The Band

KRH with Prairie Home Companion, St. Michelle Winery, Seattle

The Kosher Red Hots are an adventurous vocalist who sings in Yiddish, Ladino and English, and three master instrumentalists on clarinet, accordion, and bass and guitar. Together they play music that turns from spirited to tender while they weave tales, humor, history, and just plain fun into each concert.

Sheila Fox

singer

Sheila draws her vocal and musical sensibilities from both Eastern European Yiddish and Hispanic music. Growing up Jewish in the public schools of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Sheila became familiar with the unique dialect of Spanish (Ladino origins)  and music of New Mexico. Her love for Ladino and Yiddish folksongs led her to research and study with native speakers of both languages. Sheila lived and studied with NEA Heritage Award winner, Yiddishist  Beyle Schaechter Gottesman, and toured Russia with Yiddish Diva Adrienne Cooper and NY Folksbienne Yiddish Music Theater Director, Zalmen Mlotek for Klezfest St. Petersburg.   

Liz Dreisbach

clarinet

Liz was hooked early by the folk clarinet, fueled by a father's obsession with German oom-pah and a Slovakian grandpa who urged her to play the polkas that came out of his Victrola. This led her to intensive clarinet study and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology. Later, she worked for Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival programming over 1,000 multi-ethnic music, dance, and storytelling performances at the country's largest free folk festival.

Liz has played at the Hong Kong Folk Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, for can-can girls, aerialists, and jugglers including The Flying Karamazov Brothers, and at bunches of dance halls across the country and in England. Liz also directs The Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band, enthusiastic classic marching band Americana complete with sedentary majorette.

Eugene Jablonsky

double bass and guitar

Eugene is a freelance bassist based in Spokane, Washington. After retiring from a thirty year career in the Spokane Symphony and teaching public school music, Eugene spends his time playing Klezmer with The Kosher Red Hots, tango with Tango Volcado, and jazz with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra. He also teaches at Whitworth and Gonzaga University.

Laurie Andres

accordion

Laurie Andres has played accordion since 1977 and piano for over 60 years. He plays klezmer music with the Kosher Red Hots and Kesselgarden, New England and Québecois fiddle tunes with Chicken Feathers and the Sono Onos, and English country dance music. Laurie has played for dance and music festivals, concerts, and community dances in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

"In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak," Eastern Washington University
Putting the "Oy" in Oysterville, Washington
The Seasons Performance Hall, Yakima, Washington
A Prairie Home Companion Radio Show and Cruise to Alaska with Garrison Keillor
NPR’s Mother’s Day Show with Susan Stamberg, Benaroya Hall, Seattle
Artown Festival, Reno, Nevada
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Langley, Washington
Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho
Art on the Green, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Where We’ve Been