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. In 1997, Cantor Garfein became the first female cantor to give a solo concert at the Jewish Cultural Festival in Berlin Germany, from where her grandfather fled during the Holocaust. At the 1998 Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival, Cantor Garfein became the first female cantor to preside in a German synagogue and released a CD, “Sacred Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue,” a live recording of her historic 1997 Berlin concert. In 2001, she was a soloist at the 350th anniversary concert of the Curacao Jewish Community. Cantor Garfein made her Carnegie Hall debut in June, 2005 in a benefit concert for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater featuring Mandy Patinkin. Accompanying Cantor Garfein, at her concert “Golden Chants: 350 Years of Jewish Music in America” Nov. 10, 2005, at New York s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, was pianist and musical director Jonathan Faiman, and the “Golden Chants” combo and choir. The CD is “Golden Chants in America…Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004” (2005). Cantor Garfein can be reached through an agent, Mike Gellman: m.gellman@att.net