40th-anniversary kick-off and new album preview in New York January 9

‍ ‍🎶 The Klezmatics: We Were Made for These Times

‍ ‍40th Anniversary World Tour Kickoff & New Album Premiere
📅 January 9, 2026 | 📍 Sony Hall, New York City

The only Grammy-winning klezmer band launches their 40th Anniversary World Tour with an unforgettable night at Sony Hall — celebrating four decades of fearless, genre-defying music.

‍ This milestone concert marks the live premiere of new songs from their forthcoming album We Were Made for These Times — a powerful collection of songs of protest, hope, and resilience. Drawing on the band’s deep Yiddish roots, the album features powerful collaborations across cultures and traditions.

Special guests joining The Klezmatics on stage include:
🌟 Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel
🌟 Lavender Light Gospel Choir, NYC’s iconic LGBTQ+ interfaith chorus
🌟 La Manga, the fierce women-led Afro-Colombian roots collective

‍Expect exclusive previews of brand-new music, beloved fan favorites, and the ecstatic energy that has made The Klezmatics a global force in Jewish and world music.‍ ‍

🎟 Ticket sales support the completion of We Were Made for These Times, The Klezmatics’ 14th studio album.‍‍

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Happy Joyous Hanukkah Tour 2025

The Klezmatics: Happy Joyous Hanukkah Tour 2025

A Festival of Light, Liberation, and New Music

This December, as candles are lit across the country, The Klezmatics — the world’s most celebrated klezmer band — return with their beloved Happy Joyous Hanukkah Tour, honoring both Jewish tradition and bold musical reinvention.

For nearly 40 years, The Klezmatics have been transforming klezmer from nostalgic memory into a living, breathing, revolutionary art form. And nowhere is that spirit more alive than in their legendary collaboration with Woody Guthrie, whose long-lost Hanukkah lyrics were brought to life in the band’s iconic 2006 album Happy Joyous Hanukkah.

In 2025, that album will be reissued in a beautifully remastered vinyl edition, just in time for the holiday season. Audiences will once again dance to Guthrie/Klezmatics favorites like “Hanuka Gelt,” “Spin Dreydl Spin,” and “Happy Joyous Hanuka,” as the band brings the songs back to the stage — full of warmth, humor, and Yiddish soul.

But this year’s tour isn’t only about tradition — it’s also about what comes next. As The Klezmatics prepare to release their 14th studio album, The New York Sessions, in early 2026, this Hanukkah tour will feature exclusive live premieres of brand-new material. These new songs continue the band’s legacy of addressing contemporary themes — from migration and solidarity to joy, resistance, and renewal — all through the ecstatic power of Yiddish-rooted music.

The result is a Hanukkah concert like no other: a celebration of light in dark times, where ancient stories meet new melodies, and community is built through dance, laughter, and shared song.

🕯 Whether you’ve been following The Klezmatics for decades or you’re lighting your first menorah, this tour is for you.

DATES & TICKETS

Happy Joyous Hanukkah album reissue

Not many music fans are aware that Woody Guthrie, the American folk songwriter who chronicled the Dust Bowl and the Depression, and penned "This Land is Your Land,” also wrote Hanukkah songs!

This Hanukkah season, as candles are lit across the country, The Klezmatics — the world’s only Grammy Award-winning klezmer band — will re-release their beloved album Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (out Nov 14, 2025, Shamus Records), honoring Jewish tradition, bold musical reinvention, and the icon Woody Guthrie himself.

For nearly 40 years, The Klezmatics have been transforming klezmer from a niche genre steeped in cultural nostalgia into a living, breathing, revolutionary art form. Nowhere is that spirit more alive than in their legendary collaboration with Woody Guthrie, whose long-lost Hanukkah lyrics were brought to life by the band’s iconic 2006 album Happy Joyous Hanukkah.

In 1942, Woody moved to Brooklyn and, through his mother-in-law, the beloved Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, became involved with the Coney Island Jewish community. Guthrie and Greenblatt developed an artistic camaraderie, sharing with each other their stories and poems. Woody was inspired to write songs that were directly inspired by this unlikely relationship, both personal and political.

Identifying the Jewish struggle with that of his fellow Okies and other oppressed and disenfranchised peoples, Guthrie began to fill notebooks with lyrics about Hanukkah, about Jewish history, and about spiritual life. After discovering these unknown treasures decades later, Woody's daughter, Nora, asked the Klezmatics to write new music for her father's previously unpublished lyrics, which resulted in the acclaimed album Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah in 2006..

Now reissued in a beautifully remastered vinyl edition, in celebration of The Klezmatics' 40th anniversary, the band is sharing Woody Guthrie's Hanukkah songs with a new generation of listeners. Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah deftly intermingles klezmer with American folk, bluegrass, and other musical genres, and has become a holiday classic since its original release twenty years ago. This delightful collection is among the best of Woody's work, and The Klezmatics' playful, varied settings and performances have become an indelible part of the Hanukkah tradition.

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The Klezmatics and CTMD parnership

The Klezmatics and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) are proud to announce a new partnership.

For nearly 40 years, The Klezmatics have been at the forefront of reimagining Yiddish and world music, while CTMD — one of New York’s most respected cultural nonprofits — has spent over 50 years preserving and presenting immigrant traditions that enrich our communities.

Through this partnership, CTMD will serve as the band’s fiscal sponsor. This makes it possible for supporters to make tax-deductible donations in the U.S. to help fund The Klezmatics’ upcoming album and vital archival work.

Together, CTMD and The Klezmatics are working to honor the past and build the future of this extraordinary music.

SUPPORT

The "Rhythm + Jews" revisited

Our landmark 1991 album Rhythm + Jews is back, remastered and reissued as Rhythm + Jews: Revisited. All proceeds support the creation of our new 40th anniversary album—listen to the first single Fun Tashlikh and pre-order the LP today!

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Lavender Light Choir will join The Klezmatics in 2025 on their new album and New York show

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New york july 8

Listen to the new Klezmatics demos

🎧 Hear it before the world does.
The Klezmatics’ new album is underway—recording runs through Hanukkah as we bring in incredible guest artists and raise the funds to make it happen.

🎶 Rehearsals have begun, and we already have demos from our sessions with La Manga.

Get this perk and receive exclusive monthly emails with unreleased demos straight from the studio.

Be the first to hear the magic unfold.

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Passover Series 2025

Revisiting Brother Moses Smote The Water legendary album and shows

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Gospel Meets Klezmer: A New Chapter in The Klezmatics & Joshua Nelson Collaboration

We’re thrilled to announce the return of a legendary collaboration: The Klezmatics & Joshua Nelson are reuniting—nearly 20 years after their groundbreaking album Brother Moses Smote the Water first set the stage for this fiery fusion of klezmer and gospel.

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The Klezmatics collaboration with Enver Izmaylov

The Grammy-winning klezmer trailblazers The Klezmatics are teaming up with legendary Crimean Tatar guitarist Enver Izmaylov for an extraordinary new collaboration—both in the studio and on stage.

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