A unique concert combining songs and music from opera and Broadway shows, will be presented at Temple Or Elohim in Jericho on Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m.
Featuring the temple’s cantor, David Katz, who has sung in operas and with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, and who sang the National Anthem at New York Mets’ and Islanders’ games, the concert, titled “Lovers and Other Adversaries,” will also feature the singing of lyric mezzo soprano Hayden DeWitt and the piano playing of Dr. Geraldine Boyer-Cussac.
Cantor Katz said the concert will comprise highlights from grand opera, Viennese operettas and the American musical theater.
Cantor Katz said he has a long-term vision for Temple or Elohim to provide “the best quality in Jewish and secular music for its congregants and for the surrounding communities as well.”
The concert is an annual event at the temple and is part of an effort by Cantor Katz to develop the temple as a venue, he said, for “serious quality culture in the Jericho and Nassau North Shore region.”
“We’d like to offer Manhattan-quality shows in a local venue for a modest price,” he said. Cantor Katz, who has been at Temple Or Elohim for two years, is originally from Arizona, where he began performing.
Cantor Katz is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College Institute of Jewish Religion. He was invested as Cantor by Hebrew Union College in 1998. While studying in Israel he was engaged as the leading tenor in the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir singing under the Baton of Eli Jaffe and alongside the voice of Cantor Naftali Herstik.
He has served as Cantor on Long Island and was also the Cantor of the Raleigh Hotel in the Catskills of New York. Cantor Katz has led services from full instrumental ensembles for Jazz Shabbats to large choirs of adults and children.
His vocal and musical expression is built out of the desire to engage congregations in prayer with the use of voice, inspiring all people to join together as one. Cantor Katz is a member of the “The Three Jewish Tenors” along with Cantors Alberto Mizrachi and David Propis.
He has sung with the Houston Grand Opera Symphony with Marvin Hamlisch conducting, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, The Queens Oratorio Society Symphony, The Orchestra Cammerate in Italy, The Pan American Orchestra Of New York, The One World Symphony as well as many other prominent orchestras throughout the United States, in addition to singing lead roles in Opera in the United States and Europe.
Admission to the May 18 concert, which includes a dessert reception, is $25 per person.
Tickets for the concert are available from Temple Or Elohim, 18 Tobie Lane, Jericho 516-433-9888; www.templeorelohim.com.
