Yitzchak meir helfgot biography of michael
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In 2012, Helfgot broke new ground with the unprecedented collaboration between a cantor and a world-class classical musician.
Renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman spearheaded a project with Sony to record sophisticated new arrangements of famous Cantorial pieces, reworked to include a dual focus on the voice and violin.
The music director for this project was the highly regarded expert on Jewish music Hankus Netsky, and the conductor was Australian-born Russell Germany A promotional tour with this assembled team saw sold-out performances at the Barclay"s Center arena in Brooklyn, as well as Boston"s Symphony Hall, Long Island"s Tilles Performing Arts Center, Toronto"s Roy Thomson Hall, and a crowd of 15,000 at the Hollywood Bowl.
A Public Broadcasting Service special titled "Rejoice" was also filmed in New York City in late 2013, and further performances took place at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton and the distinguished Ravinia Festival.
He shared a stage with Cantor Shimon Farkas of Central Synagogue in Sydney, Australia, Cantor Yehuda Niassof, and rockstar Jimmy Barnes in August 2009. He has also performed in distinguished venues, synagogues and concert halls in almost every European city and the world over, including the Warsaw Opera House in Poland, Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
His solo albums (see Discography below), recorded with one of the world authorities on Cantorial music, Dr.
Mordechai Sobol, have reinvigorated the art form through record breaking sales in this niche market.
Career
He is widely regarded as the greatest living practitioner of Jewish Cantorial Arts on account of his great vocal dexterity and range. He leaves audiences spellbound with his masterful renditions of classics by Rosenblatt, Koussevitzky, Kwartin, Sirota, and Hershman, transporting audiences back to the Golden Era of Chazzanut.
Cantor Helfgot has collaborated with some of the greatest cantors and musicians of our time, including Cantor Chaim Adler, Jimmy Barnes, comedian Elon Gold, and Itzhak Perlman.
In December 2006, he held a solo concert at the Metropolitan Opera House with the New York Philharmonic, its choir, and directed by Maestro Mordechai Sobel.
In December 2007, he performed at Lincoln Center in Avery Fisher Hall, again accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, in a tribute to Cantor Moshe Koussevitzky. In addition to having held several prestigious posts as Chief Cantor (including Europe and the United States), Helfgot has performed in concert all over the world.
In December 2006, under the auspices of Cantors World, he performed a solo concert at the Metropolitan Opera House with the New York Philharmonic directed by Maestro Mordechai Sobol.
In January 2007, he sang in Madison Square Garden to an audience of 30,000 at Siyum HaShas.
The music director for this project was the highly regarded expert on Jewish music Hankus Netsky, and the conductor was Australian-born Russell Ger. A promotional tour with this assembled team saw sold-out performances at the Barclay's Center arena in Brooklyn, as well as Boston's Symphony Hall, Long Island's Tilles Performing Arts Center, Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall, and a crowd of 15,000 at the Hollywood Bowl.
Like the famous operatic tenors he is capable of sustaining long passages in the difficult uppermost tessitura, while also possessing overt technical facility in executing ornate melismas. In December 2006, under the auspices of Cantors World, he performed a solo concert at the Metropolitan Opera House with the New York Philharmonic directed by Maestro Mordechai Sobol.
A PBS special titled "Rejoice" was also filmed in New York City in late 2013, and further performances took place at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton and the distinguished Ravinia Festival.
Helfgot currently serves as Chief Cantor of the historic Park East Synagogue in New York City.
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Bios
Chief Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot
Cantor Yitzchok Meir Helfgot was born in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In January 2007, he sang in Madison Square Garden to an audience of 30,000 at Siyum HaShas. He has just returned from Australia where he conducted a highly successful season of Englebert Humperdinck’s famous opera, Hansel and Gretel for Pacific Opera and will be conducting the High Holidays in Toronto for one of the largest synagogues, Adath Israel.
At just eight years old, Cantor Helfgot recorded his first works, and then spent much of his childhood and teenage years studying voice and nussach (the art of prayer).
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Cantor Shimon Farkas
Chazzan Shimon Farkas is firmly established as one of the great cantors of our time, regularly invited as a guest cantor and concert artist throughout the world.
He has participated in seven historic missions to Eastern and Central Europe under the auspices of the Chaim and Gila Weiner Society for the Advancement of Cantorial Art.
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He has also performed in distinguished venues, synagogues and concert halls in almost every European city and the world over, including the Warsaw Opera House in Poland, Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
His solo albums (see below), recorded with one of the world authorities on Cantorial music, Doctor Mordechai Sobol, have reinvigorated the art form through record breaking sales in this niche market.
Renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman spearheaded a project with Sony to record sophisticated new arrangements of famous Cantorial pieces, reworked to include a dual focus on the voice and violin. Despite the bombast of the musical arrangements, the vocal quality harks back to the Golden Age of Chazzanut, where legendary Jewish singers like Yossele Rosenblatt and Moshe Koussevitsky produced albums that featured both devotional prayers and traditional Jewish folk songs.
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Daniel Gildar
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Cantor Daniel Gildar studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, majoring in piano, theory and voice. He has also performed in distinguished venues, synagogues and concert halls in almost every European city and the world over, including the Warsaw Opera House in Poland, Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Cantor Helfgot's recent recording entitled Barchi Nafshi – Bless Hashem O My Soul and his latest album Mevasser Tov have broken Jewish record sales.
The public will soon enjoy Cantor Helfgot's unprecedented collaboration with Itzhak Perlman, the world-renowned violin virtuoso, in an album entitled Eternal Echoes to be released by SONY in the fall of 2012.
Prior to that, he studied both voice and musicology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In December 2007, he performed at Lincoln Center in Avery Fisher Hall, again accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, in a tribute to Cantor Moshe Koussevitzky.
He shared a stage with Cantor Shimon Farkas of Central Synagogue in Sydney, Australia, Cantor Yehuda Niassof, and rockstar Jimmy Barnes in August 2009.
In addition to his cantorial duties, Cantor Gildar has an international reputation as an accompanist of both cantorial and secular music.