“From the first moment I heard Di Svingers, I knew they were headed toward a big future. The sweet blend of their golden voices carries enough swing and drive to set a whole room in motion.”
— Isabel Frey (Yiddish Singer & Ethnomusicologist)
Mame-Loshn is Di Svingers’ love letter to Montreal, Denver, and the Yiddish language. The 5-song EP features brand new swing arrangements of archival Yiddish tunes, plus their signature medley of Chassidic in America/Chad Gadya. Available on all major streaming services, and for purchase on Bandcamp: https://disvingers.bandcamp.com/album/mame-loshn
1930s and 1940s, including artists such as The Barry Sisters and Moishe Oysher, Di Svingers blend old-school Yiddish swing with modern jazz, and are known for their upbeat, danceable tunes, great Yiddish, and tight harmonies.
Their debut EP, "Mame-Loshn," recorded and mixed at Mighty Fine Studios in Denver, Colorado, was released on October 15th, 2026.
Dubbed "the new Barry Sisters", lead vocalists and co-leaders Ilana Zackon and Chloe Shekinah Resler met at the 2025 KlezKanada Summer Retreat. They decided to sing Moishe Oysher's "Chasidic in America" together at the KlezKabaret, and were met with overwhelming praise and shock that the two had only been singing together for merely a couple of days.
Less than one year later, Ilana and Chloe have performed internationally with a mix of local musicians, as well as some of the original band members from KlezKanada. Their public performances have included: LA Yiddish Day in Los Angeles, California; an Urban Voices Project fundraiser alongside Mostly Kosher's Leaav Sofer in Fullerton, California; headlining the monthly Klezmer and Balkan festival Festo! Festo! in Denver, Colorado; and Di Svingers Live! at Casa Del Popolo in Montreal, Quebec featuring special guest Socalled, sponsored by the Foundation for Yiddish Culture.
Contact Di Svingers for bookings, including private events.
“I'm so happy to see what Di Svingers do--precise vocal harmonies, great Yiddish, great style, and a fresh take on the contagiously fun repertoire of the golden age of Yiddish performance music in America.”
— Jordan Wax (Multi-instrumentalist, Singer, Composer)
Chloe Shekinah Resler is a vocalist, fiddler, and dulcimist originally from Colorado's Front Range and currently based in Los Angeles. As one of the co-founders of Magpie the Band, she played at IBMA's 2023 Ramble Showcase and across Northern Colorado; in 2025, she was an Azrieli Scholarship recipient at KlezKanada. Her music has been described as "casual and conversational" (by Bandwagon Magazine in 2021), and she believes that music should be both honest and fun for everyone. She completed both a bachelor's of Jazz Performance and a master's of Music History and Literature at UNCo. During her time there, she earned an Outstanding Performance from the Downbeat Awards as part of Vocal Lab, and recorded a solo jazz album, Amazilia, in 2019. She also wrote Chapter 10, "The Rise of Queermisia in Jazz: Medicalization, Legalization, and Its Effects" for The Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender (2022). In 2025, Chloe began working on a research fellowship at the University of Denver and the Beck Archives, where she is currently studying the history of Yiddish song in Denver.
Ilana Zackon is an award-winning multidisciplinary performer and creator, originally from Montreal, who currently splits her time between Los Angeles and her hometown. She is an alumni of the Segal Centre for the Performing Art's Jewish Arts Mentorship program, a two-time Azrieli Scholarship Recipient at KlezKanada, as well as an alumni Museum of Jewish Montreal's microgrant cohort program - where she developed and performed her Yiddish concert lecture "Kemfn Tsuzamen: Concert Lecture on the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Soviet Jewry Movement”. Ilana is an accomplished voice over artist for video games, dubbing and commercials with 40+ credits for major brands including Colgate, Buick and Nestea. As a theatre actor, she has performed on stages across Canada, as well as in Edinburgh, Scotland. Ilana is the former host of the Canadian Jewish News’ podcasts Culturally Jewish and Bonjour Chai. She has written numerous articles for the Canadian Jewish News, including under her arts and life column The Jewish Nomad, and has also been published in Kveller.
David Chevan believes in the power of music to create connections, foster communities and create a space for dialog. His open-minded passion for music has led him to explore a wide range of musical realms from singing in synagogue, to playing bass in Jazz, Gospel, Polka, Klezmer groups, as well as a stint in an Italian wedding band. Trained as a Jazz musician, he splits his time between teaching, composing, arranging and performing professionally. As a composer, David is drawn to the intersection of vernacular cultural music and jazz. His works include music for The Afro-Semitic Experience, large-scale pieces for klezmer orchestra and big band, and Jewish liturgical compositions that blend cantorial modes with jazz improvisation. His writing reflects a deep commitment to honoring tradition while pushing creative boundaries.
David performs in a long-running duo with pianist Warren Byrd and co-leads The Afro-Semitic Experience, a genre-defying ensemble dedicated to building bridges between African American and Jewish musical traditions. He also serves as musical director of the Nu Haven Kapelye, Connecticut’s largest klezmer orchestra and big band, and leads Bassology, his swinging jazz group.
With The Afro-Semitic Experience, he has brought audiences together in synagogues, churches, clubs, colleges, and jazz festivals across the United States, celebrating the shared spiritual and social roots of diverse musical traditions.
A passionate advocate for music education, David has proudly served on the board of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation for over 25 years, supporting the next generation of jazz artists and educators.
Jimmy Austin inherited both his first name and first trombone from his grandfather. He brings his intense, expressive, and collaborative style to a wide variety of projects around the Pacific Northwest and is particularly active in Seattle’s Yiddish music community, playing with such groups as the brass band, Shpilkis, and a trio called Tzepl. In addition to performing, Jimmy organizes jam sessions, workshops, and guest artist residencies in Seattle with The Rhapsody Project and other community and heritage music organizations. In 2023, Jimmy was selected as a master artist in the Washington State Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program. Outside of the Yiddish music scene, Jimmy is a long-time band-member of Hot Damn Scandal, from Bellingham, WA, and is a musician and assistant composer for Sara Porkalob's award-winning musical, Dragon Lady.
