evaluation by Gabriele von Glasenapp. Published by [[Hentrich & Hentrich]] Berlin and Leipzig, in April, 2023. ISBN 978-3-95565-543-3 (Edited and annotated by Alex Jacobowitz)

==Awards==
He is the recipient of a [[Meet the Composer]] award. His ''Art of Xylos'' CD was released in 2002 by [[Sony-BMG]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sonymusic.at/Alex-Jacobowitz/The-Art-Of-Xylos/P/228184 |title=Alex Jacobowitz - The Art of Xylos |work=Sony Music Austria |accessdate=15 December 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706094357/http://www.sonymusic.at/Alex-Jacobowitz/The-Art-Of-Xylos/P/228184 |archivedate=6 July 2011 }}</ref> under the Arte Nova label, and was nominated for the [[Echo Prize]] under the crossover category. He won competitions in Montreal (1981), Lucerne (1994), Ludwigsburg (2004) and Osnabrück (2007). In 2015, 2018 and 2020 he was accepted to the Central Council of Jews in Germany's (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschlands) Artist Roster, which provides German government funding for his concerts in Jewish communities there; in August 2017 he was featured in their newspaper, the Jüdische Allgemeine. In 2019 he was declared a National Artist in Israel.

== Recordings ==
*''¡Marimba!'' - Bach, Beethoven, Couperin. Analogue. (1986)
*''Aria'' - Classical works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Scarlatti, Albéniz, Tárrega. Digital. (1995)
*''The Art of Touching Wood'' - the music of J.S. Bach. Digital. (1996)
*''Spanish Rosewood'' - the music of Spain: D. Scarlatti, Granados, Tárrega, Albéniz, etc. Digital (1997)
*''Etz Chaim'' (Tree of Life) - Jewish traditional: Synagogue music, Yiddish and Israeli songs, klezmer. Digital (1998)
*''The Art of Xylos'' - de Falla, J.S. Bach, Tárrega, Mussorgsky, Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Satie, etc. Surround (2002) BMG Entertainment
*''Fantasy'' - the music of J.S. Bach. Surround (2006)
*''Shvartse Chasene'' - [[Bear Family Records]] (2009)
*''Feast of Xylophory'' - Albéniz, Beethoven, Couperin, Klezmer, Mozart, Satie, Fissinger, Wilder, etc. (2014)
*''Hoffman’s Doina'' - with [[Brave Old World]], Laurel Records. (2019)
*''[[Vexations]]'' - music of [[Erik Satie]], Laurel Records, (2020)

== Film appearances ==
*''Heavenly Sounds'' (צלילים לאלהים) - Dir. Idit Gideoni, Channel 2, 1991, Israel
*''Spielmänner'' - Bayerischer Rundfunk, 1995, Germany
*''Denk ich an Deutschland...: Ein Fremder.'' - Dir. [[Peter Lilienthal]], 2001, Germany
*''Magic Marimbas'' - Dir. Eveline Hempel, [[Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk]], 2003, Germany
*''Klezmer on Fish Street'' - Dir. [[Yale Strom]], independent, 2004, USA
*''Da Spielt die Musik'' - Dir. Benedikt Kuby, [[Bayerischer Rundfunk]], 2005, Germany
*''[[Auf jüdischem Parkett]]'' - Dir. Esther Slevogt & Arielle Artsztein, [[Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen]], Germany, 2005
*''Klezmer in Germany'' - Dir. Caroline Goldie & [[Krzysztof Zanussi]], [[BBC]], [[Westdeutscher Rundfunk|WDR]], Czech TV. England & Germany, 2007
*''Jewish Blues'' - Dir. [[Marian Marzynski]], PBS, USA, 2011
*''[[Married to the Marimba]]'' - Dir. Alan Rosenthal & Larry Price, independent, Israel, 2011
*''Held der Strasse'' - Dir. Sigrid Faltin, [[Südwestrundfunk]], German Television, July 2012

== References ==

http://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/article/view/id/29408 - Jüdische Allgemeine, 24. Aug 2017, Berlin

https://juedischerundschau.de/article.2020-11.goerlitz-und-der-davidstern.html - Interview with Jüdischer Rundschau, Nov. 2020, Berlin

<references />
*A Classical Klezmer: Travel Stories of a Jewish Musician, by Alex Jacobowitz. Tree of Life, Munich, 1998. {{ISBN|3-00-003226-6}}

==External links==
* [http://www.alexjacobowitz.com Alex Jacobowitz's web site]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobowitz, Alex}}
[[Category:American street performers]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Klezmer musicians]]
[[Category:Xylophonists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1960 births]]
[[Category:Musicians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American marimbists]]
[[Category:Israeli marimbists]]
[[Category:American male musicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]

Alex Jacobowitz - Revision history

imported>JJMC89 bot III: Moving :Category:American buskers to :Category:American street performers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 May 13#Category:American buskers