Jay Ungar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jay Ungar (born November 14, 1946 in New York City ) is an American fiddle player and composer.

As a child of an immigrant family, Ungar grew up listening to traditional Macedonian and Hungarian music. After graduating from high school, he got into bluegrass and American folk music. In the 1960s he became a member of Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys and shortly thereafter the Putnam String County Band . In the 1970s he performed at the Towne Crier , a New York club, where he first met Molly Mason , who later became his wife and musical partner. In the early 1980s he founded the Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps , which his wife later helped shape.

With the fiddlers Evan Stover and Matt Glaser and the guitarist Russ Barenberg , Ungar founded the group Fiddle Fever , which released two LPs. In 1984 the group worked with filmmaker Ken Burns on the documentary Brooklyn Brigde . On this occasion Burns got to know their LP Waltz of the Wind and was so enthusiastic about the title Ashokan Farewell that he used it in his next documentary Huey (about the governor of Huey Long ). It eventually became famous as the soundtrack to Long's film The Civil War . Ungar was nominated for an Emmy Award and the soundtrack album for a Grammy . Ashokan Farewell was a classic of American folk music and was among others of Her Majesty's Royal Marines , Mark O'Connor , Pinchas Zukerman , James Galway , Charlie Byrd , Jerry Garcia , David Grisman , the Osborne Brothers ( Sonny and Bobby Osborne ) and Sturr Jimmy added .

In 1991, Ungar married Molly Mason. In the same year, the album American Dreamer with songs by Stephen Foster was created with her, Thomas Hampson , David Alpher , Dave Bargeron , Peter Ecklund , Arnold Kinsella and John Kirk . This was followed by Waltzing with You with music from the film Brothers Keeper, which was awarded at the Sundance Film Festival , and The Lovers Waltz with fiddle music in the tradition of the Appalachians, Scandinavian and Irish music, klezmer and swing and a medley of melodies by James Horner . The Harvest Home Suite, which was released in 1999, features the twenty-minute Harvest Home Suite, recorded with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra .

With the flautist James Galway, the mandolinist Peter Ostroushko and the bassist Steve Rust , Ungar and Mason recorded the album A Song of Home in 2002 . On the album Relax Your Mind they played American dance music with their band Swingology with a focus on country blues and swing.

Web link

swell

personal data
SURNAME Hungarian, Jay
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fiddle player and composer
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City