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Lisa Gutkin
| "one hot fiddler"
- Cyndi Lauper
"'Gonna Get Through This World' is a piece of genius"
- Pete Seeger
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photo by William Irwin
Fiddler/composer LISA GUTKIN is one of NYC's
busiest musicians. Her varied musical palette has led to collaborations
with a wide array of artists both in the United States and Europe,
the founding with Greg Anderson of the 'Downtown Celtic' group, Whirligig, and most recently to her joining The Klezmatics.
Born in Brooklyn to a musical family, Lisa's early
memories of sitting under the piano while her grandmother played,
and of folk dancing with her mother, have shaped her career. Playing
in the District, Boro, and City Wide orchestras from age 8 through
high school, she won several awards for her classical playing, and
during her teens she began playing in Rock bands and discovered
Bluegrass and Irish music. While earning her Bachelor of Music degree
at the Aaron Copland School, Queens College, N.Y., Lisa placed
first in the Redwood Mountain Fiddle Contest, traveled to Ireland,
and as part of the Fast Folk collective, performed with The Roches,
Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Richard Shindell, Rod MacDonald, and
Jack Hardy, to name a few.

photo by Fumie Suzuki |
Lisa's versatility quickly attracted the international musical community. She played with the Southern Italian music theater
group I Giullari di Piazza, with Amigos del Tango,
and with Early Music's The Waverly Consort. As an improviser,
she has worked with Jane Siberry, John Cale & Bob Neuwirth with
the Soldier String Quartet, Joe Gallant & Illuminati,
contemporary R&B artist Pru, and poet Imelda O'Reilly with Joel
Diamond on piano. For many years prior to joining the Klezmatics,
Lisa focused mostly on traditional Irish and Scottish music, playing
and recording with some of the best musicians on either side of
the Atlantic: Tommy Sands, John Whelan, Jerry O'Sullivan, Steve
Cooney, Cathie Ryan, and Ed Miller, as well as with Steeleye Span's
Peter Knight and Tim Harries.
Having dozens of composing and hundreds of recording
credits for Capitol, MCA, EMI, Virgin, Narada, Rounder, and many
other record companies, as well as for film, commercial radio and
television, theater, dance, and poetry, some of Lisa's recent compositions
can be heard on episodes of the final season of HBO's
Sex & The City and her cameo on-screen appearance on the
show (with The Klezmatics) is currently being viewed worldwide.
Lisa's composition projects include a full symphonic rendition of her piece "Waiting Still," performed with The Klezmatics and several European orchestras. She was composer, musician and dancer in Dragon Productions' Seeing Is Believing, with Dutch choreographer Maggie Boogaart, and in Jody Oberfelder's Landmark of Dreams, and is currently writing music for Song For New York, a Mabou Mines production to premiere in fall 2007.
Most recently The Klezmatics collaborated with the
heirs of Woody Guthrie to produce: Holy Ground: The Jewish Songs
of Woody Guthrie, which debuted in New York on December 20,
2003. Of the program, which included "Gonna Get Through This
World," (words by Woody Guthrie, music by Lisa Gutkin) that
Susan McKeown sang, Jon Parales of the New York Times said "not
bound by any genre... Guthrie's voice came through."
Lisa's additional theater credits include filling in for Johnny Cunningham in performances of Mabou Mines' Peter & Wendy, Pilobolous Dance
Company's Davenen (with The Klezmatics), several productions
of Ralph Lee's Mettawee River Company, Pat Cannon's Foot & Fiddle
Dance Company, and The Phoenix Theater Company's As You Like
It. She was Music Director for The Lincoln Center
Director's Guild Production Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head
Chopped Off, Music Director for the New York Renaissance Festival
in Sterling Forest, NY, and co-orchestrater for Song of Songs
by Elizabeth Swados.
Respected as well for her teaching abilities, Lisa
leads fiddle styles workshops at folk festivals, as well as master
classes for universities and folk organizations, and many of her
private students are or have gone on to become professional musicians.
Her Artist-In-Residencies include NYU (with Whirligig) in 1998, Defiance College, OH (with Ensemble Galilei) in 1999, and several others with the Klezmatics, including the University Of Washington in Seattle in 2004, The Jewish Music Institute's "KlezFest London" and Maison de la Culture Yiddish's
"Klezmer-Paris" in 2005.
Lisa is currently performing as a soloist, in duo with Pamela Wyn Shannon, and with John Redmond and Brendan Dolan in a band they call An Cré, which means "the earth's clay" in Irish. She can occasionally be heard with The Demolition String Band in their Ola Belle Reed project, and with her bluegrass buddies in Lisa's Pieces. Her unofficially released solo album of original compositions, Sidewalk Angel, can be obtained from
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To contact Lisa, please send an email to .
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