photo by Michael Bezman
Patrick Farrell is a United States-born, Berlin-based accordionist, composer and bandleader. He is an active part of the international klezmer community as a performer and teacher, and also appears onstage with new-music and improvisational groups. Farrell has performed on dozens of recordings, including with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Never Enough Hope, and Adrienne Cooper. He often works with dance and theater ensembles as a composer, music director and accompanist, and in 2019 appeared onstage in the remount of the original Tony-award-winning Broadway production of Indecent (LADCC Award-winner for Production and Ensemble Performance).
Current projects include his work with singer Sveta Kundish - performing various programs from newly composed Yiddish song to cantorial/liturgical music, folk song, and Yiddish theater repertoire. Farrell is music director and composer for Michael Wex's satirical cabaret piece "The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh". He is also one of the principal organizers of Shtetl Berlin and the associated Neukölln Klezmer Sessions.
Recent past ensembles include the esteemed avant-garde/traditionalist klezmer group Yiddish Art Trio (with Benjy Fox-Rosen and Michael Winograd), chamber/folk/new-music group Ljova and the Kontraband, and unique and unusual duets with trumpeter Ben Holmes. For many years he led and composed for the circus/new-music group Stagger Back Brass Band, releasing one acclaimed album in 2009. Farrell also maintains his membership in Panorama Brass Band, from his former home of New Orleans, LA, during the annual Mardi Gras season. He has performed regularly with Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars and Alicia Svigals' Klezmer Fiddle Express, and has shared the stage with a large cross-section of international Yiddishland performers. Farrell regularly works as a composer and arranger for various ensembles, and was recipient of a 2016 composition residency at the prestigious and beautiful Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. He has studied accordion in Macedonia, Serbia, Germany, and Romania, and has played in clubs, concert halls, streets, and serenades all over Europe and North America.
Current projects include his work with singer Sveta Kundish - performing various programs from newly composed Yiddish song to cantorial/liturgical music, folk song, and Yiddish theater repertoire. Farrell is music director and composer for Michael Wex's satirical cabaret piece "The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh". He is also one of the principal organizers of Shtetl Berlin and the associated Neukölln Klezmer Sessions.
Recent past ensembles include the esteemed avant-garde/traditionalist klezmer group Yiddish Art Trio (with Benjy Fox-Rosen and Michael Winograd), chamber/folk/new-music group Ljova and the Kontraband, and unique and unusual duets with trumpeter Ben Holmes. For many years he led and composed for the circus/new-music group Stagger Back Brass Band, releasing one acclaimed album in 2009. Farrell also maintains his membership in Panorama Brass Band, from his former home of New Orleans, LA, during the annual Mardi Gras season. He has performed regularly with Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars and Alicia Svigals' Klezmer Fiddle Express, and has shared the stage with a large cross-section of international Yiddishland performers. Farrell regularly works as a composer and arranger for various ensembles, and was recipient of a 2016 composition residency at the prestigious and beautiful Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. He has studied accordion in Macedonia, Serbia, Germany, and Romania, and has played in clubs, concert halls, streets, and serenades all over Europe and North America.
Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell
"Nem mayn vort"
Original songs set to the Yiddish poetry of Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim, Celia Dropkin, and Avrom Reyzen
Available now from DanZone Records
"Nem mayn vort"
Original songs set to the Yiddish poetry of Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim, Celia Dropkin, and Avrom Reyzen
Available now from DanZone Records
