The fifth episode of the Sounding Jewish podcast features Dr. Phil Alexander. We discuss his background as a performing musician, entrance into the academic field of Jewish music studies, research for his recent book Sounding Jewish in Berlin, and ongoing work on the musical life of the Jews of late 19th and early 20th century Scotland.
Dr. Phil Alexander is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where he works on Scottish-Jewish musical interactions. As part of his research, Phil has championed Russian-born Scottish cantor and composer Isaac Hirshow as part of the BBC’s Forgotten Composers project, and he is currently working on a book and radio projects with the aim of bringing his work on Scottish-Jewish music to both academic and lay audiences. Phil is the pianist, bandleader, and driving force behind acclaimed Scottish world-folk band Moishe’s Bagel, and also performs regularly with maverick English folk singer Eliza Carthy and many other UK jazz and folk musicians. He is also active as a composer, with commissions including the Hippodrome Festival of Silent Film, Northern Ballet, and Edinburgh Tradfest – this last resulting in a concert celebrating the diverse musics of recent immigrants to Scotland. Phil has written widely on klezmer, salsa, Scottish music, and accordions, and his monograph Sounding Jewish: klezmer and the contemporary city was published by OUP in 2021.
