About us.

Susi Evans (clarinet) & Szilvia Csaranko (accordion & piano) are exceptional musicians who are passionate about the tradition of klezmer music and other European folk styles. Both are classically trained musicians; Evans graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Music and Csaranko trained as a classical pianist.

Based in Hannover and London, they met at Yiddish Summer Weimar and formed a duo in 2019. They have worked alongside pioneers of the klezmer revival such as Alan Bern and Frank London as well as in collaboration with the Dante String Quartet and members of Orchestra of the Swan.

The duo have performed and taught at all the major klezmer festivals including Yiddish Summer Weimar, Klezfest London, Yiddish New York and KlezKanada.

In 2020 they released their first duo album, Klezmer from the New World, which was described by Songlines as “a brilliant duo recording with superb instrumental playing”. In 2021 Susi & Szilvia published the Klezmer Playbook and founded the KlezmerPlaybook CLUB.

Susi is a founder member of UK-based bands She'Koyokh and the London Klezmer Quartet with whom she has recorded eight studio albums and toured Europe, New Zealand, Brazil and six times in Australia.She has performed as a soloist with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Swan. She appeared regularly on London's West End stage in the National Theatre's smash-hit production of War Horse and has toured with BAFTA-winning composer Jocelyn Pook, the Mahogany Opera Group and worked as musical director for Limbik Theatre.

Susi was awarded second prize in the 2020 International Clarinettist Corona Competition.
Susi grew up close to London, attended the Purcell School of Music and after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music continued her studies in Istanbul with Selim Sesler and at the Plovdiv Academy of Music in Bulgaria where she studied clarinet, accordion and gaida (Bulgarian bagpipes).
She is a Head of Faculty at Klezfest London and regularly teaches at all the major international klezmer festivals.

Szilvia was born in Budapest, raised in Germany, and comes from a Hungarian family of professional musicians. She started training as a classical pianist at the age of six. She graduated from the University of Hildesheim in Cultural Education Studies. She discovered her love for the accordion when she began searching for her own musical roots through intensive study of Eastern European folklore and klezmer music.

Szilvia lives in Hannover and works as an accordionist, pianist and arranger with numerous ensembles and projects all over Europe. She is one of only a handful of accordionists in Germany specialising in traditional Yiddish music.
She is co-founder and musical director of the Klezmerorchester Erfurt - an 80-piece klezmer orchestra of amateur and professional musicians from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Their motto "KlezWeCan" brilliantly reflects this project that brings together musicians of all generations and musical backgrounds.