The amazingly talented Howard Freund is a regular player and woodwind sub in The Shul Band. The son of a band leader, Howard makes The Shul Band horn section into a horn section. Howard is a gifted player and a mensch and we love him!

Seth happily plays mandolin (one of the early klezmer instruments) in The Shul Band.  It’s one of his favorite things to do.

He also plays guitar and mandolin in groups led by songwriters Matthew Puckett and Jennifer Milich and leads his own ensemble under the name Mad Town, playing Seth’s original music, and Mad Town Horn which plays Seth’s arrangements and interpretations of traditional American music.  Seth is also very involved in music education and is the Director of Creative Music Programs, designing and implementing experiential multi-disciplinary music workshops for schools.

Lisa’s love of music began at age 6 with the study of piano, but her love of singing is rooted in her early days in the junior choir. There she discovered the beauty of harmony and its power to enrich and elevate song and spirit. Lisa has had the privilege of making music with Adam Feder since 1996 and counts performing with The Shul Band among her greatest joys. Lisa’s other great joy is working as an executive leadership, career & transitions coach (lisahartconsulting.com), a second career she began in 2011, following a 20-year legal career. 

Bassist Dave Hertzberg is a New York City native whose versatility is evident in the many diverse styles of music he has performed including jazz, folk, rock, classical, klezmer; music from Colombia, Cuba, Brazil and Peru. He is a member of Pablo Mayor-Folklore Urbano, La Bola, the Rafi Malkiel Ensemble and others. Dave appears on many recordings including Baile! and Corazon (Folklore Urbano), My Island (Rafi Malkiel), Instrumental (Shul Band), Vortex (Shoko Nagai) and 12 Songs (Matt Sherwin). He has toured throughout the U.S., Japan, and South America, and has performed in many leading NYC venues including SOB’s, Highline Ballroom, Knitting Factory, the Living Room and Smalls.

Clarinetist/saxophonist, has performed across the country and around the world. Since arriving in New York in 1995, he’s appeared in small and big jazz bands, rock groups, and other synagogue bands (“though none of them were as much fun as the Shul Band” he says). For a decade he’s been the baritone saxophonist in the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble (under the leadership of Mike Longo, former pianist for Dizzy Gillespie), and he also played baritone with the late trombonist Wayne Andre’s band; co-led the jazz quintet Type II and the New Reed Quartet with clarinetist Perry Robinson; played tenor sax and flute in the Nick Clemons Band (son of “Big Man” Clarence Clemons); toured Sweden with Johanna Grüssner’s big band; and toured the United States and Taiwan with theatrical productions, not to mention appearing in the band for the IFC Films production Camp.

Mexican violinist, singer-songwriter, composer and producer Ernesto Villalobos is at the center of an artistic powerhouse: The Villalobos Brothers. His list of studio credits and collaborations includes musical icons such as Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Antonio Sánchez, Regina Carter, Eduardo Magallanes, Dan Zanes, Sierra Hull, Ana Tijoux, Eddie Palmieri, Lila Downs, and The Chieftains. Today, the Villalobos Brothers are represented exclusively by SRO ARTISTS and their compositions continue to fuse elements of jazz, rock, classical and Mexican folk. Ernesto's improbable friendship and alliance with Adam Feder and the Shul Band was documented by the New York Times in 2007. His music has been a part of every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur service ever since. For more information, please visit: ErnestoVillalobos.com.