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
The director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston has made many arrangemetns for concerts of this chorale. Recordings are available at their website. Dr. Jacobson is “one of the world s leading authorities on Jewish choral music. He is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University and Visiting Professor of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. A sought-after scholar and lecturer, his many arrangements, editions, and compositions are performed worldwide. His book,Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation (Jewish Publication Society, 2002), is considered the definitive source in the field. Zamir concerts are known for being highly entertaining, thanks to Dr. Jacobson s colorful programming and his illuminating commentary from the stage.”
http://www.zamir.org
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 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)
Singer. Born 1924- Died, 2002 in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Sister of pianist Fanny Durmashkin and conductor Wolf Durmashkin. Henny was the youngest. Her grandfather, Akiva, was the cantor of Vilna s main synagogue and respected composer of liturgical music. Before the war, Henny had studied opera. She was fluent in 8 languages. Her brother, Wolf Durmashkin, had been prominent in Vilna’s cultural, conducting the Vilna Philharmonic, prior to the ghetto life during WWII. In the ghetto, he directed a Hebrew choir and an orchestra in the ghetto. According to Barbara Durmashkin, Wolf perished at the age of 30, on Sept. 19, 1944. He was shot an hour before liberation of the Klooga concentration camp. During its 15 months in existence, the Ghetto orchestra performed 35 chamber and symphonic concerts.
…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. 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.
Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller is both the first woman to be a full time faculty member at the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and a composer of sacred music. Born in New York on April 14, 1958 to Miriam and Nathan Schiller, Cantor Schiller studied voice and composition, and received a B. M. in Theory and Composition at Boston University in 1980. She continued graduate studies there in voice and choral conducting, and shortly thereafter, married Rabbi Lester Bronstein in June, 1981.
She attended the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College in New York and was invested in 1987. Her Master Thesis composition was “Life Song Cycle.” Cantor Schiller also became a full time faculty member and taught courses in cantillation, basic nusach (prayer modes) and the in-depth study of repertoire for Shabbat.…
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Canadian. Originally born in France, Helene has lived in Montréal for more then 10 years. Singer, musicologist, composer, lyricist and arranger. Graduated in Music Therapy at UQAM. Classically trained singer performs in Yiddish, English and French Ms. Engel performs in various shows within and without the Jewish community. She also occasionally serves as a cantorial soloist at Temple Emanu-El in Montréal. She is also a music therapist, and works in such things as healing services, oneg shabbat in long term care units etc. Ms. Engel has performed in opera in Paris and other locations in France, in such roles as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro; in Le Pont des Soupirs (Isabelle) at Théâtre de Paris. She has toured Europe and Canada. She has recorded 4 CDs.…
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Leah Epstein is a song writer living in Israel since making Aliya from Chicago in 1981. She lives on Moshav Keshet, an Orthodox community in the Golan. Her Hebrew and English songs are wistful, and at the same time religious and personal. The music itself is heavily influenced from a ‘time capsule’ of American song from some 30 years ago, such as American folk, Carole King or Joni Mitchell. There are some highly personal songs, such as “Child of the Heights” dedicated to her son killed in a car accident, and other of her texts are more universally and politically themed. The CDs, Nof Mushlam (A Perfect View), and New Faces, Old Souls, are available at Moria Books and Music in the Old City and through cdbaby.com.
…Israeli. Born 1971 in Holon, Israel. Baritone, pianist and conductor, an accomplished pianist, accompanist and coach, and was a faculty member of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv University. A recent press release revealed: “Dan began his piano studies at the age of six. He graduated from Thelma Yellin High School, and served in the IDF’s special program for excellent musicians. In 1993, he won first prize in the Francois Shapira Competition as a baritone singer (1993) and performed with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. He participated for several years in the summer academy courses of IVAI – Israel Vocal Arts Institute. During 1995-1998 Dan sang in various roles at the New Israeli Opera and was also a faculty member at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.…
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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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Cantor Elihu Feldman of synagogue B’nai Shalom in West Orange, New Jersey, has a regular monthly column, which is mounted on the synagogue’s website. These columns often contain valuable information about a variety of aspects of Jewish music, not the least of which are historical pieces and brief biographical sketches of famous Jewish musicians.
http://www.uscj.org/njersey/w-orange/Cantor/cantor-mes.htm
A brief biography extracted from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music.
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mendelssohn.html
Felix Mendelssohn
A brief biography of Felix Mendelssohn by Richard Rodda.
http://www.sirius.com/~arts/mendbio.html
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.
Marian Filar. Born 1917, Warsaw, Poland. concert pianist, retired professor at Temple University. Marian Filar escaped the Holocaust and went on to be an accomplished pianist and teacher. His memoir, From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall, has been published by University of Mississippi Press, 2003.
http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2002/buchenwald_to_carnegie.html
This website is part of the American Memories project of the Library of Congress. “The career of Irving Fine (1914-1962), composer, conductor, writer, and academic, is documented in the Library of Congress Music Division by approximately 4,350 items from the Irving Fine Collection.” In addition to biographical materials, “this first online release presents a selection of 57 photographs, a sketchbook that includes sketches for the woodwind Partita and a string quartet, a manuscript score for the String Quartet (1952), a recorded performance of the Quartet, and the finding aid for the collection.”
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ifhtml/
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.
Israeli composer. 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 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).
Yossi Fraenkel is a London-based Hassidic singer who travels around the world performing widely for Chassidic and Yiddish audiences. In 1998 he performed for British royal family. His recent stage performances include Simchas Beis Hashoevoat at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Hights, Brooklyn, NY. Unfortunately his website doesn’t provide any clips of music, but he has contact information for those wishing bookings.
Phone: +44 (0)7946-359-697.
http://www.shirabesimcha.com/index.htm
American. Singer. Sang primarily Ladino folk songs, preserving the music of Jews descended from the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Ladino is a language that’s a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish, which the Sephardic community has preserved over 500 years. Born Judith Bradbury on Aug. 12, 1942, Judy Frankel grew up in Boston and graduated Boston University in 1969. She worked for a while as an elementary school teacher, but moved to San Francisco and refocused her life work on music. Ms. Frankel lived on the West Coast, and performed in elderly housing settings and other Jewish venues. She sang with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for 10 years. She was a soloist in the San Francisco Consort, an early music group she helped to form around 1980.…
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Major film composer. Born 1906- Died 1967. Franz Waxman had an extensive film composing career in Europe and the US, writing over 144 film scores.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~cm1jwb/waxman.htm
American Jazz pianist and composer, described by The New Yorker as “a poet of a pianist”. Hersch has been awarded several residencies at the MacDowell Colony, including in February, 2006, when his CD Fred Hersch in Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis (Palmetto Records) will also be released. He tours widely in the United States and Europe. Hersch has reached outstanding acclaim in the jazz world, such that a Jazziz magazine writer stated: “few jazz pianists have ever struck as beguiling a balance between technique, feeling, insight and imagination…Hersch s engagement with each of these songs is so complete that he evokes the sort of secret meanings words cannot. Besides critical claim, Hersch composes ‘classical’ music, and has won a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition, a Rockefeller Fellowship for a composition residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy and two Grammy® nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.…
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American composer. Born San Francisco May 4, 1891. Died October 24, 1952. Parents were German Jews. His grandfather came to the US in 1850. Born in California, the family went to NY, but took trips to California by train to visit relatives. For religious studies, Jacobi attended the Ethical Culture School (founded by Felix Adler in 1876), from 1901 to 1905, and again in 1906. Jacobi studied piano with Paul Gallico and Rafael Joseffy, and harmony and counter-point with Rubin Goldmark (who later also taught Aaron Copland and was head of Julliard composition faculty). His father died in 1911 and his mother in 1915. Jacobi inherited most of the money from his parent’s wine and real estate holdings, and so was able to live fairly comfortably during his life.…
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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. Singer-songwriter, cantorial soloist, music educator and music director, who writes contemporary liturgical and spiritual music, primarily associated with the Reform movement. Deborah Lynn Friedman was born 23 February 1951 in Utica, New York. In 1956, the young family moved to St. Paul where she sang in the choir in high school and was active in youth movements. She graduated Highland Park High School in St. Paul in 1969. She went to Israel for a year and returned to the United States. She recalls 6 April 1971 as the date a melody came to her while sitting on a bus, and she composed V Ahavta, her first complete setting of a liturgical text, which she then taught at a PAFTY meeting at Rodef Shalom Temple.…
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Instrumentalist with Freylach Time! Klezmer Dance Band. Durham, North Carolina. A review of Riki’s album Freylach Time
American. Born, November 18, 1901. Died, October 5, 1995. (Her birth and death dates are incorrectly listed in New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians/ Online, Baker’s Biographical, Jewish Women in America and other reference sources. Possibly one reason was incorrect information was listed in her obituary in The New York Timesprinted Oct. 7, 1995. The NYTimes did print a correction –the correction appeared Oct. 10, 1995. However, many researchers did not find that. The dates I give above are verified by two government sources, the US Census and the Social Security Death Index.) Violist. “First Lady of the Viola” was the title of her biography. Member of Perole String Quartet, 1920s-1940s. One of the first women to perform in string quartet in America.…
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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
American singer, composer and educator. Dr. Isabelle Ganz received her D.M.A. in Voice and Music Literature from the Eastman School of Music. She is Director of Music for Congregation Brith Shalom in Houston and is on the Voice Faculty of Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. In 1997 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Jerusalem and taught at Rubin Academy in Israel, and received a NEA Solo Recitalist grant in 1992. Dr. Ganz is a champion of contemporary music. She has performed as vocal soloist with Luciano Berio, John Cage, Lukas Foss, Gerard Schwartz and many other composers and conductors. One of the pioneers in the field of Sephardic music, her New York-based ensemble, ALHAMBRA, founded in 1981, has performed throughout the world. For 20 years she was a cantorial soloist for both Reform and Conservative congregations in the U.S., as well as in Winnipeg, Amsterdam and Munich.…
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American. Cantor. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Cantor Garfein graduated cum laude from Rice University s Shepherd School of Music with a degree in vocal performance and opera. In 1993, she received her Master s Degree in Sacred Music and Cantorial Investiture from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). While completing her studies at HUC-JIR, Cantor Garfein was the Director of Children s Music at Riverdale Temple, Riverdale, the Bronx, New York. While in Israel, she was a featured soloist with the Ra a na na Orchestra and the Zamir Chorale at the Jerusalem Theater in Israel. Upon graduation from HUC-JIR, she subsequently became the first Cantor of Riverdale Temple, and served in that capacity until 1999, when she was the first woman appointed as Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.…
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Born Krakow, Poland, 1877. Died, 1942. Yiddish folk song poet. He was a poor carpenter who was self-taught in music and composed songs completely by ear, remembering them all in his head. Because he was illiterate in music, friends notated his songs. Despite the handicaps, Gebirtig’s (also spelled Gebertig) songs grew wildly popular and were picked up, even in the United States, to become part of folk, popular theater and sheet music repertoire. Several books of his music were published during his lifetime including Mayne Lider. Mordechai Gebirtig: His Poetic and Musical Legacy Edited by Gertrude Schneider is a book published in 2000 of his music, reviewed at this site.
An opera has been written by Joel Hoffman about his life.CCM Opera Recalls The Holocaust.…
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The “official” Gershwin website. It includes a jukebox, biographies of Ira and George, anthologies of their film and and show music, lots of good clips of music in the jukebox, with information about performers and the song.
http://www.gershwin.com/
The official website of George and Ira Gershwin. This site includes an extensive bibliography of the writings by and about the Gershwins. The biographies are brief, but there is an excellent photo gallery and discography.
http://www.cmgww.com/music/gershwin/
American. Born: Los Angeles, 1951. Northern California-based electronic music composer and music producer. Website includes discography, compositions.
Born, Serotsk, Poland (outside of Warwaw), 1890. Died, June 28, 1978, Perth Amboy, NJ. Composer and cantor. Compiler and editor of the Cantorial Anthology (6 volumes) which made Jewish liturgical music for the entire year’s holidays available in print. One of the largest accomplishments of this work was making avaiable alternatives to the florid operetta style music so prevalent at the time. Having studied hazzanut and harmony with Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, he set off on an idealistic quest to find the purest Jewish cantorial music. He developed a type of ethnographic field work, interviewing as many cantors as possible, and copying down all the music they knew. He then painstakingly edited the work. Ephros had come to US in 1911, and later appointed cantor of Congregation Beth-El in Norfolk, Virginia in 1918.…
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Born, December 26, 1906. Died January 18, 1998. Singer. Sister of George and Ira Gershwin. Often sang Gershwin songs and recorded them.
http://www.spiderjazz.com/html/frankie.htm
Jewish musicologist who worked in Israel. Born in Germany in 1908. She wrote: liner notes to recording: Musik der Bibel in der Tradition althebräischer Melodien. (1950); The Persian doctrine of Dastga-composition: a phenomenological study in the musical modes (1963); Migrations and mutations of the music in East and West : selected writings (1980). Gerson-Kiwi worked extensively with music of Jewish communities outside of Europe.
A biography of Meyerbeer, (born Yaakov Liebmann Beer), this website was created by his self-designated “fan club”, a group devoted to the continued recognition and performance of Meyerbeer’s works. This site is also a source for information on Halevy and Auber. What’s really great about this site for students are the links to full text articles by “contributors” of the fan club. These contributors range from professors to journalists to students. Also included is a thorough discography as well as the attachment of an historical discography.
Information from the recording by CRI on the composer’s works. For additional information on Miriam Gideon, see the article by Judith Pinnolis in Women and Music in America Since 1900 vol. I, (Greenwood Press, 2002). Gideon’s compositions with Jewish materials include: The Hound of Heaven (1945), How Goodly Are Thy Tents (1947), Adon Olam (1954) , Psalm 84, Three Biblical Masques (1958), Sacred Service (1970), Shirat Miriam L’Shabbat (1974), The Resounding Lyre (1979), and A Woman of Valor(1981).
http://www.composersrecordings.com/cd/782.html
Anne Gray’s article as published in the IAWM Journal, February 1997, pp. 20, full text.
http://music.acu.edu/www/iawm/articles/feb97/gray.html
see also:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~hkaivola/gideon.html
Israeli. Musicologist and Head of the National Sound Archive of Israel, located at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Her significant scholarly book, Singing for Survival: Songs of the Lodz Ghetto, 1940-45 has gained worldwide attention. “Basing her work upon interviews with survivors and the extant archival records of the Lodz Jewish community, Flam, herself the daughter of survivors from Lodz, describes the ghetto’s struggles through the songs composed and sung by its occupants ” (USHMM, book review). Several of these songs have now been recorded with popular groups, such as Brave Old World.
Gila Goldstein, a concert pianist from Israel and working in New York has released a new CD Piano Works of Paul Ben Haim. Her website lists upcoming concerts, reviews of her performances and contact information.
http://www.gilagoldstein.com
Israeli. Singer/Songwriter. Clarinetist. former Spanish teacher. Native of Long Island, New York. nee Vicki Wiseblatt. B.A. in Linguistics from Harvard College, where she performed with a Renaissance choir, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and hosted a jazz program on WHRB radio. While earning an M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College, she continued her interest in radio broadcast as a DJ for a Spanish music show on WRMC. She performed with award-winning political theater throughout the East Coast, produced an album in Spanish which made its debut in the Caribbean, and sang back-up vocals in Boston’s folk scene for singer-songwriter Pat Burtis. Among other interests, she is a former Kripalu yoga instructor and martial arts student. Devora Gila, a now frum vocalist, whose recordings are marked for “women only”, has one of the hippest religious recordings around, Hodu Lashem (2003).…
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Professional Singer/Recording Artist/Educator.She majored in Vocal Performance from the Indiana University School of Music. Ginsburgh “presents over 100 concerts a year in schools, libraries, community centers, museums and festivals throughout North America.” She has been a Louisiana State Roster Artist since 1988 and was named the Louisiana Professional Artist of the Year in 1999. “Judy is a three time Parents Choice Foundation Award winner and she has received a Seal of Approval from the National Parenting Center.” Ginsburgh created a new Jewish Early Childhood Music curriculum with CD called “My Jewish World” for the Union of Reform Judaism and Transcontinental Music.
http://www.judymusic.com/
NOTE: Giora Schuster was incorrectly identified in the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, by Aaron I. Cohen, (New York: RR Bowker Co: 1981) p. 416, as female. Actually, Schuster is a male Israeli, born in Germany in 1915, He had an outpouring of music published in the 1960s, mostly chamber music. The JMWC is indepted to Dr. Yosef Goldenberg of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance for pointing out the error in the encyclopedia for us.
New website for singer Sam Glaser. Pop/Rock Jewish music, and new-age-ortho. Sam Glaser is a singer/songwriter who specializes in religious texts as well as secular music. Nice, pleasant voice. Good arrangements. New CD’s listed on website along with concert schedule and bio information.
http://samglaser.com/
Born in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania), 1920. Died 1944. The Leonard website provides a brief biographical sketch of the life of Glik. Known as the lyricist to “Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt,” also known as Partisanerlid which tells of resistence against the Nazis.
http://www.leonarda.com/compfg.html
Nee Riba Fiensohn. Opera Singer. Born Iasi, Romania, May 11, 1884. Immigrated to the US with her family around 1894. Her father Leon was a violinist and her mother Zara had a “beautiful singing voice,” although she never did any serious performing. Riba graduated from Hunter College and married Bernard Glick, an insurance executive many years her senior, in 1902. Although an unhappy marriage, Riba had a daughter, the author Marcia Davenport. In 1906, she began to study with Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, one of New York’s finest vocal instructors. Riba was signed to the Metropolitan Opera around 1909. When she signed with the Met, Riba took the stage name Alma Gluck with the encouragement of Arturo Toscanini. Her first stage appearance was as Sophie in Massenet’s Werther.…
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Avant guarde composer and performer. American. Composes “musique concrete and live synthesizer performance systems (Buchla Electronic Music Box, Moog, Putney, and Arp Synthesizers).” Graduated from Yeshiva University (1984);Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (1989);Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2001). Directs the Electronic Music Studio and teaches Electronic Music and Judaic Studies at the University at Albany. Associate Director at the Electronic Music Foundation. Performances feature home-built interactive electronic instruments, including the multi-sensor ‘eBoard’. Wrote essay on Jewish music that appeared in The Reconstuctionist: A Journal of Contemporary Thought and Practice.
Born, January 23, 1883,Rostov-on-the-Don. Opera composer. (Name also spelled Michael Gniessen). Chair of the Society of Society for Jewish Music in Moscow, at the turn of the twentieth century.
http://www.musica-judaica.com/gnesin_e.htm
Rabbi. Composer of spiritual music. Ordained, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Leader in ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and is the director of C-DEEP (Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice) in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. 9 CDs. Has written new liturgies and chants.
http://rabbishefagold.com/index.html
American. Born Louisville, KY, January 1, 1878. Died, NY, February 21, 1956. Composer. Bandmaster. Prolific composer of 150 pieces of band music, including 100 marches. Frequently held series of outdoor band concerts in the parks of NYC, including nightly during the summers between 1927-1947. Commissioned other composers to write for bands. Radio broadcasts and tours of his band concerts enjoyed wide popularity. Founder, First President, and Honorary Life President of the American Bandmasters Association. Goldman’s life is a story of true talent rising to the top. In 1887, his father died. Edwin was sent to an orphanage along with his four siblings while his mother tried to make a living as a piano teacher. He began early studies on cornet with the eminent cornet soloist Jules Levy.…
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A Danish site about the movie composer with a listing of movie credits and awards.
http://www.filmmusic.dk/jerry.html
American. Composer, teacher and conductor and singer. Studied at Juilliard School of Music, Preparatory Division 1950 -1953, Cornell University 1953 -1955 (Dean’s List), Brandeis University 1955 -1957: B.A. in Music, cum laude, 1957, Phi Beta Kappa, 1997; Longy School of Music from 1955 -1958 and University of California, Berkeley 1960 to 1962: M.A. in Music, 1962. Currently Chair, Piano Department, Hartford Conservatory of Music where she teaches piano and theory. Also serves as temple music director, choir director for Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center, and music history instructor at local colleges. Member of CT State Music Teachers Association, The Music Club of Hartford, The Women Cantors Network and the Guild of Temple Musicians. Her Jewish sacred works include cantorial music for Shabbat, psalms, healing, weddings, nigunim, and general songs on Jewish subjects.…
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