Andy
Rubin (5-string banjo, mandolin, guitar)
Andy founded The Freilachmakers with fiddle player David Kidron in 1995. Until that time specializing in American and Celtic folk music, Andy began adapting the "clawhammer" style of 5-string banjo playing to the klezmer genre, which became an essential part of the distinctive FMer sound. Andy also sings and plays mandolin and steel-stringed guitar with the group. He lives with his wife and three children in Sacramento, California, where he works by day as a pesticide toxicologist.
Mark Epstein (clarinet)
Marc comes to the Freilachmakers from the MiraMar Klezmers, a group he co-founded with Israeli accordionist Mira Yemini in the suburbs of Washington, DC in 2002. He has an eclectic musical background that also includes classical music and jazz of various eras and regions. His other passion is entomology - he is known internationally as a specialist in tropical moths. Marc works as a specialist in Lepidoptera for the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture, after spending 15 years at the Smithsonian. He lives with his wife and son in Sacramento.
Felipe
Ferraz (guitar,vocals)
Felipe joined the Freilachmakers in 2000.
He has been playing Brazilian music in the U.S. and in southern Brazil
for over 20 years. His background includes classical and Brazilian folk
music (sambas, choros and bossa-novas). His home language, Portuguese,
has been an asset in exploring the Sephardic repertoire of the band.
Felipe lives in Sacramento, where he works as an educator, with his
wife and son.
Lou Ann
Weiss (string bass)
Lou Ann's background was primarily in
classical music before she joined the Freilachmakers in 1995. Her
sensitive playing provides the glue that turns the Freilachmakers from
five disparate musicians into a working ensemble. Lou Ann lives with
her husband and three children in Sacramento, where she works as a
nurse.
Wayne
Lutzow (Accordion)
Wayne is the newest
member of the Freilachmakers. Trained as a classical accordionist,
Wayne's youngest daughter calls him a "Renaissance Man." He played with
the Oakley Yale Accordion Symphony for seven years as a youth and they,
through Community Concerts Association, played concerts throughout
California for about three years. Wayne has an AA degree in music from
El Camino College and a BA in child development and psychology from
California State University -- Northridge. He is a Pacific Bell retiree
and currently owns and operates Twelve Tone Piano Service. Wayne lives
in Lincoln, California with Diana, his wife of 42 years. Together they
have three daughters, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Annette Brodovsky, who was the Freilachmakers’ fiddler between 2000 and 2005, was killed by a drunk driver on April 2, 2007 as she stood on her friend’s front lawn in Sacramento. Annette was waiting to enter the house to celebrate the Passover seder. A wife and mother of two young children (and happily expecting a third), Annette’s death has been an overwhelming shock to her family, to the Sacramento Jewish community, to the Freilachmakers and to her many friends and fans. We pray that, in the fullness of time, the tremendous pain will recede and we’ll be left with her wonderful music and her multitude acts of lovingkindness to remember her by.
(Donations to help the Brodovsky family can be sent to “Jewish Family Service, 2862 Arden Way, Suite 103, Sacramento, CA 95825”. Please indicate that the funds go to the “Annette Brodovsky Family Memorial Fund”.)