From “West Side Story” to “Wicked,” the music of the Broadway theatre
will be highlighted at the “Cantors’ Cabaret” concert at 7p.m.,
Thursday, February 15, 2007 at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 W 83rd Street off
Central Park West.
Joining Rodeph Sholom’s Cantor Rebecca Garfein and Cantorial
Intern, Jennifer Strauss-Klein are New York Metro Area Cantors, Claire Franco,
Daniel Singer, Howard Stahl and pianist, Jonathan Faiman. The concert, a
light-hearted tribute to the Broadway theatre will benefit the School of Sacred
Music Scholarship Fund at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and
Project Kehila, Rodeph Sholom’s response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
To date, Project Kehila has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the hard-hit
Gulf community.
General admission tickets to the “Cantors’ Cabaret” are $25 in advance/$36 at the
door; Senior citizen tickets (age 65 and above) are $18. All ticket prices include
the
reception. Benefactor/ priority seating information is available upon request. For
more information, please call (212) 362-8800, ext. 1337 or visit
www.rodephsholom.org .
The concert will feature music from “Wicked,” “Les Miserables,” “Annie Get Your
Gun,” “Showboat,” “Funny Girl,” “West Side Story,” and includes many songs written
by Jewish composers..
Cantor Rebecca Garfein is the Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New
York City and is the first female Cantor to hold this position in the history of the
congregation. A graduate of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the
Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music, Cantor Garfein made her Carnegie Hall
debut with Mandy Patinkin and has sung in numerous recitals throughout the United
States, Israel, and Europe. Cantor Garfein has two solo CD recordings, “Sacred
Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue,” a live recording from the 1997 Jewish
Festival in Berlin and her first studio recording, “Golden Chants in
America…Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004,” the first U.S.
recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America.
Cantor Claire Franco came to the cantorate with a diversified background. After
graduation from the University of South Florida with a degree in business, music and
English Literature, she worked in sales management before enrolling in Hebrew Union
College School of Sacred Music. An accomplished pianist, she also worked as a
musical director for a local theater company. Cantor Franco has an extensive
theater background and has performed at Disney World among other venues.
In July of 2003, Cantor Franco joined the clergy team at The Community Synagogue in
Port Washington, New York.
Cantor Daniel Singer majored in Music and Mass Communication at the University of
Wisconsin, and holds masters degrees in vocal performance from the University of
Michigan and in sacred music from the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music.
Before entering the cantorate, he was Voice Department Chair, Opera Workshop
Director, and Head Start Coordinator at the Flint School for the Performing Arts.
In addition, Cantor Singer was a resident artist with the Toledo Opera as well as
the Israel Vocal Arts Institute and the Brevard Music Center. He made his solo
debut in On Second Avenue with the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater. Cantor Singer
currently serves as the senior cantor at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York
City.
Cantor Howard M. Stahl was called to Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, New
Jersey in July of 1999. He is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College School of
Sacred Music, and earned a Masters degree in Social Work from the State University
of New York at Albany. Cantor Stahl has appeared on major stages throughout the
world including the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Sarasota Opera House, and
Carnegie Hall where he made his operatic debut in Massenet’s Herodiade with the
Opera Orchestra of New York with Renée Fleming and Grace Bumbry, under the direction
of Eve Queler. Cantor Stahl can be heard on the from the Milken Archive of Jewish
Music series – Leonard Bernstein: a Jewish Legacy; and The Music of Gershon
Kingsley.
Originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin, Jennifer Strauss-Klein, soprano, is a
third-year cantorial student at Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music. She
received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University
ofWisconsin-Madison in 1999, and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the
Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD in 2001. Jennifer continued to study at
Peabody in the Graduate Performance Diploma program.
A multiple ASCAP award winner, Jonathan Faiman was described in The New York Times
as “a pianist with the kind of technique that affords remarkable clarity even in the
speediest lines.” Critically acclaimed, his solo CD, Hie Up The Mountain, has been
called “a major contribution to the available body of music by the generation now
making its mark in American music”. He has performed with The Ambrosia Trio and
other musicians throughout North America and in Israel. In New York City, Mr. Faiman
has performed extensively in most major halls, including Avery Fisher, Florence
Gould, Merkin, Miller Theatre, Symphony Space, and Weill (Carnegie Recital Hall).
Mr. Faiman is on the faculty of Bloomingdale School of Music and the Preparatory
Division of Manhattan School of Music, from where he holds a Doctorate.