American. Singer. Musician, educator, and performer, and Jewish-Bop sing-along music for children. Lives in New York. Grew up in Monroe, Louisiana at Temple B’nai Israel. Father, Rabbi David Kline. Attended Sarah Lawrence College. She writes: “My family infused every moment of life with Jewish celebration and love for all aspects of Judaism-special homemade foods, singing and dancing to Jewish music, exploring and reveling in all holidays, ethics, lessons learned through Jewish eyes. My father taught me meditation as a form of prayer at a very early age. My mother brought in each Shabbat with her beautiful candle-lighting and homemade challah and at bedtime my father sent me to sleep with sweet dreams of Shabbat angels. In all of my work, I strive toward the path of Oneness with ourselves, Oneness with God and the beauty of the world around us.” CD called “Sing Shabbat with Shira Kline”.…
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American Cantor. Vocal training in classical opera, University of Miami. Studied in Midreshet Yerushalayim in 1989. Master of Sacred Music and Diploma of Hazzan from the Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1994. Currently works in Kehilat Shalom, in Montgomery County, MD. First cantor in Conservative pulpit in Baltimore. Featured as one of twelve “leading cantors of our time” in Chicago in 1997 at the Cantors Assembly. Executive Council of the Cantors Assembly from 2000-2002. Chair of the Cantors Assembly Seaboard Region since 1995. Website and CDs of music: Voice of the Lioness and also now working with Hazzan Emanuel Perlman, of Chizuk Amuno Congregation, in Baltimore, MD, as “Manny and Kim” with first CD, “Love is All Around,” released in 2002.

Born in Brooklyn, 1955, living in Jerusalem, Israel since 1978. Wrote the music and English lyrics for all the songs in the CD “Music from the Mountain: a Jewish Holiday Jam with the Soultune Singers”. (2000) which utilizes sounds of American country, klezmer, jazz, reggae and other styles. Available at www.cdbaby.com/soultune. 1st prize winner of the 5th AACI English Song Festival held in Jerusalem for her song “How do you get to Carnegie Hall (or who the heck is Gerard Bechar?)”. She won 3rd prize for song “Echoes of Memories” which was performed by Judith Paul Litov and Rachel Jaskow at the 4th AACI Festival held in Beersheva. At the 2001 Voices (English poets in Israel) Song Competition her song “Daughter Voices” won first prize (accompanied by Rachel Jaskow, Judith Litov and Naomi Attias).…
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Pianist. Israeli. Attended Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv. Soloist with major orchestras in Israel, and also active in chamber music. In addition to performance works, Milka is a musicologist and editor, producing various programs of chamber music. Became pianist of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1987.

Judi Lamble composes Jewish vocal, and especially choral, including a cappella choruses, soloists, and duets, with music based on liturgical and scriptural texts. Her compositions are classically-oriented, with contemporary or ethnic energy. Having sung with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for 8 years, she writes music with a special sensitivity to the vocalists she serves. Her compositions are regularly performed by the Temple Israel congregational choir in Minneapolis, MN. Her website has contact information for obtaining scores, and samples of her music. Lamble’s music can be appropriate for groups with varying degrees of sophistication. For more information about difficulty of pieces, contact the composer. Some of the religious texts she uses follow the Reform liturgy. She also includes links to other composer’s sites.
www.jewishvocalmusic.com…
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Born July 5, 1879, Warsaw, Poland. Died August 16, 1959, Lakeville, Connecticut. Harpsichordist, pianist, musicologist, composer. Specialist in 17th and 18th century keyboard music, (“old music”), especially using “authentic” instruments. She turned to using the harpsichord and wrote numerous articles promoting its use. Married Henri Lew in 1900, who died in 1919. Toured and taught harpsichord extensively. Contemporary composers began to write pieces for the harpsichord and this helped spark a revival of the instrument. During WWII, she migrated to the US in 1941. Landowska also composed works on Jewish themes.

American. Composer. b. Brooklyn, New York, April 6, 1968. Pianist since the age of five. “Studied composition with Ruth Schonthal at the Westchester Conservatory of Music, where she received the William Petchek Scholarship. For two summers she was a scholarship student at the Tanglewood Institute. She was graduated summa cum laude from the music department of Harvard University, where her teachers included Earl Kim, Leon Kirchner and Peter Lieberson. Lann won the New York Music Teachers Association ‘Herbert Zipper Prize,’ the New York Musicians Club ‘Bohemians Prize’ and the Harvard University ‘Hugh F. MacColl Prize.’ She directed the Harvard Group For New Music and was co-founder of the Harvard Group For Gender Studies In Music. She also produced and announced radio feature programs (WHRB, Cambridge) and worked as music director for productions at the American Repertory Theater.…
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Musicologist. Editor. Wrote, Stravinsky in the Theatre. Editor of Modern Music, “one of the most important magazines in the contemporary music world in the mid-20th century. Lederman featured Copland and his writings in Modern Music.” (from: http://www.music.mpr.org/features/0011_copland/figures.shtml). For many years she edited Copland’s writings. She also wrote The Life and Death of a Small Magazine (Modern Music, 1924-1945), 1983.

Yiddish singer and actress. Papers held at YIVO in New York.

Clarinetist. Klezmer musician. Born Toledo, Ohio, 1958. Bachelor from Indiana University in Music and Philosophy. Studied klezmer music with Sid Beckerman. Helped found the Klezmatics in 1985. Performed with Joel Gray in the Borshtcapades, Theodore Bikel in Greeetings from Sholem Aleichem, with Klezmer Conservatory Band in Schlemiel the First and with Joshua Bell in The Red Violinsoundtrack. Helped found the Klezmer Mountain Boys interweaving klezmer and bluegrass. Currently resides in Astoria, New York. Ms. Leverett says of becoming involved in klezmer music: “Klezmer originally appealed to me because it’s great clarinet music, with a history of amazing clarinetists playing it. But I soon found it to be the music that resonates most truthfully for me. Classical music was too confining for me–I love to improvise, and klezmer is my soul music.” Her CD is “The Art of Klezmer Clarinet” (Traditional Crossroads).…
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See: Ruth Rudinow, below.

Singer and actress. “Ruth Levin is a leading Israeli vocalist of Jewish music. Ms. Levin is the daughter of Leibu Levin, a well-known Yiddish composer and actor, with whom she performed in stage theater and concerts from a young age. Her programs consist mostly of Yiddish songs, many of which are written to the finest Yiddish poetry.”
http://www.monica-fallon.com/artists/ruth_levin.htm

American. Vocalist. Pianist. Began as a teenager in the Catskills. Studied with Yiddish singer Martha Schlamme. Attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Also co-authored a book, “My Father’s Story: A Child’s Introduction to the Holocaust.” Michele started out as a lawyer and practiced as an Assistant DA in NYC and Cambridge. Later she returned to her love of music, founding The Klezmer Connection, a simcha band, in 1996.

Born 1892 in Russia. Wrote liturgical music. Died in Tel Aviv in 1970.

Canadian. nee Chertkow. “Operatically trained in Canada and England, Judith infuses cantorial music with the performance quality of classical Art Songs. With a Sephardic mother and Ashkenazi father, Judith grew up steeped in both Mediterranean and Eastern European Jewish culture and music as well as orthodox religious training.” She has a CDBaby listing for Threads of Blue. The album is “a recording of eighteen songs that weave together aspects of Jewish religion, languages, culture and traditions, touching milestones in the Jewish religious calendar and life cycle; Sabbath and High Holidays; love, marriage, birth, death; folk, liturgical and art songs in the hybrid Jewish tongues of Yiddish and Ladino as well as traditional Hebrew.”
http://cdbaby.com/cd/judithlevy

Yiddish singer living in Canada, Lenka has been involved with Yiddish music for years. Her arrangements are really quite unusual and satisfying. Lenka was raised in Prague, and her musical training included theater work and vocal training at the Prague Conservatory. Her album “Deep Inside,” which has received excellent reviews, is featured on the website. Many of the “lyrics deal with ‘Jewish’ topics: misunderstandings between observant/less observant Jews, the role of Yiddish, finding one’s Jewish identity, and issues from Israel.” Her Latest CD is “Peace Offerings.”
http://www.lenkalichtenberg.com/home.html

Aamerican. Vocalist and guitarist. Cantorial soloist. B.A. in English and Russian Literature, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1979. Additional work in Russian Language and Literature, U. of Chicago, IL. Founder, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, 1983. Cantorial soloist for ten years at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston, IL. Cantorial soloist Congregation Or Shalom, Vernon Hills, IL. High Holidays Cantorial Soloist for the U. of Michigan and U. of Wisconsin Reform services. Founded the Heavy Shtetl congregational klezmer band. Co-founded the Yiddish Arts Ensemble, a family repertory company.
http://www.klezmerband.com/bios.html

Cellist. Israeli. Born in France. Studied at Paris Conservatory. Studied with Leonard Rose. Joined IPO in 1972. Assistant principal of cello section of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Also member of Musicamera Ensemble.

American. Born, 1928. composer. Several websites devoted to her music appear online.
Music of Ursula Mamlok
C Michael Reese wrote reviews and this biographical sketch: “Ursula Mamlok was born in 1928 in Berlin. Her Jewish family left Germany in 1941 and had to settle for Ecuador as the US quota for German immigrants had been capped. From there she submitted handwritten compositions to American Universities until she received a full scholarship from the Mannes College in New York. She studied with George Szell at Mannes, Roger Sessions (lessons during his weekly visits to New York) and later Vittorio Giannini at the Manhattan School of Music.”

The Dutch duo, Mariejan van Oort and Jacques Verheijen, have a website featuring their CD releases. In 1997 they released their first CD “Brikele” and recently have another CD “Benkschaft”. They have received very enthusiastic receptions by some of the major Yiddish performers.
http://www.demaatschap.net

A prolific composer based in Columbia, S.C. A graduate of Harvard, New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of South Carolina, Dr. Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the America Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. She is the first recipient of the Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina in 2000. Ms. Warshauer has composed numerous works for Jewish liturgy and on Jewish themes. Meira Warshauer s  We Are Dreamers , for SATB chorus, clarinet, percussion and piano, was commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel. The text is Psalm 126, whose theme is the return of exiles to Zion.…
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Another sister of the Menhuin family, a pianist who died at age 81 She was born Oct. 2, 1921 in San Francisco. Married to Benjamin Lionel Wolfe Oct. 1941 Divorced in 1960 and married Joel Taylor Rice in June 1960. She died June 9, 2001 at Canfield Gardens, London, England.

American. Pianist and social worker. Born, May 20, 1920, San Francisco. Also lived in Australia and England. Died, January 1, 1981, London. Concertized widely with her brother, Yehudi Menuhin in her youth, and again in her later years. Had her first recital debut at 8 years old in 1928. Studied with Rudolf Serkin in Basel. Recordings won classical music prizes. Won Prix du Disque at age 12. Moved to Australia in the 1940s. She also worked tirelessly for deprived persons and families and also was an activist for peace and disarmament causes. President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1977.

(1878-1943?)
Ottilie was an outstanding contralto and sang with Caruso (in Carmen and Aida). She sang in all the major opera houses of the day. Ottilie Metzger (she added the name of her second husband to her name) was particularly admired in Wagner parts, and sang several times at Bayreuth. At least one of her appearances in New York before the first world war was reviewed in the NYT. In 1934 Ottilie fled Germany and lived in Brussels. She was rounded up in 1942 and deported. Died in Auschwitz, probably in 1943.

Jewish song leader. American. Works in Chicago’s western suburbs, providing the music for Shabbat services, Family services, Tot Shabbat, Holiday services and programs, camps and retreats. Cindy is a graduate of the 1995 Synagogue Leadership Institute and the 1995 Rabbinic Aid program, both sponsored by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. She is a 10 year veteran of Hava Nashira, the annual Song Leading and Music Conference held at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
http://home.xnet.com/~rtm/

Nee Ella Milch. Born 1954 In Haifa, Israel. Composer. Singer, pianist. Milch-Sheriff started as a child prodigy, writing her first compositions by the age of 12. While serving in the Israeli army, she continued to write and sing her songs. After army service, she returned to studies in composition under Prof. Tzvi Avni at the Rubin Academy of Music at the Tel-Aviv University where she graudated in composition. She studied vocal studies with Prof. Tamar Rachum and Dafna Cohen-Licht. Her output consists of opera, orchestral, chamber and vocal and popular music. Her works have had numerous performances in Israel and abroad. She is composer of chamber works such as: Duo for flute & Cello (1976) with recent pieces that include “A Crown they shall give unto You” for voice and orchestra based on Ladino-Flamenco folk music (premiered January 2005); “Woman in Paths” for voice and piano (premiered 2005); and “Good Night, Sweet ladies” for 3 singers, actress and orchestra (premiered 2004).…
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Mira Waksman-Kimiagaroof, a San Francisco-based artist, sings in Hebrew, although many compositions are Sephardic (Mediterranean and Middle Eastern) tunes that come from Uzbekistan, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Morocco and other Arabic countries. Her parents were of Uzbeki and Afghan heritage and she comes from a cantorial and family. She combines her Israeli musical influences blended with musics from others she works with. Mira’s website has a brief bio, features two recordings and press info. There are photos, but no labels.
http://www.mirasings.com

Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, the seventh generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th-century Baghdad. Through her multi-media song, story and slide programs, she shares her rare and intimate knowledge of this ancient community s history, customs and melodies. Ms Musleah is a graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She is a member of the Authors Guild; the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Jewish Press Association. She sings with the Zamir Chorale and Shirah, the Jewish Community Chorus of the JCC on the Palisades, in Tenafly, NJ, both under the direction of Matthew Lazar. She has received awards for her writing from the American Jewish Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Sephardi Literary Contest, the Society of National Association Publications, and the General Federation of Women s Clubs.…
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American. Born April 5, 1901. Died Jan. 17, 1991 in Chevy Chase, MD. Lyricist in the Yiddish theater. Wrote “My Son and I” that opened in 1960, a “musical play in English and Yiddish with book by Herman Yablokoff, music by Sholom Secunda and lyrics by Bella Mysell.” (NYTimes, Oct. 16, 1960).

Special thanks to Victor Berch, retired Brandeis University Special Collections Librarian for research on this entry.

American Singer and Blogger. Raised in upstate NY, attended Hampshire College and immigrated to Israel. Orthodox and Green, Sarah joined Atid Yarok (green future) at Merkaz Hamagshimim Haddassah. Sarah went on to finish a Master s degree in Non-Profit Management at Hebrew University. After finishing her degree she took a position with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. In 2003, Sarah married David Nadav and they lived together on The Moshav and then moved to Jerusalem where their son Shalom BenTzion was born. They currently live in LA. Her music mixes influences of Carlebach, hasidic, American folk, rock, and middle easterns sounds from Jerusalem and is put together on her first CD, “Sarah Dahlia” Music For the Middle of the Night. A lot of songs in English.…
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Fan site for Israeli singer Noa with English, Spanish and Italian versions. Lots of photos, clips, CDs, links, discography and news.
http://noasite.net/

Fan site, Lots of pictures, bio, real audio files and ways to buy music.
http://www.hrmusic.com/discos/anframe.html

The website has information on over 40 years of the career of Esther Ofarim, one of Israel’s premier singers. Esther Ofarim was a sensation in the 1960s and 70s. She stopped concertizing for over a decade, but has since returned to the stage. She started singing in the Israëli National Theatre “Habimah”. She met, and later married, Abraham (Abi) Reichstat. After touring and recording widely in Europe and the US, winning several prizes as a duo, they later divorced. Esther continued on a solo career on the stage and on television, eventually moving back to Israel. Today she concertizes in Germany and in Israel, often accompanied by Yoni Rechter, piano. She is still remembered for winning the Israel Song Festival in 1961 with 2 songs. The website has some nice photos, reviews, and discography with sound bites.…
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Betti Olivero, born in Tel Aviv in 1954, is one of few young women composers highly acclaimed throughout Israel, Europe and the US. She studied both in Israel and in the United States at Yale with Jacob Druckman. Ms. Olivero’s list of works shows skill and variety. She has written instrumental chamber works, symphonic works, for voice and chamber groups, puppet plays and for large string ensembles. A list of compositions, a brief bio and a discography has been gathered by the Israel Music Institute.

http://www.aquanet.co.il/vip/imi/bios/olivero.htm#Biographical notes

American. Cantor. Born December 24, 1952, St. Louis, MO. She is the first woman invested as a cantor. Graduated 1975, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion-School of Sacred Music (HUC-SSM). Received the honorary DSM from HUC in 2000. From 1976 through 1988, served Temple Beth-El of Great Neck. From 1990 through 2002, served Temple Beth Am of Buffalo, NY. From 1996 to 1998, chaired the Joint Cantorial Placement Commission. In 2002, appointed as Placement Director of the American Conference of Cantors (ACC). She also served the American Conference of Cantors (ACC) as Secretary, Vice-President, as a Northeast regional representative, and several terms on the board of directors. Cantor Ostfeld edited the CAA newsletter, Shalshelet: The Chain, for two years.

American vocalist, guitarist, teacher and singer-songwriter residing in Sherman Oaks, California. Sings in Yiddish, Hebrew and English. Attended a Yiddish Kindershule. B.A. in French, UCLA. Worked for over thirty years as director of children’s music at Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. Cantorial soloist at UCLA Hillel. Specializes in children’s music. Has recorded eight CDs of Jewish and children’s songs. Her albums include: Celebrate With Cindy Vol. 1 and 2; What a Happy Day; S’iz Yontev Kinder Lomir Zingin!; Chanukah a Singing Celebration; Shabbat Shalom; Zing with Cindy Paley; Yavo Shalom; A Singing Seder; Koleet: a Celebration of Jewish Folk Music.
http://www.cindypaley.com/

“Israeli born. Received her B.A. in Piano Performance from the Chicago Music College and M.A. in Composition from Indiana School of Music in Bloomington, both degrees with Distinction. While a student she received the First Prize in the Molly Margolis Piano Competition in Chicago, as well as numerous scholarships and Distinctions. Among her teachers were Prof. Ludmila Lazar (Piano) and Prof. Fred Fox (Composition) Ms. Pelleg studied conducting with Henry Mazer, Associate conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Pelleg was awarded a conducting fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, a scholarship to study with Frederick Prauznitz at Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hoplkins University in Baltimore, and a fellowship to a special master class with Max Rudolph at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In addition, she participated in Master Classes with Sergiu Celibidacce in The Munich Philharmonic and Ghenadi Rhozdesvensky in Sienna.…
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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

Born, June 1, 1898, New York. (nee, Margaret Pyekoon.) Died, April 5, 1992, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Mega-star of the Yiddish stage and movies. Her papers are held at the American Jewish Historical Society in the Center for Jewish History. An online finding aid gives a brief biographical sketch about her wildly successful career, spanning over 70 years in theater, stage and film. One of her most famous appearances in the Yiddish film Yidl Mitn Fidl(1937). The YIVO Archives also has holdings of Picon.
http://www.cjh.org/academic/findingaids/AJHS/nhprc/MollyPiconb.html

American singer. Graduate of Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Specializes in the music of Spain and Sephardic Jews. Her albums include “Jewels of the Sephardim,” “Wings of Time” and “The Radiance of Faith.”

http://www.laurenpomerantz.com/about.html

Israeli violinist. Born, 1975 in Moscow, Russia. Entered Tchaikovsky Central Music School. Immigrated to Israel 1990. Studied at Jerusalem Rubin Academy and Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. Member of young Israeli Philharmonic. Won first prize at Tel Aviv Academy chamber music competition, 1996. Appeared as soloist with Ra’anana Symphonette, Tel Aviv Academy Symphony, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Member of second violin section, Israel Philharmonic since 1996.

American. Born January 1, 1936 in New York City. Conductor, pianist. First woman appointed conductor to a metropolitan orchestra and first woman to conduct at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall. Also the first woman to conduct on a commercially recorded opera. (Massenet’s Le Cid, 1976) Ms. Rabin grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home. A child prodigy, she received a scholarship by age 5. She attended New York City High School of Music and Art. Later she studied at CCNY and conducting at Mannes College of Music. She also studied at the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music. Started vocal coaching and rehearsal accompanist at New York City Opera in 1957-(8). Then, in graduate school, studied conducting with Carl Bamberger and later with Joseph Rosenstock at the Metropolitan Opera.…
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Children’s performer, composer and folk musician living in New Hampshire, with over twenty years of experience living in Israel. Her website includes links to folk music culture in Israel.

Born May 23, 1893, Bialystok, Poland.(nee, Burchstein). Died September 28, 1963, Los Angeles, California. Soprano. Sang with the Chicago Opera and internationally in over 500 performances. Popular for her performances in Italian operas. Opened a school in the 1930s in Chicago with her husband, Giacomo Rimini. A webpage devoted to her has some wonderful photos and more about her opera performances. A biography has been written by Charles Mintzer called: “Rosa Raisa: A Biography of a Diva with Selections from Her Memoirs” published by Northeastern University Press.

http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Raisa__Rosa/hauptteil_raisa__rosa.html
and
http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/books/rosaraisa.htm

A widely acclaimed composer and pianist who studied in Israel and the United States and now works internationally, including the US. Ms. Ran was born in Tel Aviv. While primarily a classical musician, Ms. Ran has written several works both on Jewish themes, including an opera The Dybbuk, and and works with Jewish musical content, including klezmer-influenced music and several liturgical settings. Ms. Ran won the Pulitzer Prize in 1991. Her music is published by Theodore Presser which has an excellent page dedicated to her music, her publications, her biography and a discography. It includes a photo.
http://www.presser.com/composers/ran.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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A lyric soprano whose voice was often described as  ravishing, Judith Raskin stressed purity of sound, clear diction, and the musical line. Born 21 June 1928, in New York, Judith grew up as an only child of teachers Harry A. Raskin and Lillian Mendelson Raskin. She studied both violin and piano as a child, but discovered singing, and sang in the glee club of Roosevelt High School in Yonkers. She studied voice with Anna Hamlin and acting with Ludwig Donath at Smith College, graduating 1949 with a BA, and along the way winning various scholarships and awards including the Harriet D. Barnum Award. Smith College later also awarded her an honorary MA in 1963. She won the Marian Anderson Scholarship for two years 1952 and 1953, and in 1956 won an award by the Musician s Club of New York.…
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A composer and singer. Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed on texts of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others. In Israel she has written music for symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles.

Born in Leningrad. (Now St. Petersburg). Composer and singer. Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed on texts of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others. In Israel she has written music for symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles. Works include “Requiem”, performed in 1989 at the Kremlin, Moscow; “The song of the Murdered Jewish People” on a poem by Itzhak Katzenelson; soundtrack for Kastner’s Trial”.…
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Born in Amsterdam. Daughter of Lin Jaldati. Singer. Specializes in Jewish song.
http://www.milch-und-honig.com/jalda_rebling.htm

Born 14 July 1904, in Vilna, Lithuania, Nadia Reisenberg moved with her family to St. Petersburg in 1915 where she studied piano at the Conservatory under Leonid Nikolaiev. After the Russian revolution, the family moved, going from Vilna, where Nadia played in the Gelios Theatre accompanying movies, to Poland where she concertized with the Warsaw Philharmonic, to Germany. The Reisenberg s came to America in 1922. Under the helpful largesse of Isaac Sherman, Nadia gave private recitals and began to build a reputation.

With less than one year of study with Alexander Lambert in New York, she gave her American debut on 17 December 1922, playing the Polish Fantasy by Ignace Paderewski, with the composer at the performance in the Century Theatre. With sterling reviews by the press, the young Miss Reisenberg began to receive invitations for more recitals.…
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Conductor of the Russian Women’s Melody Choir of Chicago, an ensemble of women who are all immigrants from the fromer USSR. The choir performs in Yiddish, English, Russian and Hebrew.

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 cantor. Born, 1956. Graduated (with Erica Lippitz) in May, 1987 as the first women from the Jewish Theological Seminary to be awarded the degree of Hazzan. Spanish teacher, and international banker before entering the Seminary. Cantor Barugel works at Congregation B’nai Israel in Rumson, NJ.

Israeli violinist. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Studied at Tchaikovsky Academy of Music. Received Doctorate. Immigrated to Israel 1974. Member of Israel Philharmonic as a first violin. Teacher at Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.

Lithuanian singer, sister of of Leyb Rozental, a prolific writer of song texts. He wrote many songs performed by Khayele in the Vilna ghetto during the Holocaust years. If you have information regarding this singer, please contact the JMWC. Thanks.

Singer Songwriter. Sings Orthodox popular music. Her CD is Ani L’Dodi. Some clips on site.
http://rachelrubin.net/MainMenu.htm

Yiddish folklorist, ethnomusicologist and song collector. Ruth Rubin collected and notated over 2000 Yiddish songs. Ms. Rubin sang the Yiddish folksongs, often unaccompanied. She made documentary recordings such as “The Old Country” on Folkways Records, with other folksingers such as Pete Seeger included in the project. In a documentary about her life and work, “A Life of Song: A Portrait of Ruth Rubin” by Cindy Marshall, Ruth Rubin states that her parents moved to Montreal in 1904 and she was born there in 1906 as Rifkele Royzenblatt. She was born on Sept. 1, 1906. (Mark Slobin, in his new introduction to “Voices of a People” lists her as being born in Khotin, Romania.) At age 5, her father died. She attended The Aberdeen School, a Montreal Protestant school, and in the afternoons, a Jewish secular “shule”, the Peretz Shule,– getting an immersion in Jewish Yiddish culture.…
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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 NYC, nee Moskowitz. Composer. Pianist. Accompanist. Died Feb. 12, 2004 at age 93. Married to a Cantor, Saul Meisels in 1935. Focused on creating accessible music that would be “timeless and well-received by people of all ages.” She wrote, arranged or orchestrated more than 400 songs — many of which have been performed by famous Jewish musicians. Her daughter Florence Nelson told the Miami Herald “She knew that much of what she wrote would be possible for cantors, choirs and children to sing,… She wanted to keep the music of Judaism alive.” Ida frequently accompanied her husband and other cantors for recitals and concerts. She discovered her talent for composing later in life, and it became a passion. “Music was her life,” Nelson said.…
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Israeli bassist, composer. Co-Founder, Eve’s Women (1997), an all female group of jazz, klezmer, and rock. Also founded Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers,(2002), a contemporary world fusion music group based in London. Studied, Manhattan School of Music in New York. After graduation, she joined theEast-West Ensemble in Israel for seven years. Performed in Israel with The Israel Orchestra, The Israel Northern Orchestra, The Israeli Opera Orchestra, and The Beer-Sheva Sinfonietta. Released the CDOut of Border in 2002, and the CD “Eve’s Women” Sadeh has performed at numerous international festivals along with her work in her various ensembles. She currently resides in England. Sadeh’s profile and list of works available from Rainlore website.
http://www.rainlore.demon.co.uk/Artists/DaphnaSadeh.html Her website describing her life, various ensembles includes photos and audio clips from her two CDs.…
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Israeli-born Canadian music pianist, teacher. Born 1918, Israel. Died, 1992 Toronto? Canada. Studied piano with Stefan Wolpe in Israel. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and earned the LRAM, 1944 in piano, voice, and conducting. Studied with Harold Craxton and Sir Henry Wood. Following the war, Samsonov returned to Israel and began performing and taught. In 1954, she moved to Toronto,Canada, where she taught piano. She was a Jewish music educator in Toronto for many years.

Born 1914, Brooklyn, N.Y. Broadway singer. Also sang in opera and on television. Graduated Cornell University, 1935. Known for her role in “The King and I” with Yul Brynner on Broadway. Founded “Speech Dynamics Inc., where she became a speech consultant to politicians and public personalities. Her papers, ranging over 75 years, are held at Cornell University Library Rare Books and Manuscript Division, where a finding aid is available online. Information about Dorothy Sarnoff from the “Guide to the Dorothy Sarnoff Papers”, Cornell University.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03147.html

Dancing in the Wind is the Website for Roz Schwarz, a Jewish musician living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She performs and composes music in a variety of settings. She is currently Canadian Regional Representative for the Children’s Music Network. She is also a photographer. The website includes lyrics and songsheets for many songs of her music.
http://www.dancinginthewind.ca/entrance.htm