|
|
May 10, 2002/Iyar 28, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 34
Har Zion hires new cantor from California
LEISAH NAMM
Assistant Editor
After an 18-month search, Har Zion Congregation has hired a new cantor.
Hazzan Bernard Savitz of Woodland Hills, Calif., will join the Conservative congregation in mid-July.
"After interviewing a number of candidates over the last year and a half, it seemed to be the best fit for our congregation's needs (and) our community's needs," said Mervyn Levin, vice president of the Har Zion ritual committee.
Besides cantorial and pastoral duties, Savitz's other responsibilities will include bar and bat mitzvah training and teaching adult education classes.
Savitz, who sings in nine languages, is a graduate of the Talmudical Academy of Baltimore, as well as Yeshiva College, the James Striar School of Jewish Studies and the Cantorial Training Institute, all in New York City. In addition, he spent a year at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel.
He is an ordained hazzan with the Cantors Assembly of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, a member of the Guild of Temple Musicians and a lifetime associate member of the American Conference of Cantors. He has served as a full-time cantor for congregations in New York and California for more than 25 years.
Savitz has also composed and arranged many cantorial, liturgical and folk melodies, written original settings in Ladino for the motion picture "Triumph of the Spirit," and trained and sang with the Tri-Cities Opera of Upstate New York.
He currently tutors b'nai mitzvah students at a San Fernando Valley synagogue and leads High Holiday services for a Burbank congregation.
Savitz and his wife Francine will move to the Valley in July. Savitz said he looks forward to "the excitement and the new experiences of a new congregational family and a new city," as well as "learning, experiencing and sharing life and lifecycle events with a congregation."
Har Zion's previous cantor, Devin Goldenberg, left the congregation in June 2001.
Har Zion is located at 6140 E. Thunderbird Road, Scottsdale.
|
