When violinist Richard Schmoucler founded the Sirba Octet in 2003, he created an entirely new sound. With arrangers Cyrille Lehn and Yann Ollivo, five fellow musicians from the Orchestre de Paris, a pianist and a cimbalom player, he formed a unique ensemble with a fresh perspective on klezmer, Yiddish and gypsy music.

 

- Richard Schmoucler, violin & artistic director
- Christian Brière, violin
- David Gaillard, viola
- Claude Giron, cello
- Bernard Cazauran, bass
- Philippe Berrod, clarinet
- Christophe Henry, piano
- Iurie Morar, cimbalom

 

 

Isabelle grew up in Paris listening to her mother’s vocal exercises, her grandmother’s scales and the marvelous stories that her father told her. She took to the stage for the first time with the Victor Cuno company in From Harlem to Broadway, and then performed in Marilyn de Montreuil, Chère Daisy, Happy Feet, and La Crise est Finie, thus becoming a “triple threat:” a singer, dancer, and actress.

in Paris, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2005 (where she won The Fringe Award for best singer), on tour in England, in Holland, at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2007 (Australia). She produced and performed the French version of December Songs by Maury Yeston (with French lyrics by Boris Bergman), at the Théâtre du Renard in Paris and at the Avignon Festival.

She wrote and performed La French Touche at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Du Shtetl à New York with Sirba Octet at the Île-de-France Festival, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany) and at the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. With Josette Milgram, Isabelle crafted and directed Cabaret Terezin, at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris. With Richard Schmoucler, she conceived Yiddish Rhapsody which she performed with Sirba Octet and the Pau Symphonic Orchestra, first at the Palais Beaumont in Pau and La Cigale in Paris, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées then at the Liège Salle Philharmonie in Belgium in 2015.

Isabelle was the special guest of Victoires de la Musique Classique, special guest of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Chorégies d’Orange, and special guest of the Radio Classique Festival in Olympia. Isabelle won the Charles Oulmont Foundation prize 2011.

 

 

Program:
01. Besarabyé

02. Bei Mir Bistu Shein (To Me You're Beautiful)

03. Ukrainian Memory

04. My Funny Valentine

05. Medley
- Happy as the day is long
- If I Only had a brain
- S’wonderful
- I gotta right to sing the blues
- The man I love
- Stormy weather

06. Amol Iz Geveyn A Mayse (Once upon a time there was a story)

07. Tanz!

08. Alexander's Ragtime Band

09. Over The Rainbow

10. Evenou Shalom Alechem

11. Fiddle

12. Rhapsody In Blue

13. I Got Rhythm

14. A Yiddish Name

15. Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen (Raisins and Almonds)