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June 30, 2000/27 Sivan 5760, Vol. 52, No.43
Beth Israel hires two cantors
LEISAH NAMM
Staff Writer
Tonight, June 30, is the final Shabbat service at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale for Cantor Howard Tabaknek. He is leaving after seven years of service to the temple to take a position at Temple Shalom in Succasunna, N.J., beginning August 1.
He is being replaced by Cantor Andrew Mayer, who begins work July 1, and Michael Sokol, a cantorial soloist, who will debut at High Holiday services in the fall.
Mayer, 39, has been training bar- and bat-mitzvah students at Beth Israel since May 15. He said he will assist Rabbi Kenneth I. Segel at some Friday night services and all Saturday morning services; and will direct a junior choir for children grades 3-7, to eventually perform at family services, holiday programs and community events.
Mayer will continue at The King David School, where he teaches physical education and Judaic studies and directs after-school-sports programs.
For five years, until December 1999, Mayer served as spiritual leader at Temple Beth Emeth in Scottsdale. Rabbi Ted Louis now leads that congregation.
Mayer said he trained privately with Cantor Allan Michelson, who was a hazzan at Temple Adat Ari El, a conservative synagogue in North Hollywood, Calif.
"It's an honor to be working with Rabbi Segel and to be representing Temple Beth Israel," Mayer said.
Mayer and his wife, Marla, have two daughters: Erica, 10 and Ali, 5.
Sokol, 39, is a professor of voice and opera at University of California at Santa Barbara, in California. He sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera for three years and now sings with opera companies throughout the country.
Sokol will serve as a cantorial soloist for High Holy Days services and will assist Segel in leading services at least two Friday nights a month, starting in September.
Sokol grew up in Phoenix and became a bar mitzvah at Beth Israel. He said he plans to move to the Valley in late August and will commute back and forth to Santa Barbara to teach, as well as fulfill opera performance commitments throughout the year.
His wife, Angelina Reaux, is also an opera singer.
"Both of these men bring tremendous strengths and a lot of talent and warmth," Segel said. "I'm looking forward to see what they can do in the next year."
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