Zoë Aqua: violin, composition
Réman Gergely: cimbalom
Szopos Kálmán: brácsa
Dénes Károly: bass

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.

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, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

Event organised with the support of the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and the Local Council.