Dennis Lichtman is a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, mandolin, fiddle, and more) who has
been living, performing, composing, and teaching in New York City since 2002. He is a
Selmer Paris Artist as an endorser of their Signature Clarinet. His music was recently
used in director David Simon’s The Plot Against America (HBO) and he has appeared this
year as a clarinetist on Succession (HBO) and The Blacklist (NBC).
Lichtman’s newest album, Secret Workshop, features eleven original compositions inspired by
the strange, unusual, and revealing objects he discovered in the off-limits workshop of his
late father, an eccentric and extremely private inventor/machinist/mad-scientist. The
project was made possible with a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and
includes a music video directed by award-winning Mexican animator Fer Lozada. Prior
albums include Jerron Paxton & Dennis Lichtman, a duo effort with the young lion of
acoustic blues formerly known as “Blind Boy” Paxton, and Just Cross the River, featuring
original compositions inspired by the migration of jazz legends into the borough of
Queens, NY beginning in the 1920’s. Lichtman is also a member of ragtime quintet The
Lovestruck Balladeers and Ghost Train Orchestra, whose 2023 album of Moondog’s
music is a collaboration with Kronos Quartet.
Since 2007, Lichtman has been the clarinetist and bandleader of the famed Tuesday
night traditional-jazz jam session at Mona’s in downtown New York, which was profiled
in the New York Times, and has been described by the Wall Street Journal as “ground
zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players.”
Lichtman has performed at Carnegie Hall, major festivals throughout the United States,
and on stages in Europe, Brazil, and China. He is on the faculty of several jazz and string
music camps and workshops, and has led college master classes and school workshops
through the Midori Foundation, Lincoln Center’s Meet The Artist Series, and Beijing’s
Ping-Pong Productions.