Eyal Vilner Big Band Concert: The New Roaring Twenties!

The bandstand is a sacred place.-Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center

The Eyal Vilner Big Band is back on Eldridge Street for a concert bringing a unique and fresh voice to classic traditions of jazz, swing, and the blues.

Jazz music is communal music, coming from Black American communities around the country, but especially in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. It helped people rise, process good times and bad, and lift spirits. It is because of the music's appeal to the full spectrum of humanity—hardship, joy, love, anger, serenity—that jazz, including lindy hop and swing, became so widely loved, and came to define the 1920s and beyond, both at home and abroad.

The history of jazz is also inextricably linked with the Eastern European Jewish immigration story. Benny Goodman, the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants and known as "The King of Swing," led one of the first integrated jazz groups during an era of racial segregation. Before moving to New York City, Goodman got his start at Chicago's Kehelah Jacob Synagogue, where he received his first clarinet. The iconic jazz musician Louis Armstrong banded together with the Jewish community of New Orleans over shared struggle, and got his start as a young boy working with the Karnofsky family, recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. He wore a Star of David around his neck for much of his life as an affectionate tribute to them. Of course, you cannot forget Irving Berlin, himself a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, whose music forms some of the most iconic jazz standards, and what would become the Great American Songbook.

Join the Eyal Vilner Big Band as they revive this iconic music for a new Roaring Twenties in 2025. The program will include reimagined classics in addition to a selection of original compositions.

Concert Tickets (Include Museum Admission):

Adult $30 (at-the-door $35); Student / Senior $25 (at-the-door $30); Child 5-17 $15 (at-the-door $20); Child under 5 FREE; Cool Culture Pass / SNAP Benefits $5

There is no reserved seating.

About the Eyal Vilner Big Band:

Eyal Vilner is one of the leading voices in the New York and global swing scene. Born in Tel Aviv, saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer, and bandleader Eyal moved to New York in 2007 and started his big band the following year. The Eyal Vilner Big Band has been performing widely in New York City’s landmarks such as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, Birdland, Dizzy's Club, Smalls, Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem Jazzmobile, and Central Park SummerStage. Internationally, Eyal has performed at the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem Theater; Ghent Festival, Belgium; Teatro Alameda, Spain; Théâtre Plaza, Montreal, CA, as well as Paris Jazz Roots, the historical La Bellevilloise, Le Duc des Lombards, and Caveau de la Huchette in Paris, to name a few.

Eyal's interest in the exchange between sound and movement within the jazz idiom inspired his musical journey and yielded collaborations with acclaimed dancers and choreographers. Among these projects are theater productions, dance festivals, and competitions such as the International Lindy Hop Championships in Harlem and the celebrated SW!NG OUT show at the Joyce Theater (co-creator and musical director). This show, which The New York Times has called "Groundbreaking," has toured throughout the US, in venues such as Jacob’s Pillow and the LA Music Center.

The big band performs Eyal's original compositions as well as his new arrangements of jazz classics. Their music, which derives from the tradition of jazz, swing, and the blues, strives to bring a unique voice to this beautiful art form. The big band’s first seven albums: Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band, Almost Sunrise, Hanukkah, Swing Out!, Live in Washington Square Park!, The Jam!, and Swingin’ Uptown received rave reviews and made it to the Top Jazz Radio Charts of the US and Canada.

Learn more about Eyal and the band at eyalvilner.com.

About the :The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark that has been meticulously restored. Opened in 1887, the synagogue is the first great house of worship built in America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Today, it is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public who wishes to visit Jewish New York. Exhibits, tours, public programs, and education initiatives tell the story of Jewish immigrant life, explore architecture and historic preservation, inspire reflection on cultural continuity, and foster collaboration and exchange between people of all faiths, heritages, and interests.

Image Credits: Benny Goodman (third from left) with some of his former musicians, seated around piano left to right: Vernon Brown, George Auld, Gene Krupa, Clint Neagley, Ziggy Elman, Israel Crosby, and Teddy Wilson (at piano), 1952. World Telegram & Sun photo by Fred Palumbo. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain; Erin Flynn, Eyal Vilner Big Band Concert, Courtesy of the Museum at Eldridge Street, April 14, 2024.

Host or Publisher Museum at Eldridge Street