Sometimes, a traffic jam can produce a great idea.
That’s exactly how KvetchUP, Colorado’s newest klezmer band, came to be.
It was February 2025 when Eviatar Shlosberg and his friend Alyx Saeva found themselves stuck in traffic on I-70 after a day of skiing at Winter Park. They were listening to music on Spotify to pass the time when the subject of klezmer music came up. Shlosberg, who is studying for a master’s degree in trumpet performance at the University of Denver (DU) Lamont School of Music, had co-founded a klezmer group in college. As luck would have it, Saeva is also a musician at DU, a master of the clarinet, one of the indispensable instruments in klezmer music.
As the two friends sat in traffic, they started mentally building a klezmer band with other performers they knew through their DU connections. At that point, they didn’t have a grand vision of the future—they just wanted to enjoy breaking out from classical performances demanded by their academic pursuits into the vibrant and soulful world of klezmer.
“We were just trying to put together a group of performers who were passionate about the music and see what came of it,” Shlosberg says. “It was an opportunity to play music that is extremely expressive, and that can be very liberating.”
Shlosberg drew from Yiddish to name the band—“KvetchUP.” He admits that he is a kvetcher—a bit of a complainer. But the “UP” in the band’s name indicates that KvetchUP plays klezmer music designed to raise the spirits and uplift the soul. One year after the two co-founders were stuck in traffic, the six youthful musicians who comprise KvetchUP have just finished their first Colorado tour, and they are ready to book your next event.
Why klezmer?
Klezmer is a musical tradition of Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with influences of Jewish cantorial music, Hasidic melodies, and Yiddish and European folk songs. It is music that would have often been played at weddings or other social functions. Immigrants brought klezmer to the United States where it experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s which continued through the ‘90s as klezmer musicians blended traditional folk music with big band, jazz, and popular music.
“In a klezmer performance, you are encouraged to take risks with melody, tempo, and style as you experiment and arrange music how you want,” says Shlosberg. “One song is soulful, somber, and raw and the next one is hyper, and you can’t resist dancing. When I hear a good group, it feels like pure communication coming straight from the performers to the audience. It’s very uninhibited and there is something alluring about that.”
Today, klezmer has gone mainstream with groups like the Grammy-award winning “The Klezmatics.”
“For the general population, klezmer is not cool, but I love the music and the cool factor is not important to me,” Shlosberg says. “Also, I love the klezmer community. It’s warm and tight and supportive of each other. Everyone just wants to share what they know.”
Traditionally, many musicians are born into the tradition of playing klezmer music. Not so for Eviatar Shlosberg. He is the only musician in his family, but he remembers hearing mainstream Hasidic music around the house when he was growing up. He notes that his family’s roots are Ashkenazi—from Hungary, Lithuania, and Germany.
“Playing klezmer offers an element of connecting to the history of my ancestors and the traditions of the past,” he says. “That is an important reason for me to play this music.”
The group that Shlosberg and Saeva put together evolved over time and now includes Shlosberg on trumpet, Saeva on clarinet, Zach Regin, a French Horn player who handles keyboard duties, Eva Toncheva, a Bulgarian-Canadian violinist, Joe Ricard on tuba, and Chimera Cameron on percussion.
Not everyone in the group is Jewish, but they all have something in common.
“We all share a curiosity about klezmer culture and a desire to learn,” says Shlosberg. “We just enjoy playing music together.”
KvetchUP played its debut performance as a featured group at the Lamont Wind Ensemble concert at DU. They have also been booked at Festo Festo, Denver’s monthly klezmer concert. Before long, the group had added its reputation to Colorado’s growing klezmer scene and the next stop was to go on tour.
Book KvetchUP now!
KvetchUP just returned from their first tour during DU’s 2026 Spring Break. Subsidized by a grant from the University of Denver, the band did four concerts in four days around Colorado, including on college campuses, at synagogues and at a retirement home. Every venue has asked them to return for repeat performances. Some of the venues apologized for not filling the house.
“We were just happy anyone showed up!” says Shlosberg with a laugh. “Many Jews are not familiar with klezmer, so by presenting it live to communities, we are creating a shared cultural experience and having fun.”
KvetchUP is booking events for 2026 including weddings and b’nai mitzvahs. For as much joy as KvetchUP is bringing to its audience, the performers are taking away their own reward.
“In music school, you can get burnt out and stop enjoying playing your instrument,” Shlosberg says. “I was looking for a way to make it fun and reignite my passion for music. In klezmer, I found it.”