Yiddish singer and co-founder of KlezKamp. Born in Oakland, California on September 1, 1946. She studied German lieder and French art song in Israel with Mina Lief. Inspired and coached by Lazar Weiner in New York, Ms. Cooper focused on Yiddish song, concertizing widely. Her CDs include “Dreaming in Yiddish” (1995) and “Ghetto Tango”(2000).She joined “Mikveh”, a women’s klezmer band, and sang in their premier CD in 1998.

Cantorial soloist in Cleveland. She and her husband have a group called Bright Seraphim.

Israeli singer, popular in the 1950’s-70’s whose extraordinary vocal qualities helped define the new Israeli culture. She was originally from Yemen, and often incorporated folk song elements and style into her music. In 1988 she won the Israel Prize.

Soprano. First confirmed cantor in the Humanistic Jewish movement. Specializes in singing in Yiddish, Ladino and Hebrew. Currently with Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble, based in San Diego, CA.
http://www.secondavenueklezmer.com/

Singer, composer, Hebrew kirtan leader, educator. Leader in the international Music for People Organization, and teacher of voice, music improvisation and art. She teaches singing and leads drum circles. Susan is the creator of Mishpacha Music for children and their families. She is the founder of “Tone Deaf Choir” and has an instructional CD, “Toning for Tuning” for the Vocal Discovery Series. One of the originators of Hebrew kirtan which blends call and response chanting of Hebrew text and names of God with joyous sound: a blend of voice, harmonium, and drums. Kirtan, Deikman states “is an ancient Hindu devotional chant form and is similar in its religious passion and intensity to African-American Gospel and Hasidic niggunim.” Susan is known for her style of chanting. She states that she “offers you a powerful, direct, and personally transformative entry to God-realization.” Susan teaches at Elat Chayyim, which is affiliated with the Jewish Renewal Movement.…
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Born in Russia around 1905. Composer and pianist. Lives in Israel.

Born December 29, 1942 in Columbus, Ohio. Currently serving Congregation Ohev Israel, Newark, Ohio as cantorial soloist. Founder and director of Temple Beth Shalom’s adult choir for thirteen years, The Sharyonim, and their children’s choir Shir Chadash. She also served as the cantorial soloist for Kenyon College holiday services. She arranges choral musical selections, accompanying them on guitar. The Sharyonim recorded a selection of their repertoire, including three original compositions by Barbara, in May, 2002, entitled “The Sharyonim Sing.” Copies of may be otained by contacting Barbara at barbara.dowell@pobox.com

American. Born Brooklyn, NY. Opera Composer, conductor and professor of Comosition and Theory. Received PhD, University of Chicago. Currently director of New York City Opera ‘showcasing American Composers.’ Operas include Festival of Regrets, Lilith and A Captive Spirit. Other works include Eishes Chalyil and Letters Home.

American. Cantor. Born in Texas. Founding member of Beged Kefet, a musical Tzedakah collective. Graduated Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion School of Sacred Music in New York, 1986. Master in Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University. Currently Associate Dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. First Cantor to be appointed to a full-time senior administrative position at the College-Institute, 1998. Served as Cantor and Educator at Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, New York, and Fairmount Temple in Cleveland, Ohio, and as the spiritual leader of Chavurat Tikvah in Westchester County, New York. Ellen is married to Rabbi William Dreskin of Woodlands Community Temple.

Emigre German musician who survived WWII in hiding in France. In 1933 left Berlin for Luxembourg and lived there until the invasion of May, 1940. She Spent the war years in Marseilles and small villages around France, performing music, playing, knitting and working and frequently going into hiding or moving from place to place. Her two sons also survived the war as French soldiers. Drobatschewski describes her ordeal of survival in an article called “In Hiding” in Women of Exile: German-Jewish Autobiographies Since 1933, ed. by Adreas Lixl-Purcell.

Born: January 26, 1945, Oxford, England. Died: October 19, 1987, London. Widely acclaimed cellist who died a premature death due to multiple sclerosis. Married to Daniel Barenboim. Convert to Judaism, 1967.

Born in Antwerp (now Belgium) July 28 1610. Died 1678. Portuguese-Jewish, (formerly marrano) from wealthy family with six children. Known to have been a composer and performing musician with other family members of the lute, viols and keyboard instruments. She wrote in the late Jacobean style. Her works for a group of 5 viols were called “symphonies”. Her family were rich diamond merchants. Her father was baptised when Leonora was around 33 years old, but there is no information of any baptism for her mother Catharina Rodrigues. More information about Duarte, along with a bibliograpy, can be found in The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. (p.150)

Born 1928 in Jerusalem. pianist. Known for piano duets.

German-American. Soprano. First known woman cantor, in San Francisco, during the years between 1884-1893, the only currently known example of a nineteenth century woman cantor in America. Born on March 7, 1847 in Stuttgart the daughter of Moritz Eichberg (1806-1892), a cantor of Stuttgart for many years, and Eleanor Seligsberg Eichberg (1811-1881). Julie studied music at the Stuttgart Conservatorium. At age 17, Julie came to America, joining her sister, Mrs. Pauline Weiller, a piano teacher, in Baltimore in 1864. In 1866, she married Jacob H. Rosewald, a violinist and conductor. She and her husband participated widely in Jewish community musical activities in Baltimore. She decided to further her musical studies in Europe in 1870. She began singing opera professionally in America in 1875 with the Kellogg English Opera Company.…
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American. Singer song-writer. Resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Presents programs of songs and humor around the United States. Co-publisher of Jewish Heartland for many years.

American. Rock musician and Jewish music synthesist. Born, New York. Educated at UC Berkeley. Traveled widely in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Israel and Egypt helping influence her musical development. Both parents also influenced her musical tastes as well as exposure to diverse music. Collaborated on a film score directed by Lynn Sachs called “A Biography of Lilith.” Founded Charming Hostess, a hybrid music band, which includes Jewish and Yiddish musical and cultural influences. Her album Trelectic, released on the Tzaddik label, is a song cycle for female voices, but explores the relationship of Asja Lacis and Walter Benjamin, the influential philosopher. Sarajevo Blues(2004) is a CD that witnesses the terror of war. Her earlier work, Eat,(1998) is punk-klezmer.
http://www.charminghostess.us/

American. Educator and composer and lyricist. Parallel in generation to Miriam Gideon, she was born, September 10, 1909, Sventzian, Lithuania. Daughter of Mordecai M. Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionism. Died February 14, 1996, Bethesda,(Rockeville?) MD. at age 86. Studied at the Institute of Musical Art (forerunner to Julliard). Graduated Columbia, BS, 1928, and Master in Music Education, 1932. Married Ira Eisenstein, 1934. PhD from HUC-JIR, 1966. Taught at HUC-JIR (1966-1979); Also attended Teachers Institute of JTS and taught there 1929-1954. Taught at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968-1980 (1978-1981?). Created many teaching materials for her pedagogy and history of Jewish music courses. Publications include Gateway to Jewish Song (1937); Songs of Childhood(1955); and Heritage of Music: The Music of the Jewish People (1972, 1990). Many of her English translations of Hebrew songs became well-known standards sung by Jewish children throughout the US.…
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Born Romania, 1949. Composer. Music Educator and researcher. Immigrated to Israel, 1951. BA Hebrew University; MA New York University, 1976. PhD. Wrote: “An Investigation into Children’s Responses through Drawing, to Short Musical Fragments and Complete Compositions,” Music Education Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, (September 2002): 199, which is available online.

Jewish/Israeli Composer. Pianist. Born in Israel. Served in IDF. Worked as theater composer and musical director. Moved to Boston in 1994, studying at the Berklee School of Music, graduating 1997 in both classical composition and film scoring. She composed scores for numerous TV and film projects. Sharon is currently based in Los Angeles and continues works as a Film, TV and Concert Composer in additional to a parallel career in classical composition and choir music. She serves as the Music Director for Temple of the Arts under Rabbi David Baron. Sharon is on the Board of Directors for the Society of Composers and Lyricists and is currently composing for the Emmy Award winning TV Series “Starting Over”. In 2002, her concert composition “The Third Mother/Mothers Lament” (in dedication to Daniel Pearl) premiered with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.…
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Born, December 3, 1901, Budapest, Hungary. Died, Holon, Israel, January, 1988. Violinist, Master Violin teacher. She conertized all over Europe until WWII. Escaped interment and joined the partisans. In 1949, emigrated to Israel. Taught at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, many of Israel’s new generation of great violinists, including Pinkas Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz, and over 250 other students. Awarded the Golden Medal and Diploma of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Israel prize for the Arts.

Born in Latvia in 1928. Lives in Israel. Pianist, composer and teacher; founding a Conservatory in 1973. Much of her work is for piano or small ensemble. She has published many works for children. Israel Music Center has published many of her works and has a brief bio with a photo.
Sarah Feigin page

Born in New York City. A graduate of Barnard College, with B.A.,(Psychology), she also has a Master¹s Degree in Voice from The Juilliard School. She studied Voice: opera ( Martin Lies, Rose Bampton, Daniel Ferro) and Jazz Improvisation (voice-Janet Lawson, piano-Haim Cotton). She also studied Classical Piano (Jeaneane Dowis, Aspen Festival) and Composition (McNeil Robinson). As composer/arranger and editor at Transcontinental Music company in New York, she has written and arranged numerous pieces of solo and choral Jewish liturgical music. She produced, arranged, and music directed the 2-CD set Kol Dodi: Jewish Music for Weddings (2002). Also for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, she arranged and produced the recording Songs from a Passover Haggadah (1997). She is co-founder, vocalist, and keyboard artist of the West End Klezmorim, and wrote music and lyrics for the off-Broadway revue Hot Klezmer; she has been assistant music director and vocal coach for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre.…
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American. Born 1907. Died 1981. First woman performer with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. More information held at the Maryland Historical Society in the Baltimore Symphony Series of Oral Histories.

Vocalist. American cantorial singer. Born the child of Holocaust survivors in Haifa, Israel in 1945. Involved in interreligious community work. Performs Jewish music in concerts, lectures at colleges, churches, the media, schools and other interreligious venues. Currently lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and serves as cantorial singer at Temple Judah. Musical training through the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Born in Chicago, IL, September 28, 1913. She showed musical promise by age five, and received a scholarship to study at Chicago Musical College 1919-1922. In 1924 began studying piano with Djane Lavoie-Herz. In 1925, she attended the American Conservatory in Chicago. She studied composition with Ruth Crawford and counterpoint with Adolf Weidig. In 1931 she studied with Roger Sessions in New York. She composed dissonant “ultra-modern” music. She taught at Julliard School of Music, and NYU. From 1964 until her retirement in 1987, Fine taught at Bennington College in Vermont. She founded the American Composers Alliance. She received numerous grants and awards including National Endowment for the Arts in 1974. Judith Cody completed a bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press) of her works which included 140 compositions. She died at age 86 in March, 20, 2000.…
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Noted concert critic of German original, who emigrated to Great Britain during WWII. Born, Germany 1893. Died Britain, 1977. Co-founder of “Club 1943” with Monty Jacobs and Adele Schreiber, a cultural forum for emigres in London during the war. Also worked on various newspapers. The Cultural Association had patterned itself after the Kulturbund founded in Germany when Jews lost their right to participate in mainstream cultural organizations under the Nazis.

Born: Paris, 1896. Died: December 31, 1975. Opera singer active in Canada and Europe. Founded the “Sarah Fischer Concerts Series” for Canadian youth in 1940. Papers held in the National Archives of Canada.

Israeli composer born 1946 in Haifa. Website includes a brief biography, a discography of CDs, a list of compositions with information about publicaton, manuscript, or performance, or recording and some links to articles by the composer.
http://members.nbci.com/tsfleischer/

Israeli cellist and composer. Ms. Forbes studied voice for five years with Amalia Ishak.In August 2005, she studied with Allison Crum and the Rose Consort at the Dartington International Summer School. Ms. Forbes is a student of Philippe Pierlot (viol) and Reinhilde Bovend’aerde (Baroque singing) at the Royal Belgian Conservatory, where she specializes in Historical Performance.
http://vereddagamba.com/

American. Cantorial singer, educator and children’s camp specialist. Currently Judaic Program Coordinator and songleader, Capital Camps, Camp Benjamin, 3rd-6th grades, Waynesboro, PA. Dr. Foster holds a PhD in American Studies, George Washington University(1993); MA Philosophy, George Washington University; MA Anthropology/Archaeology, SUNY Buffalo; and BA English, SUNYC Oswego. Dr. Foster is a performer, Jewish Folk Arts Festival, Rockville, MD; Music Specialist, pre-schools, 4th-7th grades, retreats, 6th-10th grades; Student Cantor, adult, Children’s and Tot, services HHD; Student Cantor Bar Mitzvah and Memorial Services, Bat Mitzvah training, Shabbat services; Sunday School Coordinator and teacher; Music Specialist summer camps in area; Jewish meditation group coordinator, facilitator. She is a member of the Women Cantors’ Network. She has also been a part-time Professor Montgomery College, Germantown, Maryland, in History. She resides in Germantown, MD.…
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British. Born Vienna, October 3, 1936. Composer and teacher. Grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home. Studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Studied composition with Bernard Stevens, Jeremy Dale Roberts and Harrison Birtwistle. Her musical style incorporated many aspects of Jewish music, such as chassidic melodies. She wrote stage and vocal music including “Nine lessons from Isaiah” (1970), and “The Dancer, Hotoke” (1991); chamber music such as “Shir” (1983) and “The Moon of Moses” (1992); and orchestral work such as “Osen Shoomaat” (1985).

Israeli violinist. born September 9, 1946 in Romania. won the Paganini International Competition in 1968. Married Paul Biss.

American. Pianist. born 26 April 1898. died 25 Jan. 1990, in Seattle, WA. Active during the 1940s and 50s touring in the “Cavalcade of Jewish Music” with her husband Maurice. Often obtained arrangements from various well known Jewish composers. During World War II played for troops. Retired to Seattle. Papers in the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

American vocalist, teacher, songwriter. Runs workshops for elders and youth in California.Member of jazz a cappella group Vocolot with Linda Hirshhorn and others. Has recorded several CDs of her original music.

Instrumentalist with Freylach Time! Klezmer Dance Band. Durham, North Carolina. A review of Riki’s album Freylach Time

Israeli born-American based mezzo-soprano. Teacher and Vocal coach. Discovered by Jennie Tourel. Studied voice at the Juilliard School of Music and Piano at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. Ms. Gal won prestigious awards such as the Paris and Munich International Voice Competition, and Young Concert Artists in NY. Gal has sung at top opera houses and festivals all over the world, such as La Scala, Paris, Covent garden, Vienna, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe, & Pesaro. Gal sung with conductors such as Von Karajan, Abbado, Mehta, and with major orchestras such as New York, Israel and the Berlin Philharmonic. Gal has appeared in the title role of Carmen in Peter Brook’ s Theatre and Film production of La Tragedie de Carmen. Gal has recorded for major record labels including RCA, CBS, Philips and EMI.…
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Vocalist. Comes from a long line of eminent Persian classical music Iranian singers and also cantors. Currently singing with Divahn a Middle Eastern and Sephardic group. Studying for PhD, Anthropology, University of Texas.
www.divahn.com