Tsvey Brider (meaning “two brothers” in Yiddish) is a Yiddish songwriting, arranging and performing duo. Formed in 2017 after winning the Concurso Internacional de Canciones en Idish (Der Idisher Idol) in Mexico City, Tsvey Brider has gone on to be featured in the Gorki Theatre’s Radikale Jüdisches Kulturtage (Radical Jewish Culture Festival), tour across Poland and perform for culture and music festivals both nationally and interntaionally.

Inspired by the work of an international group of twentieth century Jewish writers and poets, Tsvey Brider is an outfit for the musical exploration of contemporary life in the Yiddish language. This has led the duo to write, arrange and perform in a diverse array of styles and genres including contemporary classical, cabaret, blues and pop in addition to the sounds of Jewish Eastern Europe that have traditionally accompanied music in the Yiddish language.

The members of Tsvey Brider (Anthony Russell and Dmitri Gaskin) have performed and recorded with such noted artists as Anthony Coleman, Daniel Kahn, Josh Dolgin/SoCalled, Michael Winograd, Sarah Aroeste, Michael Alpert, Alan Bern, Yale Strom and Veretski Pass.

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell

Anthony Russell is a vocalist, composer and arranger specializing in music in the Yiddish language. His solo work in Jewish music has brought him to stages in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, London and Tel Aviv, Symphony Space in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Limmud Fests across the United States and Europe.

His work in traditional Ashkenazi Jewish musical forms led to a musical exploration of his own ethnic roots through the research, arrangement and performance of a hundred years of African American roots music, resulting in the EP Convergence (2018), a collaboration with klezmer consort Veretski Pass exploring the sounds and themes of one hundred years of African American and Ashkenazi Jewish music.

An essayist in a number of publications including Jewish Currents and Moment Magazine, Anthony lives in Massachusetts with his husband of seven years, Rabbi Michael Rothbaum.

Dmitri Gaskin

Dmitri is an accordion player, composer, and arranger specializing in Klezmer and Polish folk music. He performs with several klezmer bands throughout California, including Baymele, Tsvey Brider, and Saul Goodman's Klezmer Band, and has taught for KlezCalifornia. Dmitri was the accordionist and music director of the 2022 production of Indecent at the San Francisco Playhouse.

Outside of klezmer music, Dmitri won the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for contemporary classical composition. He also formed Harmonikos, a performing collective of young composers and musicians. Dmitri has studied accordion with Josh Horowitz and Alan Bern.