9th Annual Bay Area cantorial concert set for Feb. 7 at Kol Ami in Tampa

The Bay Area Cantorial Association (BACA) will present “Eiilu Ha-Shirim; Songs We Love,” a concert featuring Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, American, Chasidic, Sephardic, and Ashkenazic pieces celebrating Jewish life, on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.

This annual undertaking, now in its ninth year, includes performances by 14 cantors and cantorial soloists who serve the Tampa Bay and Bradenton/Sarasota area. It will be hosted by Cantor Jodi Sered-Lever and Congregation Kol Ami, 3919 Moran Road, Tampa.

Tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $18 each; no one will be turned away. Proceeds benefit scholarships for cantorial students of both Reform and Conservative sacred music study. Solos and ensemble pieces cover a global range of Jewish writers, eras, styles, and cultures. This year’s concert will present an eclectic collection of traditional, modern, and original settings of prayer-song in cantorial, folk, and pop arrangements that are particular favorites of the performers.

This will be the largest gathering of area cantors and cantorial soloists to date, with 15 participants, including four new cantors to the Tampa Bay area and the return of recently retired Tampa Cantor Moshe Frielder, who served Congregation Rodeph Sholom for 21 years and who has moved to Florida’s East Coast.

In addition to Sered-Lever and Friedler, participants from Tampa in this annual concert will be: Cantor

Riselle Bain of Congregation Schaarai Zedek, Hazzan Paul D. Goldstein of Temple Ohev Shalom, Hazzan Mordechai Schram of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, and Cantorial Family Educator Vikki Silverman of Congregation Beth Am.

Pinellas County participants will be: Cantor Deborah Jacobson of Temple Ahavat Shalom, Palm Harbor, Cantorial Soloist Joy Katzen Guthrie of Palm Harbor; Cantor Judith Ovadia of Temple B’nai Israel, Clearwater; Cantor Jonathan Schultz of Congregation B’nai Israel, St. Petersburg; and pianist Chana Olmstead of Congregation B’nai Israel, St. Petersburg.

Others will be Neil Newman of Bradenton, Cantor Emeritus of Beth El Synagogue, Minneapolis, MN; Harold Orbach, Cantor Emeritus, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, MI; Cantor Joel Reznick of the Sarasota Jewish Chorale; and Hazzan Jeffrey Weber of Temple Beth Sholom, Sarasota.

BACA holds its annual concert on or near Shabbat Shira (Sabbath of Song), when it has become customary to hold special music-and song-related services and events.

To date, BACA has raised and donated $26,000 for cantorial scholarships to the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative), and School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform), both in New York.

Call Kol Ami at (813) 962-6338 for more information.