Hankus Netsky

Hankus Netsky
Born1955 (age 70–71)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Known forFounder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band Chair, Contemporary Improvisation Department, NEC
Awards
  • New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni Award
  • Yosl Mlotek Award for Yiddish culture
  • Louis Krasner Award (NEC, teaching)
  • Lawrence Lesser Award (NEC, teaching)
Academic background
Alma mater
  • New England Conservatory (B.A., M.A. in Composition)
  • Wesleyan University (Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology)
Academic work
InstitutionsNew England Conservatory
Notable works
Film scores, musicals, and klezmer arrangements

Hankus Netsky (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 1955) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist.[1] He chairs the Contemporary Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory.[2][3] Netsky is founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble, and serves as research director of the Klezmer Conservatory Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of traditional Eastern European Jewish music.[4][5] He plays the piano, accordion, and saxophone.[6]

Education

Netsky holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University and bachelor's and master's degrees in composition from New England Conservatory.[7]

Career

He has taught Yiddish Music at Hebrew College[8], the New England Conservatory, and Wesleyan University, and has lectured extensively on the subject in the US, Canada, and Europe.[9] He has also designed numerous Yiddish culture exhibits for the Yiddish Book Center, where he served as Vice President for Education. His essays on klezmer music have been published by the University of California Press, the University of Pennsylvania Press, the University of Scranton Press, the University Press of America, and Hips Road.

He is currently an instructor in jazz and contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory in Boston.[3]

He is musical director for Eternal Echoes, violinist Itzhak Perlman's Sony recording [10]and international touring project featuring cantor Yitzkhak Meir Helfgot, and In The Fiddler's House, a klezmer music video, recording, and touring project.[11]

He served as musical director and arranger for Joel Grey's Borshtcapades ’94[12], and was artistic director for A Taste of Passover[13] and A Taste of Chanukah, PBS and PRI concert productions that featured Theodore Bikel, recorded live at New England Conservatory and broadcast nationally.[14]

He was a consultant, arranger, and featured performer on To Life! America Celebrates Israel's 50th, broadcast internationally by CBS.[15] In December 2002, he conducted the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a special holiday program also featuring the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He has produced numerous recordings, including ten by the Klezmer Conservatory Band.[16]

Honors and awards

He has been the recipient of the New England Conservatory's outstanding alumni award[9] and the Yosl Mlotek Award for the perpetuation of Yiddish culture, and was honored twice by New England Conservatory for excellence in teaching with the Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser awards.[17]

Compositions

His film scores include, Theo Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem (2013)[18], The Fool and the Flying Ship (1991)[19], a Rabbit Ears children's video narrated by Robin Williams, The Forward: From Immigrants to Americans (1989)[3], and The Double Burden: Three Generations of Working Women (1992).[20] He adapted and composed the scores to the musicals Shlemiel the First (1994) (for the American Repertory Theatre)[21] and King of the Schnorrers (2013)[22], and composed the incidental music for the NPR radio series, Jewish Stories From Eastern Europe and Beyond.[23]

His other significant compositions include The Trees Of The Dancing Goats, for Rabbit Ears Radio (PRI), and Chagall's Mandolins, commissioned by the Niew Sinfonietta of Amsterdam.[24]

References

  1. ↑ IsraelPresents, Temple Beth. "Shabes in Upper Remety With Hankus Netsky". JewishBoston. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  2. ↑ "The Musicians Who Came In From the Cold". therecord.media. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  3. 1 2 3 Hirsch-Rechter, Noah (2025-10-03). "In Boston, a klezmer musician is plotting a Jewish musical revolution". The Forward. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  4. ↑ "Hankus Netsky's Oral History". Yiddish Book Center.
  5. ↑ Schwank, Alexander Lapkin (August 2015). "Hankus Netsky". Hadassah Magazine.
  6. ↑ Harder, Debra Lew (2021-09-06). "A Look Into The World of Klezmer Music!". WRTI. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  7. ↑ "Netsky Ph.D. '04 Selected Among The Forward's 50 Most Influential American Jews". Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  8. ↑ "Sounds of Klezmer Music - Speaking Torah Podcast". Hebrew College. 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  9. 1 2 "NEC Alumni Network". NEC Alumni Network. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  10. ↑ WUOL (2021-11-30). "Eternal Echoes for Hanukkah". Louisville Public Media. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  11. ↑ "A heartwarming night at the Fiddler's House". The Tech. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  12. ↑ admin. "Band Members". Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  13. ↑ Times, The New York (2011-04-12). "At JoeDoe, It's Not Passover Without a Playlist". Diner’s Journal Blog. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  14. ↑ "Music staff picks Hanukkah hits". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  15. ↑ "Another Kind of 'Return' by Dr. Hankus Netsky". Huffpost.
  16. ↑ Durkin, Ryan (2024-05-20). "NEC's Graduating Class of 2024 Honored at 153rd Commencement Ceremony in Jordan Hall". NECMusic. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  17. ↑ "The Yosl Mlotek Prize for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture". mlotekfamily.com. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  18. ↑ "Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem". jewishfilm.org. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  19. ↑ Schwank, Alexandra Lapkin (2015-08-20). "Hankus Netsky". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  20. ↑ The double burden : three generations of working mothers. [New York, NY] : New Day Films, [between 2000-2009?]. Retrieved 2026-05-21 – via University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Catalog.
  21. ↑ Lahr, John (1994-07-04). "Bring Back the Clowns". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  22. ↑ "Commonwealth Shakespeare and Suffolk University Present THE LAST WILL World Premiere, Now thru 2/24". BroadwayWorld.com. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  23. ↑ Margolick, David (1995-09-19). "Jewish Stories, Celebrity Voices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  24. ↑ Polacco, Patricia (1996). The trees of the dancing goats (1st CD ed. and book package ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0-689-81193-7.
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