Wilshire Boulevard Temple Presents The Four Cantors
Mar 28, 2012, 01:49 ET
LOS ANGELES, March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wilshire Boulevard Temple announced today it will host renowned Cantors Don Gurney, Chayim Frenkel, Nathan Lam and Susan Caro in concert on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 6 p.m., at the Temple's Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles. A very special occasion, it is rare when four Cantors of such wide acclaim officiate together.
An Anne and Nathan Spilberg Annual Jewish Event, the Four Cantors will elevate souls and infuse hearts in performance as part of a beautiful Shabbat service led by Rabbi Steve Leder, in the Marcia Israel Chapel.
Wilshire Boulevard Temple's Hazzan Don Gurney is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where he was introduced to the art of Hazzanut by Cantor Saul Meisles. He is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music in New York City. Cantor Gurney taught on the faculty of the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music for 15 years, and at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles since 2001. His exquisite tenor voice can be heard on the recordings "One Voice" and "Meditations of the Heart." In 1995, Cantor Gurney made his Lincoln Center conducting debut at the International Choral Festival.
Cantor Nathan Lam, bass-baritone, has been the cantor of Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles since 1976. His credits include six record albums, participation in numerous music recording collections, including one produced by Nordstrom as a fundraiser for children's hospitals. He has performed in concert halls with great success in the United States, Europe and Israel; including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Shrine Auditorium and the Los Angeles Music Center. He is considered a master of the traditional "cantorial art form" as well as an innovator in the new and modern sounds of contemporary synagogue musical style.
Chayim Frenkel serves as Cantor at Kehillat Israel. He was Executive Producer of Meir Finkelstein's large-scale oratorio "Liberation," a work commemorating the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. He also served as co-chair of the Cantor's Assembly fiftieth anniversary celebration in New York City, where he performed at Carnegie Hall and produced a concert in Central Park. In addition, Cantor Frenkel has commissioned and served as executive producer of numerous recordings. He received his commission as a Hazzan-Minister from the Cantors Assembly in 1992, and now sits on their Executive Council.
A native New Yorker, Cantor Susan Caro proudly serves as the President of the American Conference of Cantors. She shares her time between congregational cantorial roles in Los Angeles, and as Hospice Chaplain with Kaiser Permanente. Prior to receiving her Masters in Sacred Music and Investiture from the School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1993, she graduated with honors from New York University.
Founded in 1862, Wilshire Boulevard Temple (originally known as Congregation B'nai Brith) is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, and one of the country's most highly regarded Reform Jewish communities. The Temple also operates fully accredited and outstanding parenting and early childhood centers at both its Westside and historic campuses as well as the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps and Conference Center at a 200-acre site in Malibu.
SOURCE Wilshire Boulevard Temple