The group is currently touring Australia. The mode of transport might have changed but the spirit remains the same.

“A band arrives at dawn at the railway station in a small middle-European country town for a 24-hour sojourn. The musicians find their way around, get to know the locals and lead a rowdy session at the local tavern, before exhaustion sets in as they see in the new day.”

This is the premise of the London Klezmer Quartet’s fourth album, To the Tavern and it bears more than coincidental resemblance to the tour they have currently embarked on. I spoke with Ilana Cravitz (violin) and Susi Evans (clarinet) about the joys and challenges of mounting their fifth tour to Australia in as many years.

London Klezmer Quartet. Photo © Savannah Photographic.

Walking between towns may have been the way a Klezmer group toured through Europe in the past, but now it is more a case of red-eye flights to New Zealand. As one of their friends aptly put it, “If you devote your life to music, you devote your life to tarmac.”

Finding their way around is not such a problem, with...