Philip Alexander

Biography

I hold a first in Music, a Masters in Ethnomusicology, and completed my PhD in 2016. My research examines the ways that klezmer and Yiddish music have been reinterpreted and recreated in today’s Berlin, and the relationship of musical practice to contemporary German/Jewish identities. I am particularly interested in the dialogue between traditional musical culture and the diverse performance spaces of the modern urban environment. Prior to joining the Jewish Lives, Scottish Spaces project, I lectured in Music and Culture and Music and Gender at SOAS, and more recently in klezmer and Yiddish song at Cambridge University. Alongside my academic life I am a busy musician. In 2003 I set up the successful world/folk band Moishe’s Bagel – in 2015 the group was commissioned to compose, record and perform a new score to the Soviet silent film classic “Salt for Svanetia”. I am a member of the groundbreaking Mr McFalls Chamber ensemble, and I was for seven years a central part of the Scottish big band Salsa Celtica. I have been a longtime collaborator of English folksinger Eliza Carthy and a regular duo performer with internationally-acclaimed clarsach player and composer Catriona McKay. I am currently recording a duo album with bassist Mario Caribé. My performances and recordings have been reviewed in The Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, Herald, Scotsman and specialist press, and I have performed on BBC Radio 3, BBC 6 Music and Radio Scotland.

Research Interest

Klezmer and Yiddish music Music and space Berlin in the twenty-first century Scottish traditional music and the contemporary city Jewish life and lives in the UK