Joel Rubin

Joel Rubin 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 ... more

Joel Rubin 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 “Musa” Berlin, Seymour Rexsite and Miriam Kressyn, Leon Schwartz, Sid Beckerman, Pete Sokolow, Danny Rubinstein, Ben Bazyler, and Leopold Kozlowski, he was the founder and clarinetist of some of the most internationally respected klezmer ensembles, including the... less