Nat Seelen

Musician, educator, nonprofit leader

Nat Seelen

Nat Seelen is a musician, educator, and nonprofit leader based in Boston, MA.

Nat began his musical training in the preparatory department of New England Conservatory, where he studied jazz, music theory, and early music. He continued at Brown University, where he led the university orchestra and the klezmer band while maintaining a busy schedule of chamber music, jazz combos, funk bands, and pit orchestras. Nat graduated from Brown with a Bachelor’s in Music Theory, History, and Composition and an honors thesis in ethnomusicology focused on klezmer music.

After Brown, Nat moved to Cambridge, MA, where he started the internationally-recognized Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band and developed an active freelance career on clarinet, saxophone, and percussion.

A composer and writer as well as a performer, Nat won first prize in the 2020 Kleztival Bubbe Awards for Best Original Klezmer Tune, first prize in the 2015 Klezmer Company Orchestra Composition Competition and a 2016 Iguana Music Fund grant to write a pedagogical text on klezmer music. Nat reviews concerts for AllAboutJazz and has performed on clarinet, saxophones, and percussion with Hankus Netsky, OktoEcho, The Macrotones, The Longwood Symphony, The Mercury Symphony, and many others.

In past lives, he has been a zookeeper, a comic book librarian, a management consultant, and an AP music theory teacher.

Watch

Idol Suite

Live at the International Jewish Music Festival

Suite 1973

Live at the Burren Back Room

La Rosa Enflorece

Live at Goli's Gallery

Fisher Lid

Live at OBERON

Listen

Concerts

Visit https://ewklezmer.com for up to date concert schedule with Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band.

New Klezmer Studios

Building on more than a decade of study and work with Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band and at festivals, reading groups, jam sessions, and in the practice room, I've created the classes that I always wished I could take as I was learning about klezmer music.


Each is roughly equivalent to an undergraduate course and is designed for advanced students or for serious amateur or professional musicians looking for a deeper grounding in klezmer.


All classes will take place over Zoom and are open to interested learners from anywhere in the world. I’ll be limiting the class size so we can maintain a proper workshop atmosphere, so sign up early to confirm your spot.

Check out the courses page for more information about this season's learning options.

Buy sheet music

Oy Khanike - For Clarinet Sextet and Optional Voice

Full score and parts PDF - $10

Morris Rivesman's "Oy Khanike" is a classic Chanukah song. In this arrangement, master klezmer musician Nat Seelen offers a big band-style version for clarinet sextet and optional vocals, with virtuosic flourishes that lie comfortably within the compass of the clarinet.

Lyrics in Yiddish (original) and English translation.

Online purchasing coming soon! Email nathaniel.seelen@gmail.com to purchase.

Contact

Contact for booking, freelance engagements, recording, teaching, or speaking.

nathaniel.seelen@gmail.com

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