From Bach to Bulgars – New Works for Solo Klezmer Clarinet
Join Nat Seelen, artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, for a concert of new works for solo klezmer clarinet. The program features Seelen’s new “Suite I”, a six-movement homage to the Bach Cello Suites filtered through the lens of klezmer music, “Sonata for Klezmer Clarinet,” and an interactive composition experience where Seelen writes and performs a new piece with audience input to finish the concert.

Musicians of all levels, or just clap & dance, just enjoy the music! In the spirit of community, no one will be turned away due to financial limitations. Please contact us if you’d like to discuss options privately.

Nat Seelen – Clarinetist, Composer, and Artistic Director
Nat Seelen is a Boston-based clarinetist, composer, and educator whose work explores the intersections of tradition, innovation, and community in klezmer music and beyond. A dynamic performer and creator, he is the founder and artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, a concert series that has presented over 180 artists and reached thousands of audience members with original, culturally rooted music since its inception in 2021.
As a performer, Seelen is a founding member of the internationally recognized Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, winners of awards at the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, Brazil’s Bubbe Awards, and more. With Ezekiel’s Wheels and other ensembles, he has performed at major venues including the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood Music Center, and Jordan Hall, and internationally in China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, and Canada.
Seelen is also the creator of New Klezmer Studios, an innovative remote learning initiative that has taught klezmer music to students on five continents, including musicians from top institutions like Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Berklee, and Oberlin. He is a teaching artist with Arts for Learning Massachusetts and has given workshops, masterclasses, and lectures.

Igor Polesitsky- Viola
Igor Polesitsky was born in Kiev, where he began studying the violin at the age of six under the guidance of Gregori Yampolsky. At nineteen, after attending the Glière State Music School of Kiev and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he moved to the United States where he graduated with a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. While studying under Max Aronoff, Mr. Polesitsky began performing in the USA and abroad, taking part in many international music festivals, the 1982 Curtis European chamber music tour, and the ‘Russian Music Week’; at Carnegie Hall. Since 1983, he has been the Principal violist of Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra (principal conductor, Zubin Mehta) and has toured and recorded extensively under the direction of some of the world’s major conductors. In addition to his work with the orchestra, Mr. Polesitsky continues his concert engagements with musicians of the highest international renown. Of particular note are his Italian tour with the Borodin Quartet and his stage performance of the solo violin part composed for him by Luciano Berio in his last opera ‘Cronaca del Luogo’, which opened the 1999 Salzburg Festival. Mr. Polesitsky’s interests go beyond classical music, however, and have led him to explore the traditional Yiddish music of his childhood. As a founding member of the Gebirtig Trio, the Shir-am 3 ensemble and, since 2005, the Klezmerata Fiorentina, he has participated in numerous international musical events: festivals of Jewish music and culture in Venice, Basel, Krakow, and Moscow; worldwide radio and television broadcasts by the Austrian Radio ORF, Swiss Radio of Lugano, Italian RAI 3 and RAISAT television; and concerts with some of the most prestigious Italian chamber music organizations such as the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, GOG in Genoa, Settembre Musica in Turin, Milano Musica in Milan and Amici della Musica in Florence.