Golem (photo provided)

The Mount Tremper Arts Summer Festival opens its first year Saturday with an evening party that includes a klezmer band whose unlikely namesake is the legendary Jewish Frankenstein of Prague

“I like the name of a monster to describe us,” said the group’s founder, Annette Ezekiel, in a telephone interview from Chicago. “The golem also was a good-hearted monster (who protected the community.) That’s how I think of us.”

The six-piece, New York Ciby-based group, which has been described as an Eastern European folk-punk band, features Ezekiel, accordion and vocals; Aaron Diskin, vocals and tambourine; Alicia Jo Rabins, (a founder of The Mammals, a folk-rock band based in the Hudson Valley) violin; Curtis Hasselbring, trombone; Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, upright bass; and Tim Monaghan, drums.

Band members play traditional klezmer pieces, but with an attitude and musical style that sets them apart, so Ezekiel figured their name should do the same. “I didn’t want any name with ‘klez’ in it,” she said. “There are so many klezmer bands - Klezmatics, klez this, klez that. So I wanted to completely avoid that.”

Like other klezmer groups, however, Golem’s repertoire is highly danceable, which fits neatly into the concept of the Mount Tremper Arts Festival. The season, which runs through Labor Day, is resplendent with dance performances by New York City companies that comprise “world-class, cutting-edge” contemporary artists, said Mathew Pokoik, founder and director of Mount Tremper Arts, along with Aynsley Vandenbroucke. Dance workshops and classes are included in the season as well.

The festival’s opening party also includes a reception for the photography exhibition “SIGNS” and a dance installation by New York City-based choreographer Jill Sigman and DJ Joro Boro. Golem follows.

The band, which typically performs obscure Yiddish songs, in that language as well as Russian, French and more rarely English, has played venues from rock clubs… Link to rest of article and videos of Golem