Socalled
Based in Montreal, Quebec, Socalled is a versatile musician and producer. He’s lectured and led master classes at music festivals worldwide, performing on every continent. With six solo albums, his collaborators span generations and cultures over a decade.
Socalled
Based in Montreal, Quebec, Socalled is a versatile musician and producer. He’s lectured and led master classes at music festivals worldwide, performing on every continent. With six solo albums, his collaborators span generations and cultures over a decade.
Josh “Socalled” Dolgin, a Montreal-based pianist, accordionist, and producer, is a globally recognized musician. He has performed and taught worldwide, collaborated with diverse artists, and released six solo albums. Notable performances include Carnegie Hall, the Olympia in Paris, the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and the Arsht Centre in Miami. He’s also known for producing and composing music.
Over his career, Socalled has received numerous awards and nominations, including a German Record Critics Award for his album “Hiphopkhasene” with violinist Sophie Solomon. His EP “The Socalled Seder” gained attention for its innovative Passover-themed music.
Collaborations with renowned musicians like clarinetist David Krakauer led to his successful solo album “Ghettoblaster,” featuring hit songs like “The Good Old Days” and “You Are Never Alone.” He also worked on the funk-meets-Klezmer album “Tweet Tweet” with James Brown’s arranger, Fred Wesley.
Socalled’s discography includes “Sleepover,” nominated for a Juno award, and music for the puppet musical “The Season.” He’s explored Yiddish culture through various projects and received the “Adrienne Cooper Memorial Dreaming in Yiddish” award in 2015. In 2022, Socalled returned to touring, releasing singles, and debuting the final installment of “The Season,” titled “TIME – The 4th Season.”
Outside of music, Socalled is a multi-talented artist, dabbling in cookbooks, cartoons, video editing, and piano playing.
Josh “Socalled” Dolgin, a Montreal-based pianist, accordionist, and producer, is a globally recognized musician. He has performed and taught worldwide, collaborated with diverse artists, and released six solo albums. Notable performances include Carnegie Hall, the Olympia in Paris, the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and the Arsht Centre in Miami. He’s also known for producing and composing music.
“The marriage of voice in performance with quartet arrangements is so profoundly affecting. Impassioned urgency, thrusting back and forth in voice and gesticulation is matched with vivid plucked strings and light bow strokes creating an added heart beat to the dramatic, emotional, yet clearly cerebral lyrics. Never has this famed quartet been seen so in love with the music they were playing. Clearly it had much to do with the wonderful artist leading and guiding them. The material stretched from the early 20th Century, across two world wars to the present; always maintaining a zest for life, for robust self-reflection and cry to action in service of a people, a culture.”