Ben Brussell

We are very fortunate to have the very talented Ben Brssell providing musical accompaniment and song leading at our services and holidays. Ben is a native of San Francisco, and has been an active professional music producer, composer, band leader, vocalist, violinist, and session and concert mandolinist for nearly 20 years; based in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles, California. Ben is the founder of the world music ensemble KLEZMANIA! and the Luna Nova Quartet. He has also performed and toured with Modern Mandolin Quartet. His focus as an instrumentalist has been to create a unique and powerful voice for the classical and ethnic mandolin.

Bon Singer

The angel-voiced and lovely Bon Singer has sung for Kol Hadash for much of the last decade. In addition to her cantorial soloist repertoire, Bon's extensive musical experience ranges from performance to music research to directing ensembles to composition, teaching and collaborating. She has directed the musical groups Kitka--an eastern European vocal ensemble; Ya El--a spiritual ensemble; Westwind (folk music and ance ensemble; Gradina--a Balkan chorus; and the Festival of Voices put on by Kitka.

Klezhumanists

The Klezhumanists is Kol Hadash's "house" band, lead by "Hornman" Bill Nemoyten. The "Klezhumanists" were formed about three years ago by Bill Nemoyten, the leader, who is a professional musician and retired music teacher. He plays trombone and trumpet in the group. The keyboard player is Lloyd Goldwasser. Claudio Bluer plays guitar and Fred Rosenthal, Lulu Karp and Adam Berson are the violinists. David Berson on sax and Nina Vogel on oboe are the woodwind players. The late Dr. Phil Klein played clarinet and sax with the group when it first started and also arranged some of the music. Bill's grandson Aaron Nemoyten has joined the band as a drummer on several occasions and Claudio's son Ariel Bluer has performed on bass guitar.The group has performed at many Shabbat celebrations, performing both Shabbat and klezmer music. One of their most notable performances was at the San Francisco J.C.C. when they entertained at a meeting of the International Society for Humanistic Judaism. New members are always welcome to join the Klezhumanists. Contact Bill Nemoyten if interested.