The Kol Haruach Klezmer Band

Our Band Members


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Our Vocalists

Drummer Brian Choper, Kol Haruach's Manager, is a versatile musician, experienced in Rock, Jazz, Blues, Swing, Ragtime, Klezmer and musical theatre. His music career began at the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Maryland, in whose elite music program he performed with the Jazz band, concert band and symphony orchestras. These ensembles traveled and won numerous awards in competition both domestically and abroad. In 1983, Brian won first prize at the Vienna International Music Festival Competition for classical timpani. While in college, he studied with Marshall Maley, renowned drummer/percussionist, head of the Percussive Arts Society in Virginia. From 1983 to 1985 Brian studied with the late legendary drummer Buddy Rich. In 1985, Brian began playing Klezmer, as the first drummer to play with the Capital Klezmers (at the time one of the top three Folk bands in the country), where he participated in the International Music Festival in Safed, Israel.

Upon leaving Capital Klezmers in 1989, Brian joined the Machaya Klezmer Band, and in 1997 played in and produced the group's second CD, "What A Machaya". This recording became the number two selling Klezmer album for that year and was rated as such in the prestigious Moment Magazine (August 1997). In 1997 (while still with Machaya) he joined Nexus, a highly respected local Rock band. He left both Machaya and Nexus in 2001, and formed his own Klezmer band, The Kol Haruach Klezmer Band. With the Klezmer band moving forward, in 2007 Brian organized three other bands; The Choper Jazz Project (contemporary Jazz), The Jazz Connection (Swing Jazz) and Nexus (classic Rock & Roll), a band named after his 1990's Rock band. He spends most of his time managing these groups.
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Fred Jacobowitz, presently Principal Clarinetist in the Annapolis (Maryland) Symphony is a Juilliard graduate who studied with the late Leon Russianoff. Fred made his New York Debut at Carnegie Hall as the winner of the Artists International Competition.

Some of his awards include the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center Recital Contest, Montpelier, MD (1988); the Guggenheim Concerts Band Performance Award, New York City (1981); the Milton Kahn Memorial Concerto Competition, Westchester, NY (1979).
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Ephriam Wolfolk was born in Benham, KY, and grew-up in Pittsburgh, PA. After High School Ephriam became a member of the US Air Force Band as a Tuba player, but started to study the Double Bass while stationed in Hawaii. Other Air Force assignments included: Florida, Upstate New York, The Republic of Panama and Colorado, where he continued to seek out Bass Teachers. Ephriam is a graduate of the Peabody Music Conservatory and has been a member of several Symphony Orchestras including Principle Bassist with the Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Annapolis, MD orchestras. Ephriam is also an in demand jazz bassist that has toured and recorded with Ahmad Jamal, and others as a freelance jazz player.

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Vladimir Gamarnik – Violin

Vladimir Gamarnik is a brilliant violinist who has performed all over the world. He was born in Baku, Azerbaija, where he attended a special music school for talented children and received a Baccalaureate Degree from the Music Lyceum. He continued his studies at the Baku Academy of Music, where he was awarded the "Soloist and Teacher" degree.

Mr. Gamarnik spent the next twenty years in Baku as a member of the Academic Philharmonic Symphony, and also was the founder and conductor of the Young Musicians' String Ensemble. He also spent six months performing and recording with the Moscow Radio/TV Pops Orchestra. Mr. Gamarnik left Baku in 1989 and traveled throughout Europe performing ethnic music. In 1990 he immigrated to the United States, where he quickly established a reputation as one of the country's outstanding ethnic violinists. He has appeared as a featured performer on several occasions at the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and other concerts and folk festivals, including the 1993 International Klezmer Festival in Israel, the 1997 Lowell, MA Folk Festival, the 1998 National Folk Festival in Dayton, OH, and the 1999 Atlanta Jewish Festival. In the spring of 2001 he performed as violin soloist and led master classes in Germany and in Paris, France.
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Harry Appelman, who participated in a tour of South and Central America as part of the U.S. State Department's 2002 Jazz Ambassadors program, has toured the United States and Canada with the Woody Herman Orchestra (under the direction of Frank Tiberi) and the Artie Shaw Orchestra (under the direction of Dick Johnson). He was a finalist in both the 1987 and 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competitions (finishing second in 1988) and one of three prizewinners in the 1989 Great American Jazz Piano Competition.

Mr. Appelman was named in Washingtonian magazine's February 2003 "Great Music" issue, in their list of Washington, D.C. area's best jazz artists. He currently performs in the area at Blues Alley, the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Twins, and other popular jazz venues. Appelman has performed in groups led by Gary Thomas, George Garzone, Valery Ponomarev, Brian Lynch, Don Braden, Vincent Herring, Jack Wilkins and Walt Weiskopf, among others, and plays frequently with Palmetto recording artists Rumba Club. He has also resided and performed in Boston and New York City -- where he played with numerous creative and respected groups, ranging from trumpeter Scott Wendholt's quartet to vocalist Dakota Staton's trio.

A native of the Chicago area, Appelman began his classical music training in the first grade, later turning to the fusion and rock idioms and ultimately to jazz. After graduating with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois -- where he was honored as a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude -- he went on to earn a Master of Music degree with Distinction from the New England Conservatory. His post-graduate music studies have included work with Jim McNeely, Fred Hersch, Stanley Cowell, Tom McKinley, Sophia Rosoff and other brilliant pianist-teachers.
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Julie Stacy came onto the Washington scene in the late 1980s as the lead singer for Doc Scantlin & His Imperial Palms Orchestra where she came to be known as "The Lovely Miss Julie."

During the course of her career Julie has performed for a number of high caliber events including: the secret wedding of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie Chantal Miller held in St. Albans, England; The New York Library's Centennial Celebration; the grand re-opening of the legendary Rainbow Room in New York City; and the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany.

Julie is in constant demand to perform at public and private events. She has the versatility to play with groups ranging from jazz duos, trios and quartets; to 6-8 piece ensembles; up to 14-piece big bands. You can also request her services as a classical soloist for weddings, funerals and corporate events.
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Meryl was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She has performed all over the world as a singer and actress in regional theatres, on cruise ships and in Tokyo Disneyland. She was a featured soloist with the Pensacola Symphony and currently performs with Doc Scantlin and His Imperial Palms as well as the brilliantly talented Kol Haruach .
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