Julian Dawes 2008│ Rahamana • Ha-Neshamah Lakh Julian Dawes began his musical training in Birmingham, England, and continued at the Royal College of Music in London. He has worked extensively as an accompanist and teacher, holding posts at Drama Centre London, Birmingham University, the The Arts Educational Schools in London, and The Oxford School of Drama. He has directed music for numerous theatre productions in England and internationally. As Musical Director of The Cherub Company London, he composed scores for The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, and Kafka’s The Trial, among others. His Caucasian Chalk Circle and Edward ll are both recognized scores for these plays held by the Brecht Estate in Berlin and have been realized in many productions. In addition, he has composed many works for solo instruments and chamber music. His Songs of Ashes, a setting of fifteen poems by Polish poet Jerzy Ficowski about the Holocaust, has been broadcast in Israel. His cantata The Death of Moses and his oratorio Ruth were performed in London in 2003 and 2005. He is Music Advisor to the European Association of Jewish Culture. http://www.juliandawes.com
Stephen DeCesare 2004│ Eli, Eli Stephen DeCesare, born in Rhode Island, has won multiple national competitions and received numerous performances and commissions by theaters around the United States. He has a variety of styles in his repertoire, ranging from liturgical, opera, and musical-theater to orchestral, instrumental, and pop. To date, Mr. DeCesare has over 600 pieces in his catalogue. He is currently published with Eldridge Publishing, Contemporary Drama Service, Laurendale Publications, CanticaNOVA Publications, and J. S. Paluch & I. E. Clark Publications. His music has been broadcast on radio stations around the United States, Canada, England, and other parts of Europe. http://www.sdecesare.com/index.html
Steve Dropkin 2004│ Hashkiveinu Transcontinental MusicSteve Dropkin is now recording his fifth album of original Jewishmusic, entitled On That Day. He is a guest lecturer at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and has performed in England, Israel, and the United States. Steve is the founder of the Birmingham Jewish Folk Chorale. Two of Steve’s major pieces have been published in choral settings, and a third choral selection will be released in the next few months. Recently, he served as music director and worship coordinator at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi. Steve has been a finalist in the American Jewish Song Contest. His music has been featured on the in-flight listening programs for Tower Airlines. http://www.stevedropkin.com/
Marsha Dubrow 2008│ Hashkiveinu 2004│ Mah Tovu honorable mention Marsha Dubrow is spiritual leader and Cantor of Congregation B'nai Jacob in Jersey City, New Jersey. This has given her an ideal platform for creating and presenting her liturgical compositions, which she also performs at venues in the New York metropolitan area. She has composed settings of Mah Tovu, Hodu L'Adonai, Ki Mitzion, Tov L'Hodot, V'Shamru, Adon Olam, Halleluia, and Shema Yisrael among many others. A musicologist by training, she is a Resident Scholar in Jewish Music Studies at the Center for Jewish Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center and an Adjunct Professor of Jewish Music at New York University. She received a B.A. Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from New York University, and an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University, all in music, and also earned a Certificate in Yiddish Studies from the Columbia/Yivo Uriel Weinrich program. She has received numerous awards from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in music, including a Composer's Grant in Musical Theatre and Opera, and Folk Arts Fellowships in Hazzanut and Yiddish Song. Prior to devoting her professional life to Jewish music and spiritual endeavors, she was President and CEO of Technolog, Inc. and also developed a women writers program with Olympia Dukakis at The Whole Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey. A member of the Dramatists Guild and an alumna of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York City, she has produced on- and off-Broadway theatre including Band in Berlin, the story of the Comedian Harmonists.
Coreen Duffy 2008│ Shema' Kolenu Coreen Duffy holds undergraduate degrees in piano performance and English, and a Juris Doctor, all from the University of Michigan. She practiced law for four years in Los Angeles and also was the founding conductor of Shir Ba’Ir, the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale’s a cappella ensemble for Jewish young professionals. She began graduate studies at University of Miami Frost School of Music, and is continuing at the University of Southern California. Her scholarly writings have been published in the Choral Journal and The American Choral Review, and two of her choral compositions have been published by ECS Music Company.
Hélene Engel 2008│ Shalom Rav Hélene Engel is an opera singer, musicologist, composer, lyricist and arranger. She has a degree in music therapy from Université du Québec in Montréal, and in France received a Masters Degree in Musicology from the University of Strasbourg and a diploma from the Conservatory of Cergy-Pontoise. She made her professional debut in opera but has maintained a strong interest, both as scholar and performer, in exploring diverse musical traditions and languages. She specializes in Jewish folklore in Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew and other languages of exile. Performance tours have taken her throughout France and to major folklore festivals in Europe and North America. She has produced five recordings, most recently Voyage in 2007. She also serves as occasional cantorial soloist at Temple Emmanuel - Beth Shalom in Montreal, where she now lives. http://www.helene-engel.com
Mary Feinsinger 2008│ Hashkiveinu • Ha-Yom Teamtzeinu • Yismehu 2004│ Sim Shalom • Yevarekhekha Mary Feinsinger serves as cantor at the Rossmoor Jewish Congregation near Princeton, New Jersey and is conductor/arranger for the "Broadway at the Y" Chorus at the 92nd Street Y in New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College and has a M.M. in voice from The Juilliard School where for many years she was on the piano-accompanying staff. She has music-directed at many New York area theaters and cabarets and was conductor/arranger of Shlomo-about the life and works of Shlomo Carlebach - for Jazz at Lincoln Center. She recently presented a reading of her musical-in-progress, The Ballad of Rom and Jules, at the Dramatists Guild in New York; Understood Betsy premiered recently in Florida and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys will premier in Vermont this Fall. With the West End Klezmorim (which she co-founded) she has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The White House, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Space. She co-wrote and performed in the off-Broadway revue Hot Klezmer, and composed the score for the feature film The Apology. For Transcontinental Music, she produced, arranged, and music-directed Kol Dodi, arranged and produced Songs from a Passover Haggadah, and was an editor and music director for Shirei T'shuvah - Songs of Repentance. Among her many awards are a 2006 Composition Grant from The Children's Aid Society Chorus and a 2008 ASCAP Plus Award. Currently she is on the voice faculty at the Mannes College of Music Extension Division, maintains a private studio, and serves on the board of directors of the American Society for Jewish Music. http://www.maryfeinsinger.com/
Joshua Fishbein 2006│ Musaf Kedushah Joshua Henry Fishbein was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. As an undergraduate he studied composition under Nancy Galbraith at Carnegie Mellon University, and as a graduate student at the University of Maryland College Park and the San Francisco Conservatory. His music has been performed by the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, Jazz Vocal Ensemble, and Contemporary Ensemble; the CMU Originals, an all-male a cappella group which he had directed for the past three years; the Quarteto Latino Americano; the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (as part of the 2005 Student Composers Project); and various solo artists in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The music of Cantor Moshe Taube, with whom he worked for a year at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and Hazzan A. Dunajiewski (1843-1911) were sources of inspiration for Musaf Kedushah. He dedicated this work to Cantor Taube, Maurice (Tito) Braunstein, and the Beth Shalom Choir.
Arlene Frank 2008│ Safta, Saba Cantor Arlene Frank studied voice and music theory at the Mannes School of Music, and was ordained as a Cantor/Teacher in Israel in 2003 at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She served as Student Cantor at Adas Emuno in Leonia, New Jersey and since 2003 has served as Cantor at Temple Beth El in Spring Valley, New York. She is inspired to write music when she cannot find the setting she needs for one of her choirs or students. Her Sukat Sh’lomecha is included in Transcontinental’s The Complete Jewish Songbook for Children, Vol. II.
Manel Frau-Cortes 2008│ Mah Tovu Born on the island of Mallorca, Manel Frau-Cortes is currently enrolled as a cantorial student at Gratz College. He studied piano and composition at the Ciutat de Mallorca’s Professional Conservatory, as well as jazz piano and arrangements at Taller de Músics, a contemporary music school in Barcelona. He also earned a Masters in Hebrew-Aramaic Letters from Barcelona’s Central University and is a published translator and music scholar specializing in Medieval Hebrew literature. His career as a composer, arranger, producer and performer spans styles from folk to jazz-fusion and New Age. In addition to liturgical settings, he has composed soundtracks for several short films, including Drop Plot (1993), as well as music for theatre including Membria d’en JuliB (2000) by Iguana Teatre and Una Noche Contigo by Haché de Teatro.
Stephen Freedman 2006│ Esah 'Einai Cantor Stephen Freedman, a native of Milton, Massachusetts, is a hazzan, composer and accomplished folksinger. A student and protégé of Cantor Gregor Shelkan, he served congregations in Rhode Island, Florida and Massachusetts before assuming his present position in 2001 at Temple Sinai in Dresher, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. Several of his congregational melodies appear in the recently published Zamru Lo: The Next Generation. His 1979 Holocaust work, Childhood Memories, for children’s choir and narrator, received critical acclaim from Anne Frank’s father Otto, who granted permission for excerpts from his daughter's diary to be set to music. Esa Einai is one of three Psalm settings composed for use at memorial services.
Jonathan Friedmann 2006│ Mi Khamokha with Roni Kripper Jonathan Friedmann is cantor at Bet Knesset Bamidbar, Las Vegas, NV. He also plays cello, guitar, bass, and mandolin in various ensembles, including the Hazzanim and Shul House Rock, both with Cantor Roni Kripper. Cantor Friedmann is a composer, arranger, and music teacher, and has written music for the University of California San Diego Music Library, Tzadik Records, and a number of synagogues. He has lectured on Jewish music at California State University, University of California San Diego, and University of California Los Angeles.