About

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Isabel Frey is a Yiddish singer, ethnomusicologist and political activist. In her search for a secular and politicized Jewish identity in the diaspora, she discovered the Yiddish music tradition. Frey has since become one of the leading Yiddish singers and Klezmer experts. She completed a PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she now works as a Senior Artist at the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology.

She regularly performs in various ensembles both domestically and internationally, including at the Yiddish New York Festival, Singera Festival Warsaw, Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem, and the Shtetl Berlin Festival. From 2023 to 2024, she was part of the Austrian Foreign Ministry's "New Austrian Sound of Music" (NASOM) funding program.

In 2020, she released her debut album "Millenial Bundist," and in 2022, the debut album of her vocal duo "Soveles" with Esther Wratschko. Her latest album "Di Fliendike Pave" was released in 2024 by the New York Yiddish music label Borscht Beat.

In addition to her artistic activities, Isabel Frey is also active as a curator and music mediator. She regularly teaches Yiddish music workshops at international festivals, such as KlezKanada and Yiddish Summer Weimar. Since 2024, she is the curator of the KlezMORE Festival Vienna.

She is also an activist for a just peace in Palestine-Israel and the co-founder of the Jewish-Arab peace initiative Standing Together Vienna, part of the One State Embassy Art Collective. She also regularly offers workshops on a just struggle against antisemitism.