Cantor’s Notes

Cantor Stoehr

August 9th is my birthday and I’ve received two nice ‘gifts’ which I want to share with you. (If it were my wife’s cheesecake, I may not have shared.)

For this coming 2021-22 calendar year I have been appointed Chairman of the Annual International Cantors Convention, to be held in Los Angeles. It will be the 75th anniversary of the Assembly which comes with both great excitement and responsibility. We know from our own CBS 50th anniversary celebration a few years ago, and other such milestones, a moment such as this is filled with historic retrospectives and laying building blocks for the future of the organization. For the CA, we will engage Hollywood personalities, Judaic scholars, and celebrate the history of Jewish music in Los Angeles, past and present. It will be the first time in the past few years that we will have been able to gather in person, which is a special moment in and of itself. The best times are often the Late Night programs, which allow many colleagues to stand in an open mic setting and perform their newest compositions, sing familiar Opera arias or Classical Hazzanut, and also some humorous risqué stand-up routines. In past years, we have modified our conventions and instead created Missions to Poland, Spain and Germany, and this year we were planning a trip to Italy, but those plans needed to, once again, be postponed for another year. If you love this sort of musical and educational programming, consider coming to LA for a couple of days next May.

The second honor is also related to leadership. In 2005 – 2007 I served as the President of the Cantors Assembly, the largest body of Cantors in the world. I was delighted to mature alongside my colleagues and fellow officers, and also help the CA to evolve our breadth of touchpoints in the Jewish and secular worlds. I believe my work within the CA has enhanced my skills and knowledge of my profession and created for me, and thus for CBS, great networking with colleagues who have brought into our synagogue, wonderful entertainment and teaching.

I have now been elected as the President of the Cantors Assembly Foundation Inc. This body of leaders is comprised primarily of the Past Presidents of the Cantors Assembly, as well as two select CA members at large. The goal of the Foundation is to underwrite and otherwise fund music projects. Music scholars, creative thinkers, those engaged in modern inter-religious studies, and others who deal in the circle of Jewish music preservation or programming with outreach to college a capella groups and the like, associate with us via grant proposals. Typically, allocations are made for scholarship assistance to students enrolled in a bona fide cantorial school, to those engaged with research in the field of Jewish music and for the publication of materials that instruct laypersons how to lead liturgical services. By approving such requests we work to further the impact of Jewish music in the world and to encourage another generation of Jewish musicians, composers and others interested to continue to create new music and, through scholarship, safeguard elements of Jewish music history.

As our Jewish world prepares for the High Holy days with the prayers of Selichot on August 28th, I think about how I have been honored to co-lead Congregation Beth Shalom for now my 34th year. The decisions I make in selecting liturgy and musical settings for our prayer services is my own way of “underwriting” and safeguarding our CBS tradition. I’ve been so touched when some post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah student comes up to me, years later, at a wedding or life cycle event, and remarks to me, “It’s so nice to hear you again, your voice is the essence of the sounds of my youth”.

I am so lucky to have found a career, and a synagogue, which has afforded me such fulfillment. I look forward to this year at CBS and, please God, many more together.