Discovering the ‘Saw Lady’ – Natalia Paruz

November 27, 2006 - 3:13 PM by Allison

It all started with an innocent comment in one of the posts a bit lower on this very page. I posted a picture of a Tel Aviv street artists, and the commenter pointed me to a YouTube clip of another Tel Aviv street performer, who plays beautiful music – on a carpenter’s saw:

The clip was intriguing, but kind of fuzzy and very short. So I quickly looked to see if there was more YouTubes of her — and there were more clips of a saw musician, but this one was performing in the New York City subway. Could it be same musician? It only took a minute to tell that the petite bespectacled girl playing with the ecstatic expression on her face was one and the same.

It turns out that her name is Natalia Paruz, she is an expat Israeli living in New York, an established and respected artist who is a street musician as well as an accomplished performer. I learned all about her here on her website – and in this short documentary YouTube clip about her work.

She’s been at it for more than a decade!

Quite the resume:

She performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, with the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Air Moroccan Symphony Orchestra and at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with PDQ Bach composer Peter Schickele and with the Little Orchestra Society. Television appearances include FOX (Good Day New York), ABC (Good Morning America), MTV (Andy Milonakis Show), VH1 (Behind the Music), History Channel (Tool Box). Film appearances include ‘Dummy’ with Adrian Brody. Natalia’s saw can be heard on the soundtracks of films such as El Carnaval Sodoma/Arthuro Ripstein and American Carny.
Radio performances include NPR (A Prairie Home Companion), XM Satelite Radio & WBAI. Natalia received citations of honor from the New York City Council, the New York State Senate and a medal of honor from Paris, France. She was chosen by Time Out New York, the Village Voice, the New York Press and the New York Resident for their Best of New York lists, and was featured in articles by the New York Times, theBoston Globe and Metro New York. Natalia has recorded on Capitol Records, Universal Records and Atlantic Records with such artists as John Hiat.

Her website has a Hebrew section, so she’s clearly still connected to her roots (she says that she never intended to emigrate, but she met an American guy, and stayed in the Big Apple)

All very impressive and entertaining. Big thanks to the commenter who led me to Natalia, whoever you are…

Share with others