Deborah Strauss is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, and dancer of klezmer and Yiddish music. She is a member of the intercontinental group Voices of Ashkenaz and the Yiddish/North German fiddle trio, Figelin. She has performed with the Grammy-winning Klezmatics and appears in the film Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem. Together with Cantor Jeff Warschauer, she is a member of the Strauss/Warschauer Duo, which has performed in venues such as Great Britain’s Fiddles on Fire and the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow, Poland. Jeff and Deborah were both longtime members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, one of the premiere groups of the klezmer revival, and have performed with violinist Itzhak Perlman. They lead Yiddish song and dance workshops throughout North America and Europe and have taught at places such as KlezKamp, KlezKanada, and Yiddish Summer Weimar. Deborah and Jeff are Yiddish speakers, and have researched and collected Yiddish and Hebrew songs and melodies since the 1980s.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/30/2020.