Available now!
In a Sea of Stars
Zoë’s new album, a collection of live recordings from the Transylvanian Synagogue Tour, is available now on Adhyâropa Records!
Thank you Songlines Magazine for this rave review!
About Zoë:
In a 150 year-old synagogue in Satu Mare, Romania, Zoë Aqua felt an inexplicable at-home-ness. The vaulted ceilings were painted with stars and every note pouring from her violin was bathed in heavenly reverb. An enthusiastic audience came out to hear her play compositions inspired by the lost music of the Jewish people that populated the city before WWII, assimilation and emigration broke the chain of cultural transmission. From 2021-2023, Aqua lived in Romania doing ethnographic research on a Fulbright grant to study Transylvanian folk music. Her performances in two venerable synagogues appear on her forthcoming live album, In a Sea of Stars, due out in Summer 2025. It’s a collaboration with three musicians from the folk revival scene in Cluj.
The Transylvanian fiddle sounds like the countryside looks — wild, raw and earthy. Every region has its own hyper-local style. In Mezőség, for instance, the powerhouse string bands emit a tidal wave of sound with hardcore melodies underpinned by purely major chords. In Szék, Aqua learned to play the brácsa (a flat-bridged viola) from a shepherd with 780 sheep, 5 goats and 4 dogs, which he used to scare away bears and ward off local thieves. In Maramureș, a rural region in the northern mountains, Aqua travelled the rutted roads full of horse carts and tractors to meet homesteading musicians whose minor modes and slow slides had traces of the kind of Jewish music prevalent there before the war.
In a Sea of Stars sees Aqua looking at klezmer music through a Transylvanian lens. For instance, “Suita Românească” begins with “Goldenshteyn învârtită,” a seldom-played melody that Aqua infuses with an irregular rhythm called învârtită. The rhythm comes from a Transylvanian couple dance originated from Romanian dancers, but became a key part of Hungarian dance sets as well. It's an example of different ethnic communities living side by side for centuries. The rhythm is hypnotic and the dance style smooth and gliding. The suite continues with “Bapolyer hârțag,” a well-known klezmer tune recast in a rhythm called hârțag. “Hârțag is a dance rhythm I associate with one of my mentors in Transylvania, the fiddler Ioan Hârleț ‘Nucu’,” explains Aqua. “When I think of him, I think of the rolling hills near his house on the edge of the town… an open field, people walking by with horses and carts, dogs running after every car.” Aqua is like a musical apothecary, collecting songs in the wild and then steeping, distilling and tincturing each one into a potent medicine.
Aqua was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She played Suzuki violin while her dad led songs at their local synagogue and played klezmer music on the weekends. After college, Aqua lived in Brooklyn for a decade amidst a generous and progressive Jewish community that stoked her love of old klezmer recordings and her fascination with Eastern European music. She co-founded two klezmer bands, Tsibele and Farnakht, and was the full-time understudy for the Klezmatics’ Lisa Gutkin in the Broadway production of “Indecent.” Long passionate about teaching, Zoë holds two degrees in music education. She has performed at Philadelphia Folk Festival, Klezkanada Festival, Yiddish New York Festival and has toured in Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey.
upcoming performances
Fall 2025 tour dates! For more info, you can reach out to me through the “Contact Me” link.
10.6 —Brooklyn, NY — Ira Temple album release at Jalopy Theatre.With David Licht, Kirsten Lamb, Dan Blacksburg, Eleonore Weill, Dan Blacksberg, and Raffi Boden. Tickets here.
10.8— Washington, DC— Ira Temple album release! Tickets here.
10.9— Philadelphia, PA — Ira Temple album release! Tickets here.
10.11— Boston, MA— Ira Temple album release! Tickets here.
10.12— Provincetown, MA— Ira Temple album release! Tickets here.
10.13— Northampton, MA— Ira Temple album release! Tickets here.
10.14— Brooklyn, NY— Concert with AANI. Tickets here.
10.19— Cluj, Romania— Concert at Tranzit House with Florin Kodoba and the Palatka Band. DM me for more info.
10.20 — Ghimeș, Romania— video recording for the Hangőrző series!
10.24-29 — Boulder, CO — Teaching and performing residency with Anthony Russell and Dmitri Gaskin at the University of Colorado.
10.27— Boulder, CO— Colloquium (open to the public) about Transylvanian folk music and the Transylvanian Synagogue Tour. Presented by CU in partnership with the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative at the Yiddish Book Center. DM for exact time and place.
10.29 — Boulder, CO — Concert with Anthony Russell and Dmitri Gaskin. More info here.
Coming soon in November: solo tour of the UK! DM me if you want to help me plan a show in the UK. Also, album release concerts in Romania!
US tour February 2026
We are working on our biggest project ever: bringing the Transylvanian band from Romania to the US for a 3-week tour!
Visa costs alone will be between $4000 and $7000 (the range is wide because the process is increasingly unpredictable, and could involve us having to pay an expediting fee). We have hired a lawyer to help us through the process.
If you would like to help defray the costs of work visas for Kálmán, Károly and Gergő, you can make a tax-deductible donation here:
teaching
Zoë holds two degrees in music education. She established the music department at Family Life Academy Charter School II, located in the South Bronx, and taught there from 2012- 2020. In addition to elementary general music, she also taught a thriving after-school violin program.
In addition to her extensive work with children, she is a sought-after teacher of klezmer for musicians of all ages and instruments. She was the director of klezmer programming at the Brooklyn Conservatory from 2018-2021, growing the klezmer ensemble there and establishing the Klezmer New Leaders Fellowship, a training and mentorship program for women and gender-nonbinary musicians. She has presented engaging workshops at Klezkanada, Yiddish New York, Yiddish Summer Weimar, Friling Festival in Austria, and Klezmer Rendezvou in France, as well as coachings for the Cornell University Klezmer Ensemble, DC Klezmer Series, and many more community klezmer ensembles around the US.
Her educational interests include helping beginner- and intermediate-level players build strong musicianship skills in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere.
TRAINING & CERTIFICATIONS
Professional Level Certification, Music K-12, New York State Board of Education
Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Music Education, University of Michigan
Master of Music in Music Education, Ithaca College
Certified in Music Learning Theory General Music Level 1
Certified in Suzuki Violin Book 1
Zoë’s BLOG
Hi! Thanks for reading my blog :) This blog is a place to record my thoughts and experiences during my Fulbright research grant during the 2021-’22 and 2022-’23 academic years.
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Website design by Signal Boost
Violin fern illustration by Thomas Bloch
Blue violin backdrop by Risa Aqua