Music Fun with Klezmore Square | Music in the Afternoon

Klezmore Square is the house klezmer band of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills. You'll hear klezmer music - the songs and dances of Jewish festivities - weddings, b'bnai mitzvah, pretty much any simcha, with a few nostalgic waltzes thrown in. Sing along, clap along, stand up and dance around the room.

Musicians:
Claudia Bloom - violin
Dan Pitt - alto horn
Jeff Wolfeld -clarinet
Jennifer Wolfeld - piano
Daniel Cher - accordion
Christy Crews - bass

One-hour concert from 1:00–2:00 PM. Coffee and snacks will be served in the lobby after the concert.

Early Bird tickets are $20 until December 7. General Admission is $30.
No refunds once tickets are purchased.

Claudia Bloom, violin
Claudia began her studies in Berkeley with Anne Crowden. She earned her Bachelor of Music at Manhattan School of Music under Raphael Bronstein and Ariana Bronne,  and completed her Master of Music at Yale School of Music, where she studied with Syoko Aki Erle. From 1982-1990 Ms. Bloom was a member of the Ciompi Quartet in residence at Duke University and a full-time member of the faculty. Currently she plays principal second violin in Opera San Jose since 1993, is a member of the Rosewood Ensemble, and performs as a recitalist and concerto soloist with the Redwood Symphony. She teaches privately and directs the Palo Alto School of Chamber Music for children and adults in Palo Alto. Claudia has greatly enjoyed playing in Klezmore Square since 2018 as it has opened up a whole new world of upbeat, soulful and fun music with wonderful friends from Congregation Beth Am.

Dan Pitt, alto horn
Despite 12 years of piano lessons, Dan cannot play piano (except for one hand at a time). But he learned the scales. He sang in the Madison (Wis.) Boys Choir as a first soprano at age 11, then switched to trombone at age 12. After a fleeting and sorry affair with the bagpipe and many failed attempts at the guitar and banjo, Dan stumbled on the mandolin as a more socially acceptable instrument than the domra, which he played in the University of Illinois Russian Folk Orchestra. He traded the trombone for a trombonium in the Byron Street Band, which plays Dixieland for free and is worth every penny. But for klezmer he plays an E-flat alto horn, because he loves it. In the real world Dan is a computer scientist in Palo Alto, advising global startups to answer the perennial question: So what?.

Jeff Wolfeld, clarinet
Jeff’s piano career began at age 7 and ended at age 9, when it became apparent that playing piano involved making his left and right hands do different things at the same time. Fortunately, he had started playing recorder by then, which soon matured into a clarinet. Since then, he’s played in every sort of classical arrangement from bands to orchestras to solo performances to too many chamber groups to mention. Jeff’s klezmer career started in 2008 when he inexplicably answered an ad to join the Stanford Klezmer Band as a founding member. The students there taught him everything he needed to know, and then they graduated, leaving Jeff to lead the band. His wife Jennifer then joined as bassoonist-turned-pianist, and later they joined with other Congregation Beth Am members to form Klezmore Square. Jeff recently retired from his career as a software engineer at Cisco Systems.

Jennifer Wolfeld, piano
Jennifer grew up in Palo Alto. She has wowed bassoon-loving audiences in the Bay Area, in the Boston area and in Munich, Germany. Together with Dan and her husband Jeff, she also cut her klezmer teeth in the Stanford Klezmer Band, as a pianist providing the essential klezmer rhythmic style. Jennifer is also a linguist, and works at Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley, as a communication and language specialist. She believes language fluency and musical performance both require the same inescapable activity: practice!

Daniel Cher, accordion
To his mother's delight, Daniel began violin at age 9. Before concentrating on medicine, Daniel played violin professionally in New Haven Symphony and New Century Chamber Orchestra. For 10 years, Daniel was violinist in Saint Michael Trio. At age 50, he had an epiphany - in a former life, he apparently played accordion. To achieve musical nirvana, he started playing accordion 4 years ago and is inching ever closer. Daniel runs clinical trials at SI-BONE, a medical device manufacturer in Santa Clara.

Christy Crews, bass
Christy Crews, a former small plane pilot and Zamboni driver, is a Palo Alto native. She obtained her degree in Music after studying at San Jose State, and at the Hartt School of Music in New England. Returning to the Bay Area, Christy became principal bassist in the Carmel Bach Festival before joining the Marin Symphony. She is now a longtime member of the Monterey Symphony, and principal bassist for West Bay Opera and the New Ballet Nutcracker. As a freelance musician she has played professionally with San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and TheatreWorks, with the San Jose, California, Santa Cruz, and Stanford Symphonies, and participated regularly at summer festivals in Aspen, Bear Valley, Lake Tahoe, and Oregon Coast. She also teaches double bass privately, coaches at multiple youth orchestras, and has been a music teacher in the Los Altos and Palo Alto school districts.

Senior Programs are made possible in part by generous contributions from the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund, the John R. Schwabacher Family, Diane and Jon Claerbout, as well as many other individual donors. We are grateful for their generous support.​