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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“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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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 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. Born May 4, 1930, New York. Currently serving on the board of the National Endowment of the Arts. Star of the Metropolitan Opera in New York where she sang over 500 times. She experienced tremendous success giving concerts and recitals with major orchestras, and master classes around the world. She married Robert Merrill, and later Bertram Fields, and had two children. Her memoir is Debut at the Met (1967). http://www.northwood.edu/dw/1989/peters.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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