A
native of Tallahassee, Florida, Cantor Rebecca Garfein, mezzo-soprano,
is the Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.
She has
appeared in numerous recitals throughout the United States, Israel and
Europe, and
made her New York City debut with the New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
at Cami Hall.
Garfein
has been a participant in the opera program at DiCapo Opera in New York
City and at the Aspen Music Festival. Cantor Garfein was also a participant
in the Young Artists' vocal program at the Tanglewood Music Center in
Massachusetts. Cantor Garfein has researched the music of the Sephardic
Jews and written an annotated bibliography of Sephardic music.
On November 12, 1997, New
York mezzo-soprano, Cantor Rebecca Garfein sang in concert at the Judische
Kulturtage, Berlin's annual Jewish Cultural Festival . Singing liturgical
music previously sung only by males, Garfein was also the first female cantor
to sing in Germany as a soloist. The concert was performed in the Centrum Judaicum
auditorium, housed in the former Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue, in what was
once the women's gallery. Garfein was accompanied by organist, Arnold Ostlund,
Jr. (from Yonkers, New York) and Berlin's nine-voice Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue
Choir.
We include here the
musical composition Kiddush (Prayer of Sanctification) by Kurt Weill,
sung by Cantor Garfein and choir. Composed in 1946 for tenor solo, chorus, and
organ, Kiddush was commissioned by the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York,
where it was first performed during a Friday night service by Cantor David Putterman.
The melody and arrangement is cabaret style. Weill dedicated the score to his
father Albert, who survived the Second World War and became a citizen of the
new state of Israel.
