is a professional klezmer musician on the guitar and mandolin, a dance leader, author and Yiddish activist. He holds a degree in Jazz Guitar from the HfMT Cologne. Andreas leads workshops on Yiddish musical culture and Yiddish theatre. Together with New York-based director Jenny Romaine, he brought the Yiddish purimshpil “Megille Reloaded” (Di Megile fun Itzik Manger) to the stage for the North Rhein-Westphalia Jewish Culture Days in 2011.  He is currently planning another Yiddish Music youth workshop for the fourth edition of Klezmer Worlds Gelsenkirchen (October 2013). He is fluent in Yiddish and as an artist is particularly interested in the interplay of Yiddish language, music and dance, and their relationships to other cultures.

Andreas tours regularly with his ensembles A Tickle In The Heart and Voices of Ashkenaz, and teaches Yiddish dance and his primary instruments, guitar and mandolin at festivals and workshops such as KlezKamp (New York), KlezFest (London), Klezmer Paris, Klezmer Festival Stockholm, and many others.
He has had the honour of taking the stage with stars of the international klezmer and Yiddish scene such as Deborah Strauss, Shura Lipovski, Pesakh Fiszman (blessed memory), Frank London, and Efim Chorny.

He has spent the last two years in his capacity as a Program Assistant at Yiddish Summer exploring, among other things, the parallels between Western European and Yiddish folk music and dance. Through these explorations in the field of folk songs, he came upon an amazing wealth of sources, which will present in concert with the Voices of Ashkenaz. He also teaches at the dance workshop and is offering the Yiddish Children's Songs course together with Diana Matut for the second time.

>> www.yiddishfolk.com
>> www.fidlroyz.com
>> www.schmitges.com
>> www.megille.de