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August 3, 2001/Av 14, 5761, Vol. 53, No.43
From stage to bima
LEISAH NAMM
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 Mikhal Shiff-Matter started as the new cantor at Temple Beth Israel in July. Photo by Leisah Namm |
From singing in her father's synagogue choir as a teenager to her new position as Temple Beth Israel's cantor, Jewish music has always been an inspiration.
"Jewish music is our soul - the soul of the Jewish people," she says. "Music has the ability to reach beyond the verbal parts of our understanding."
Her first Shabbat service at the Scottsdale synagogue July 6 was a return to her congregational roots - she has spent the past 10 years at Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music in Jerusalem training rabbinic, cantorial and religious school educators.
Shiff-Matter notes that the HUC community is very transient - primarily made up of students and tourists. "I was teaching all these students how to be congregational cantors and I was missing it very much," she says. "This is a very big reason why I returned to (being a congregational cantor)."
Although she didn't start out with the goal of becoming of cantor, music was always her focus.
Shiff-Matter earned a bachelor's degree in music at the University of Miami, attended the Manhattan School of Music, earned a master's degree in Sacred Music from Hebrew Union College of Sacred Music and, in 1986, was invested as a cantor at HUC.
While attending Manhattan School of Music, she answered a job listing and landed her first cantorial soloist job - at Beth Elohim, a Reform congregation in Brooklyn, N.Y. She sang at Shabbat and holiday services from 1975-1979. A congregant taught her Torah chanting. "I had grown up in a Conservative synagogue," she explains. "Girls didn't chant Torah at that point."
She also taught b'nai mitzvah students and led a junior choir.
Although these duties felt very natural to her, she continued to pursue a different passion - opera singing.
Her opera debut was at age 18, as the lead in a Miami Opera performance of Rossini's "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella).
She then performed more than 30 opera roles, singing in eight different languages, with various opera companies in Miami, New York City, Omaha and Tel Aviv.
But becoming a cantor was in her blood.
Her father and paternal grandfather were both synagogue choir directors. She sang Yiddish songs and duets with her grandfather when she was a child and, starting at age 15, sang in her father's High Holiday choirs. She attended Shabbat services each week at a Conservative synagogue.
After her first cantorial soloist job at Beth Elohim, she was a student cantor at the Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, a Reform congregation in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., from 1981-1986, while she concurrently studied at HUC.
In addition to her student cantorial duties, she also taught adult education, b'nai mitzvah and confirmation classes while she studied to become a cantor.
Following a stint of two years (1986-1988) as the cantor of Temple Beth David, a Reform congregation in Commack, N.Y., she moved to Israel to fulfill her dream of living for one year in Israel.
She stayed for 13 years.
Before moving to the Valley in July, Shiff-Matter was a cantor and an educator at Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music in Jerusalem from 1991-2001.
"One of the sweet things for me in (the Phoenix) community is that (Temple Solel) Cantor Julie Berlin was a student of mine a few years ago," Shiff-Matter says. "Now she's been very much of a warm-welcomer and of assistance to me because now we're colleagues."
Shiff-Matter says she looks forward to "connecting with the various Jewish institutions" in the Valley and "to become involved not just with the Jewish community but with any interfaith activities that happen here."
Shiff-Matter's husband, Shai Shalom, is a tour guide in Israel and will follow her after finishing some obligations there. The couple have two daughters, Rivital, 9, and Odelya, 7.
Besides serving as the musical advisor, Shiff-Matter will also teach b'nai mitzvah students, lead Shabbat services when the rabbi is out of town, lead the adult volunteer and children's choirs, stage holiday and Shabbat music programs with the temple's preschool and religious school and perform at lifecycle events.
"A cantor used to be just a musical person and now we've been trained to be co-clergy," she notes.
In the future, she also hopes to launch a Jewish music concert series and start a children's Klezmer band.
"I really feel it's a great privilege to be able to serve this congregation and to be part of this community," she says.
Temple Beth Israel Shabbat services are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. Saturdays.
Call 480-951-0323.