Ellen Schiller, Benjie
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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