Born May 23, 1893, Bialystok, Poland.(nee, Burchstein). Died September 28, 1963, Los Angeles, California. Soprano. Sang with the Chicago Opera and internationally in over 500 performances. Popular for her performances in Italian operas. Opened a school in the 1930s in Chicago with her husband, Giacomo Rimini. A webpage devoted to her has some wonderful photos and more about her opera performances. A biography has been written by Charles Mintzer called: “Rosa Raisa: A Biography of a Diva with Selections from Her Memoirs” published by Northeastern University Press.

http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Raisa__Rosa/hauptteil_raisa__rosa.html
and
http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/books/rosaraisa.htm

A widely acclaimed composer and pianist who studied in Israel and the United States and now works internationally, including the US. Ms. Ran was born in Tel Aviv. While primarily a classical musician, Ms. Ran has written several works both on Jewish themes, including an opera The Dybbuk, and and works with Jewish musical content, including klezmer-influenced music and several liturgical settings. Ms. Ran won the Pulitzer Prize in 1991. Her music is published by Theodore Presser which has an excellent page dedicated to her music, her publications, her biography and a discography. It includes a photo.
http://www.presser.com/composers/ran.html

American. Born, Knoxville, Tennessee. Rabbi. Singer-songwriter. Geela-Rayzel Raphael is the co-creator of Shabbat Unplugged– a musical, rockin’ Shabbat service; sings with MIRAJ, an a cappella trio; and New Shalom, which offers lively interactive Shabbat services for synagogues and street performance. She has been writing songs for over 20 years. Her debut CD was Bible Babes a’ Beltin -strong songs of biblical women. In addition, she has recorded two CDs with MIRAJ. Her songs tend to be lifecycle ritual songs, ballads of Jewish women, and Hebrew/English liturgy. Rabbi Raphael is the daughter of Mitchell and Natalie Robinson. She received a BA from Indiana University in religious studies, and a Masters in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Brandeis University. Rayzel studied at Machon Pardes and the Melton Center for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.…
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A lyric soprano whose voice was often described as  ravishing, Judith Raskin stressed purity of sound, clear diction, and the musical line. Born 21 June 1928, in New York, Judith grew up as an only child of teachers Harry A. Raskin and Lillian Mendelson Raskin. She studied both violin and piano as a child, but discovered singing, and sang in the glee club of Roosevelt High School in Yonkers. She studied voice with Anna Hamlin and acting with Ludwig Donath at Smith College, graduating 1949 with a BA, and along the way winning various scholarships and awards including the Harriet D. Barnum Award. Smith College later also awarded her an honorary MA in 1963. She won the Marian Anderson Scholarship for two years 1952 and 1953, and in 1956 won an award by the Musician s Club of New York.…
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A composer and singer. Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed on texts of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others. In Israel she has written music for symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles.

Born in Leningrad. (Now St. Petersburg). Composer and singer. Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed on texts of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others. In Israel she has written music for symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles. Works include “Requiem”, performed in 1989 at the Kremlin, Moscow; “The song of the Murdered Jewish People” on a poem by Itzhak Katzenelson; soundtrack for Kastner’s Trial”.…
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Born in Amsterdam. Daughter of Lin Jaldati. Singer. Specializes in Jewish song.
http://www.milch-und-honig.com/jalda_rebling.htm

Born 14 July 1904, in Vilna, Lithuania, Nadia Reisenberg moved with her family to St. Petersburg in 1915 where she studied piano at the Conservatory under Leonid Nikolaiev. After the Russian revolution, the family moved, going from Vilna, where Nadia played in the Gelios Theatre accompanying movies, to Poland where she concertized with the Warsaw Philharmonic, to Germany. The Reisenberg s came to America in 1922. Under the helpful largesse of Isaac Sherman, Nadia gave private recitals and began to build a reputation.

With less than one year of study with Alexander Lambert in New York, she gave her American debut on 17 December 1922, playing the Polish Fantasy by Ignace Paderewski, with the composer at the performance in the Century Theatre. With sterling reviews by the press, the young Miss Reisenberg began to receive invitations for more recitals.…
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Conductor of the Russian Women’s Melody Choir of Chicago, an ensemble of women who are all immigrants from the fromer USSR. The choir performs in Yiddish, English, Russian and Hebrew.

American. Born April 9, 1924, Cavala, Greece. First female synagogue cantor. At age 4, she moved to Poland with her family. As a youngster there, she convinced the local cantor to teach her to sing for synagogue, (which he agreed to do if she cut her braids!) In 1938, the family escaped from Poland to Australia. There, she met and married an American service man and moved to US, settling in Oceanside, New York. In 1955, she was appointed cantor at Temple Avodah for their High Holidays. The New York Times ran an article on August 3, 1955, quoting Reform officials that she may have been “the very first woman cantor in …Jewish history.” She continued to teach children and serve as a cantor in various synagogues in places she lived, and on Jewish holiday cruises.…
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American cantor. Born, 1956. Graduated (with Erica Lippitz) in May, 1987 as the first women from the Jewish Theological Seminary to be awarded the degree of Hazzan. Spanish teacher, and international banker before entering the Seminary. Cantor Barugel works at Congregation B’nai Israel in Rumson, NJ.

Israeli violinist. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Studied at Tchaikovsky Academy of Music. Received Doctorate. Immigrated to Israel 1974. Member of Israel Philharmonic as a first violin. Teacher at Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.

Lithuanian singer, sister of of Leyb Rozental, a prolific writer of song texts. He wrote many songs performed by Khayele in the Vilna ghetto during the Holocaust years. If you have information regarding this singer, please contact the JMWC. Thanks.

Singer Songwriter. Sings Orthodox popular music. Her CD is Ani L’Dodi. Some clips on site.
http://rachelrubin.net/MainMenu.htm

Yiddish folklorist, ethnomusicologist and song collector. Ruth Rubin collected and notated over 2000 Yiddish songs. Ms. Rubin sang the Yiddish folksongs, often unaccompanied. She made documentary recordings such as “The Old Country” on Folkways Records, with other folksingers such as Pete Seeger included in the project. In a documentary about her life and work, “A Life of Song: A Portrait of Ruth Rubin” by Cindy Marshall, Ruth Rubin states that her parents moved to Montreal in 1904 and she was born there in 1906 as Rifkele Royzenblatt. She was born on Sept. 1, 1906. (Mark Slobin, in his new introduction to “Voices of a People” lists her as being born in Khotin, Romania.) At age 5, her father died. She attended The Aberdeen School, a Montreal Protestant school, and in the afternoons, a Jewish secular “shule”, the Peretz Shule,– getting an immersion in Jewish Yiddish culture.…
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The following article was supplied by her daughter, Naomi Rudinow Cohen.

Ruth Leviash was born in Odessa, Russia, July 24, 1890. She studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Odessa, graduating in 1917. She married Moshe Rudinow, (who also graduated in the same class,) on February 28, 1917. In 1919, they left Russia and toured though Europe, reaching Palestine in 1920, where they joined the First Palestine Opera Company. Moshe and Ruth sang in operas and concerts throughout Palestine until 1927, when she and her husband sailed to the United States. Their son, Jacob was born in Odessa in August 1919, and their daughter, Naomi was born in Tel Aviv in July 1925. Both reside in California. Ruth lived with Moshe, (Cantor of Temple Emmanuel,) in New York until 1948, when he retired and they moved to Oakland, California to be closer to the children.…
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American. Born NYC, nee Moskowitz. Composer. Pianist. Accompanist. Died Feb. 12, 2004 at age 93. Married to a Cantor, Saul Meisels in 1935. Focused on creating accessible music that would be “timeless and well-received by people of all ages.” She wrote, arranged or orchestrated more than 400 songs — many of which have been performed by famous Jewish musicians. Her daughter Florence Nelson told the Miami Herald “She knew that much of what she wrote would be possible for cantors, choirs and children to sing,… She wanted to keep the music of Judaism alive.” Ida frequently accompanied her husband and other cantors for recitals and concerts. She discovered her talent for composing later in life, and it became a passion. “Music was her life,” Nelson said.…
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Israeli bassist, composer. Co-Founder, Eve’s Women (1997), an all female group of jazz, klezmer, and rock. Also founded Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers,(2002), a contemporary world fusion music group based in London. Studied, Manhattan School of Music in New York. After graduation, she joined theEast-West Ensemble in Israel for seven years. Performed in Israel with The Israel Orchestra, The Israel Northern Orchestra, The Israeli Opera Orchestra, and The Beer-Sheva Sinfonietta. Released the CDOut of Border in 2002, and the CD “Eve’s Women” Sadeh has performed at numerous international festivals along with her work in her various ensembles. She currently resides in England. Sadeh’s profile and list of works available from Rainlore website.
http://www.rainlore.demon.co.uk/Artists/DaphnaSadeh.html Her website describing her life, various ensembles includes photos and audio clips from her two CDs.…
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Israeli-born Canadian music pianist, teacher. Born 1918, Israel. Died, 1992 Toronto? Canada. Studied piano with Stefan Wolpe in Israel. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and earned the LRAM, 1944 in piano, voice, and conducting. Studied with Harold Craxton and Sir Henry Wood. Following the war, Samsonov returned to Israel and began performing and taught. In 1954, she moved to Toronto,Canada, where she taught piano. She was a Jewish music educator in Toronto for many years.

Born 1914, Brooklyn, N.Y. Broadway singer. Also sang in opera and on television. Graduated Cornell University, 1935. Known for her role in “The King and I” with Yul Brynner on Broadway. Founded “Speech Dynamics Inc., where she became a speech consultant to politicians and public personalities. Her papers, ranging over 75 years, are held at Cornell University Library Rare Books and Manuscript Division, where a finding aid is available online. Information about Dorothy Sarnoff from the “Guide to the Dorothy Sarnoff Papers”, Cornell University.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03147.html

Dancing in the Wind is the Website for Roz Schwarz, a Jewish musician living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She performs and composes music in a variety of settings. She is currently Canadian Regional Representative for the Children’s Music Network. She is also a photographer. The website includes lyrics and songsheets for many songs of her music.
http://www.dancinginthewind.ca/entrance.htm

Singer. Wife of Israel Segal, director of the Ghetto theater in Vilna, who had four revue programs between mid-1942-Sept. 1943 in the ghetto primarily of new Yiddish songs. If you have more biographical information about this person, please contact JMWC. Thanks.

Israeli. Horn player. Born, Rehovot, Israel, 1970. Studied with Jacob Kling and Yaacov Mishori. Member of Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Won America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships. Serve in education corp in Israeli army. Joined Jerusalem Symphony and then Israel Philharmonic 1992. Attended Julliard and studied with Ranier DeIntinis. Currently assistant principal hornist with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

American. Born in Detroit, Michigan. Wayne State University, in nursing. An experienced educator and singer/songwriter. In 2001, she won the “Jewish Woman in the Arts” award for contributions as a songwriter, performer and Jewish educator. She has made an impact not only in the Midwest, giving concerts to children and adults for over thirty years, but has published a song book, Sing and Celebrate: Jewish Songs for All Occasions (Danza Publications, 1987) with a CD available. Elaine’s songs teach about Jewish life and themes in an upbeat, yet non-insipid fashion, with varied arrangements. While most of the songs are in English, she mixes Hebrew and English in holiday and other songs. Her second CD is “Join the Circle” (Danza, 2002). Elaine is an ASCAP and published songwriter.…
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Israeli pop singer and entertainer. She performs internationally and sings in several languages including Swedish, Hebrew and Ladino. The website has only 3 clips, a few photos, and is a bit spartan on information, but her voice is very strong and pleasant, and there is contact info.
http://www.einatsarouf.co.il/einat/

Israeli musicologist specializing in serious music, Israeli art music, Japanese music and Jewish women’s music. She attended Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel and completed both a BA, musicology and philosophy; and MA in musicology. Currently completing the PhD at Cornell University with her dissertation on Israeli art music. Contributor to, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia,(forthcoming); the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001); and Asian Composers (2002).

Pianist. Israeli. Graduated from the State Conservatory of Music in Bucharest at age sixteen. Studied under Florica Musicescu, whose list of students included Dino Lipatti and others. Works as chamber musician and recitalist worldwide. Recorded for the Israeli National Radio.

American-born Israeli. Born Manhattan, April 22, 1965. Lived in the Bronx until age seven. Moved with her family to Monroe, N.Y. where there were very few Jews. She learned her first Sabbath songs at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, NY. Minny Genny was her first piano teacher and she studied technique and memory with her. In High School she added voice to her violin studies. She continued to study voice at the University of Rochester majoring in English, and graduating 1986. In Dec, 1991 she made Aliyah to Israel study Hebrew and working with women singing in Katamon and serving as a translator. She met Margalit Jakob and started singing with her, getting involved in the local folk community. She sang backup vocals on a CD by Ofar Golany in 2000 in memory of his father, and subsequently appeared on some tracks of Hanna Yaffe’s Lullabies from Jerusalem.…
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Naomi Shemer was born in Israel on Kvuzat Kinneret in 1931. She is a prolific composer and singer. One of her most famous songs is “Jerusalem of Gold”.
brief Naomi Shemer bio
Naomi Shemer bio
songs arranged for choir
PDF file of Jerusalem of Gold in English
Naomi Shemer album-2 CD set from Hed Arzi

(Brighton, UK)
Composer, singer, pianist and the leading choral conductor of Yiddish song in the Former USSR. She has performed and taught internationally. Her specially developed choral teaching methods are based on instrumental ornamentation and Jewish modes. Performs with her own a capella ensemble Ashkenazim and works with the Sound & Light Cinematic Duo, who play live accompaniment to rare black and white silent Jewish films. Polina’s music is performed by choirs and soloists all over the world.Contact: E-mail: polina_shepherd@yahoo.co.uk , tel. +44-1273-553737

http://www.polinashepherd.co.uk/

“Shirona, a native New Yorker, was raised in Israel in a musical, cultured evironment, and started performing at an early age. After serving in the Israeli army she returned to the United States and starred in the nationally acclaimed Israeli-American Musical Review “On Silver Wings”. After taking time off to marry and raise a family, Shirona returned to the Jewish Music scene with a newfound interest in New Age and Jewish Spirituality. She began composing original melodies to the ancient texts of the Bible and Prayer Book, in Hebrew, using multi-cultural musical influences, such as Celtic, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and American.” She currently resides with her family in Rye, NY. He CD Judaic Love Songsreceived wide ranging acclaim and received reviews in The Journal of Synagogue Music – Fall 2001 and Jewish Week, August 10, 2001.…
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Israeli composer of choral works. Wrote “The Little Prince” premiered in January, 2002.
Jerusalem Post article on events of music in Sde Boker.

Born, January 1, 1885, in Pinsk, Russia. Died, May 18, 1960 in New York. Yiddish folk singer, composer, author. Her father was a Yiddish playwright and novelist. She started singing as a very young child with extraordinary accuracy. The family moved to New York and she studied voice with Lazar Samioloff, Fracis Rogers and others. Premiered her opera “Once Upon a Time” in 1922 at the New York Yiddish Art Theatre. Member of Yuval Trio. Sang primarily in the Jewish community Jewish music. Held leadership positions in Mailamm, the American-Palestine Music Association, along with her sister, Miriam Shomer. Studied Jewish music in trip to Eretz Yisrael in 1927. Wrote, Songs Heard in Palestine, based on her study there. Her papers are held by YIVO in New York, which include newspaper clippings from 1916 through 1950.…
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American. Born March 1, 1917 as Frances Rose Shore. Died February 24, 1994, Beverly Hills, California. Blues and popular music singer, and star on television. Grew up in Winchester, Tennessee as the only Jewish child. Attended Vanderbilt University, graduating 1938. Went into radio in New York and became known as “Dinah”, from her audition song. In 1939, started The Dinah Shore Show series on radio. She sang mostly the blues and imitated the African-American singers of the day. During WWII, she married George Montgomery and started in movies, but her main career became television with the hugely popular The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1951-1956) and The Dinah Shore Show (1956-1962) followed by a talk-show called Dinah’s Place (1970-1974) and other TV series during the next twenty years.

American. Cantor. songwriter. Born into a musical family with mother Rita Shore and father Ira Shore. BA Florida International University. Recorded CDs “My Soul” and “Quiet Time”. Has a Purim Spiel website where various spiels can be viewed, listened to or purchased. Served as a cantor for Hillel in Miami, Florida. Currently cantor at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida. Member of the Guild of Temple Musicians, the Cantor’s Association of Florida and the Women’s Cantors Network. Her website has a unique cantorial teaching area with torah portions (broken down into a triennial cycle) and various prayers and blessings. Learners can listen to these various items online. Her website features a biography, a list of recordings and a link to the Congregation B’nai Israel website.…
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Yiddish historian and musicologist. born in Moscow, Russia. In 1996, completed M.A. in Russian and Jewish History and Archives at the Russian State University of Humanities and Project Judaica. In 1997, received a Yiddish teaching diploma from the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies. D.Phil., Oxford, 2000. Currently, Assistant Professor of Yiddish and Yiddish Literature at the University of Toronto. Teaches various undergraduate levels of Yiddish language, literature, and culture . Specializes in Yiddish culture. Presented several papers on Jewish song, including: “Yiddish songs in the Soviet Union.” Presentation at the conference “Modern Jewry and Arts”, Philadelphia, 2001 (organized by the Centre for Advanced Judaic Studies);”Singing about Stalin: Yiddish folk songs in the Soviet Union; Trying to transform the tradition: Jewish identity in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.” Series of lectures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 1999; “Yiddish Songs in the Soviet Union: the Reflection of Official Ideology in the Popular Culture of 1917 – 1941.” Presentation at a meeting of the American Association of Jewish Studies Conference in Boston, Dec.…
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American. Percussionist. Leads Isle of Klezbos. Received BA in Russian History & Literature, Harvard University. Performer of klezmer, rock, R and B, Cajun/zydeco, samba, swing and Mid-Eastern music. Founded Metropolitan Klezmer, 1994. Won OutMusic Award as Outstanding Producer, 2002 for Mosaic Persuasion. Taught percussion and Yiddish film history at KlezCamp, Buffalo on the Roof, and Mame-Loshn.

Betty Silberman, a dynamic Yiddish and cabaret singer. Has several recent CD’s and has sung with many klezmer groups.

Opera Star and philanthropist, Chairperson of Lincoln Center, and for many years, director of New York City Opera. Debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1953 and New York City opera in 1955. Joined the board of the Metropolitan Opera in 1991 where she had debuted in 1975. Beverly Sills, affectionately known to millions of fans as “Bubbles”, is a classical high coloratura soprano with an incredible range, flexibility and poise. She sang a repertoire of over 70 operas. She is the recipient of the French Order of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the New York City Handel Medallion, and a Kennedy Center Honor among her many achievements and honors. Born in Brooklyn, NY, as Belle Miriam Silverman May 25, 1929.
Article/Interview with Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills
Governor’s Commission Honoring Beverly Sills/New York State Council on the Arts webpage…
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American. composer, clarinet, viola, piano. b. New York, NY, B.A., Barnard College; M.A., Harvard; D.M.A., Columbia, in music composition. Her teachers have included Otto Luening, William Sydeman, Leon Kirchner, Lukas Foss, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Jack Beeson. Her compositions are published by Seesaw Music Corp. and recorded on New World Records and Crystal Records. She has received awards from UNESCO, the National League of American Pen Women, ASCAP, and the Rockefeller Foundation, and (paid) commissions from Philip A. DeSimone, Thomas Matta, the IWBC for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Fromm Foundation, NEA, Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, Con Spirito, the Greater Lansing Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore. She has taught at Columbia, various branches of City University, Goucher College, the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and the Aspen Music Festival, and is currently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and Eugene Lang College.…
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American folk singer-songwriter and pop star. Born June 25, 1945. Rose to extraordinary fame during the 1960s and 1970s superstardom. An entire lengthy personal biography is outlined on the official Carly Simon website, including listings of her songbooks, recordings, and online store.
http://www.carlysimon.com/