The Amsterdam Klezmer Band’s roots grow both from the streets and the music conservatory. The band loves tradition and innovation, blows down festival tents, the roof off concert halls and draws tears in theaters. The AKB has been active in making music for more than 25 years. The music of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band is a vibrant mix of klezmer, balkan, ska, jazz, gipsy, oriental and hip hop. It is an energetic mix of styles that is guaranteed to lead to a big party in any live situation. The Amsterdam Klezmer Band inspires worldwide. Bands are popping up in South America covering AKB songs. What distinguishes the AKB from many other Balkan and klezmer bands is the way in which the band, versatile and always developing, keep on managing to give its music a new meaning. The band’s music is always open to deviant or pleasantly disruptive musical influences. That’s why the band sounds fresh and exciting, and they get that back from the audience. The band’s mission is simple: Celebrating life with music together with as many different people as possible. The Amsterdam Klezmer Band makes no distinction between genres, styles, origins, religion, or politics. And that approach proves to work well in many countries. The band not only played at major festivals in Europe such as Lowlands, North Sea Jazz Festival and Sziget, but they also played at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and at the jazz festival in Hong Kong. Festivals, theaters, stages, concert halls, bars or simply in the open air on the street, no stage is too big or too small. The original line-up of the band consists of Job Chajes (sax and raps), Janfie van Strien (clarinet, percussion), Gijs Levelt (Trumpet), Joop van der Linden (trombone and guitar), Jasper de Beer (Bass), Theo van Tol (accordion) and Alec Kopyt (percussion and vocals). Theo van Tol unfortunately passed away in 2023 and was succeeded by Ellen van Vliet. 18 albums have now been released. They entered collaboration with Söndörgő, Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra, Galata Gypsy Band and many others. Soundtracks have been released for, among others, the film “le Chat du Rabbin” by Joann Sfar and music for the nature documentary “De Wilde Stad”.