Yale Strom

Yale Strom is an American violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright. Strom is a pioneer among klezmer (musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe) revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities since 1981. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music between these two groups. Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present. He was among the first of the so-called klezmer revivalists to identify the connection between klezmer and lautare (Rom/Gypsy musicians) and explore that connection in his scholarly and artistic works. In the more than two decades since his initial ethnographic trip, Strom has become one of the world's most productive and influential scholar-artists of klezmer culture and history.