“A bracingly modern, mind-blowing flight into a very new Jewish-Balkan sonic atmosphere”
— LA Weekly
Toronto-based Canadian world/roots fusion band Beyond the Pale performs their boundary-busting Eurofolk fusion to kick off an extended weekend of Jewish music which culminates with the UCLA American Jewish Music Festival: Music Crossing Boundaries. Inspired by Klezmer and Balkan styles, but influenced by everything from jazz and classical music to bluegrass, newgrass and reggae, Beyond the Pale’s music traverses a vast and exotic musical landscape, bound by no particular idiom and shaped by many. Their stellar musicianship, meticulous dynamics, adventurous compositions, and inventive arrangements of traditional material make them one of Canada’s most innovative acoustic ensembles. Though individual virtuosity abounds within the group, the collective sound always takes precedence, conveying the deep and generous bonds of creativity that unite these longtime collaborators.
Beyond the Pale has performed at festivals, theatres, and clubs across Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia and Brazil, including the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, NY’s famed Carnegie Hall, and the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland. The group celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018.
Throughout their career, Beyond the Pale has received wide critical acclaim and a number of honors for their recorded. The band features Aleksandar Gajic (violin), Bret Higgins (bass), Milos Popovic (accordion), Eric Stein (mandolin, mandocello), and Martin van de Ven (clarinets).
This performance is made possible by the Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. It is copresented with the Skirball Cultural Center.