History

The band was founded in 1986 under the name Kol Simcha in Switzerland as a duo with Josef Bollag and David Klein. Their main interest being focused on the musical genre Klezmer

Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...

 they played on weddings until their succes grew and they started giving concerts. The name, Kol Simcha (Kol: voice, Simcha: feast, joy) is a blessing, spoken on Jewish weddings and means literally "the voice of joy". This English translation is also the name of their own production company and record label (VOJ)

Over the years the band grew to its current line up of five musicians - Michael Heitzler (clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

), Olivier Truan (piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

), Ariel Zuckermann

Ariel Zuckermann

Ariel Zuckermann is an Israeli conductor.Ariel Zuckermann began his musical career as flautist. A student of Paul Meisen and András Adorján, he also took master courses with Alain Marion and Aurèle Nicolet...

 (flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, previously Roman Glaser and Niki Reiser), Daniel Fricker (double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

), and Christoph Staudenmann (drums, previously Fabian Kuratli (†) and David Klein).
The band has toured extensively literally all over the world, playing countless concerts, recording several CDs and doing live appearances on radio stations such as BBC.

Kol Simcha - The World Quintet has repeatedly collaborated with classical orchestras such as the highly regarded London Mozart Players

London Mozart Players

The London Mozart Players is a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. The LMP is the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom whose performances and recordings focus largely on the core repertoire from the Classical era...

, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Basel Symphony Orchestra. The band provided parts of the film music for Caroline Link's Oscar-nominated drama Beyond Silence in 1998 and composed the entire soundtrack for Xavier Koller's film biography Gripsholm in 2000.

Discography

• Traditional Jewish Music (1990)
• Contemporary Klezmer – Voice of Joy (1993, Hearts of Space Records
  Hearts of Space Records
  Hearts of Space Records is an independent record label owned by Valley Entertainment.From the label’s website, “Launched in 1984, this record label was created as an extension of the weekly syndicated radio show Hearts of Space...
  
  )
• Crazy Freilach (1996)
• Symphonic Klezmer (1996)
• Klezmer Soul (1997, Hearts of Space Records
  Hearts of Space Records
  Hearts of Space Records is an independent record label owned by Valley Entertainment.From the label’s website, “Launched in 1984, this record label was created as an extension of the weekly syndicated radio show Hearts of Space...
  
  )
• Live! (2000)
• Gripsholm (Soundtrack) (2000)
• The World Quintet (2003)
• Selma – in Sehnsucht eingehüllt (2005), poems by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
  Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
  Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger was a Romanian-born German-language poet. A Jew, she was a victim of the Holocaust and died at the age of 18 in a labor camp in Ukraine....
  
  
• Noah (2007)