Arts Editor

Make your bubbe and zayde proud. Join a klezmer band."

A sign with those words changed Seth Kibel's life.

"After my bar mitzvah, I rebelled against my parents and didn't do many things Jewish," says Kibel, 34, who was a student at Cornell University when he saw that sign.

"I didn't know anything about klezmer and went to the Cornell library and got some [klezmer] recordings. I listened to them and fell in love with the music," notes Kibel, whose group, The Alexandria Kleztet, has a new CD and several local gigs lined up this month and next.

Actually, it wasn't only the revelation about klezmer, but also about music in general as a possible career that came to him during his undergraduate days.

He had always thought of music as a hobby, the Pikesville, Md., resident recalls, but in college, he discovered that "it gave me more joy than anything else. I found that I loved playing for audiences, loved connecting with other musicians and the audience.

"When I graduated, I decided to try being a musician and if that didn't work out, I would get myself a real job."

Now a music teacher -- he teaches in the Baltimore area -- as well as a musician, Kibel had moved to Alexandria in 1996 after graduating from Cornell, playing in rock bands and teaching. But two years later, he says, the call of klezmer got to him, and the woodwind musician founded The Alexandria Kleztet, an instrumental quartet that has just released its fourth CD, Peace, Love and Coffee.

The group has a "split personality," says Kibel. At weddings, b'nai mitzvah celebration and the like, the repertoire is mainly traditional, but for albums and public performances, "we like to include influences from other genres like rock 'n' roll, jazz and classical music." In addition, the audience also may hear original numbers that are klezmer-inspired.

The Alexandria Kleztet's current composition includes violinist Helen Hausmann from Washington, with the group since 2005; percussionist Tim Jarvis of Alexandria, a member since 2000; and bassist Scott Harlan of Bethesda, also with the quartet since 2000.

Kibel is the Kleztet's only Jewish member, and he says that "one of the exciting things about the klezmer revival is that there are many non-Jews playing and listening to the music." He likens that phenomenon to that of jazz and the blues moving from the black community into general American culture.

All three musicians had some familiarity with the music before joining the band. "Music is an international language so they felt comfortable playing it, but they had to spend time learning it," he says.

Harlan, 34, concurs. The Bethesda resident is a professional audio engineer, as well as a musician, and his Golden Sound Studio recorded and mixed three of the group's four CDs, including the most recent.

He says he joined the Kleztet after teaching together with Kibel in Virginia. As non-Jews forming three-fourths of a Jewish music group, he, Hausmann and Jarvis have discussed the unusual situation in which the three find themselves.

"The many intricacies in Jewish and klezmer music are what define them," Harlan says. "Learning that and performing it authentically is a challenge, but a fun one. That has been one of the draws -- even though we aren't Jewish we love playing the music."

The quartet will perform in several free public concerts during the summer. Audiences may hear music as varied as "Dodi Li" from the Song of Songs; the Yiddish classic "Bei Mir Bist Du Schein"; and the Israeli "Bashana Haba'a" (Next Year).

The Alexandria Kleztet (www.kleztet.com) will perform at Lee District Park in Alexandria on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; in Potomac Overlook Regional Park in Arlington on July 25 at 7 p.m.; at the First Sunday Arts Festival in Annapolis on Aug. 2 at noon; and on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in the District on Aug. 26 at 6 p.m.