Musician Biographies
Abigale Reisman (violin)
Abigale Reisman is a violinist, composer, improviser, and educator. She received her bachelor's degree in classical violin performance at The Manhattan School of Music, where she became involved in the contemporary music scene and klezmer music. She went on to receive her master’s degree in contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory. There she developed her compositional skills while working in a rich collaborative environment. Reisman has toured the world performing klezmer music, classical music, rock music, and contemporary music. She has shared the stage with such musicians as David Krakauer, Anthony Coleman, Jeffrey Zeigler, Amanda Palmer, Sarah Jarosz, Hankus Netsky, and Jherek Bischoff. Reisman currently lives in Boston, where she performs with and composes for several bands, including Ezekiel’s Wheels, Romanian quartet Mierlita, a metal band, an Italian pop band, and various free improvisation ensembles. Abigale Reisman’s Website
Jonathan Cannon (violin)
Jonathan Cannon has studied a wide range of world music, with particular focus on klezmer, lautareasca (Romanian), and modern contra dance fiddling styles. He performs regularly on violin, guitar, and tenor guitar for concerts and social dances across New England. In his other life, Cannon holds a PhD in mathematics from Boston University and is first author of six peer-reviewed journal articles in computational neuroscience. He is a committed music educator as well as a performer: working around his academic career, he gives violin lessons to students of assorted ages and levels, organizes regular klezmer jams at Boston Workmen’s Circle, and runs fiddling and ear-training workshops at camps, festivals, and schools. Following his passion for community building through music, he organized the inaugural Brown University Folk Festival, and he currently cochairs the programming committee for the annual New England Folk Festival. He is a casual player of the mandolin, banjo, jaw harp, and bodhran (Irish drum), and he is becoming increasingly serious in his musical training on nose flute, washboard necktie, and singing saw. Jonathan Cannon’s Website
Kirsten Lamb (bass and vocals)
Kirsten Lamb is a double bassist and vocalist originally from northern New Jersey. Praised by the Boston Globe for her “versatility and assurance” and the Huffington Post as a “brilliant young musician,” she has performed extensively throughout the United States and internationally. Lamb graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory in 2009 with a bachelor of music degree in double bass and ethnomusicology. She also holds a master of music degree in contemporary improvisation from the New England Conservatory, where she was awarded the Gunther Schuller Medal upon her 2015 graduation for “extraordinary contributions to the life of New England Conservatory.” An avid teacher, Kirsten maintains a private studio and is on double bass faculty for the Wellesley Public Schools, Bridge Boston Charter School, Dana Hall School of Music, and New England Conservatory’s Jazz Lab. She holds a weekly teaching residency through Young Audiences of Massachusetts serving Horizons for Homeless Children, and another through the Brookline Early Education Program serving Brookline Public Schools. In addition, Lamb is a frequent guest teaching artist and workshop leader at universities and grade schools all over Greater Boston. Kirsten Lamb’s Website
Nat Seelen (clarinet)
Nat Seelen is a musician, educator, and nonprofit leader based in Boston. He began his musical training in the preparatory department of New England Conservatory, where he studied jazz, music theory, and early music. He continued at Brown University, where he led the university orchestra and the klezmer band while maintaining a busy schedule of chamber music, jazz combos, funk bands, and pit orchestras. Seelen graduated from Brown with a bachelor’s in music theory, history, and composition and an honors thesis in ethnomusicology focused on klezmer music. A composer and writer as well as a performer, Seelen won first prize in the 2020 Kleztival Bubbe Awards for Best Original Klezmer Tune, first prize in the 2015 Klezmer Company Orchestra Composition Competition, and a 2016 Iguana Music Fund grant to write a pedagogical text on klezmer music. Seelen reviews concerts for All About Jazz and has performed on clarinet, saxophones, and percussion with Hankus Netsky, OktoEcho, The Macrotones, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Mercury Orchestra, and many others. He is the founder and artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music. Nat Seelen’s Website
Pete Fanelli (trombone)
Pete Fanelli began playing trombone at the age of eight. Not long after, he received his bachelor’s degree in jazz performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He has studied trombone and jazz improvisation under Central New York Jazz Orchestra member Joe Colombo, Professor Mark Kellogg and Dr. Howard Potter at the Eastman School, Steve Frank, and Curtis Fuller, and he has played with the Gap Mangione Big Band, the Dave Rivello Ensemble, and the Eastman Jazz Ensemble. He currently belongs to Eastman Broadband, an ensemble that has given him the opportunity to collaborate with renowned composers and conductors Juan Trigos, Carlos Sanchez-Guitierrez, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon in contemporary music festivals in Italy, Mexico, and the United States. Fanelli has shared the stage with such musicians as Slide Hampton, Avishai Cohen, Peter Erskine, Dick Oatts, John Fedchock, Marian McPartland, Rufus Reid, David Berger, Pat LaBarbera, Gerry Niewood, and Rich Perry. He has taught trombone and improvisation through the Eastman Community Music School and currently maintains a teaching studio at the Holliston School for the Performing Arts in Holliston, Massachusetts. Pete Fanelli’s Website
