Cantor’s Report Submitted by: Donna M. Azu
This July will mark my four years serving as Cantor at Temple Shalom. I continue to be very happy working with Rabbi Miller, Caren Plotkin, Seyla Cohen, the Temple Board and our fantastic office staff who are committed to our Temple. I consider Temple Shalom my home and I look forward to many continued opportunities to serve our members as clergy, musician and Jewish educator. B’Shira,
From Bimah to Broadway As part of our Temple fundraising efforts, with my fantastic committee chaired by Nancy Wiadro, I organized a concert entitled “From Bimah to Broadway”. I was joined by three talented Cantors from around the United States for this evening of music. This was the first time a Cantor’s concert was held at Temple Shalom and the evening was a huge success. We had 600 attendees and raised almost $100,000. I look forward to presenting many more concerts in the future!
Worship and Music My musical choices have reflected my desire of using eclectic music that aims to please different ages and backgrounds of our congregants. I try to make the services truly upbeat, spirited and soulful at the same time. I like to combine compositions of contemporary American Jewish composers that are becoming standard repertoire of Reform services as well as traditional Jewish folk melodies and Cantorial chants (Hazannut). I also try to engage the congregants to sing a long and to create a more participatory service. As I believe that singing or praying together has a special value and is one of the ways of building a strong community. Between the months of October and May we continue to dedicate the first Friday of the month to our 6pm Shir Joy Shabbat service giving our Religious school students and Jr. choir an opportunity to be involved in leading parts of the service. Jane Galler joins me in in leading this lively service. We have also continued our successful Shabbat and Havdalah services on the beach.
Adult Choir The volunteer Choir rehearses twice a month on Thursday’s from 6:30-8pm under the direction of Musical Director Peter Lewis. Peter and I work closely together in choosing the music for each choir Shabbat. We currently have 21 members of the choir.
High Holy Days On the High Holy Days, we engaged 8 professional singers to join the choir and we had 6 weeks of rehearsal dedicated to preparing for the holidays. In addition we had 15 of our students chant Torah during the holiday. I organized the Torah readers, made Torah recordings of what they were chanting, and met with many of them regularly to insure that they were prepared.
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