Update of this thread from January 2006.
ScubaBigBro was invested as a Hazzan this past May. Next week he starts as pulpit Hazzan in St. Petersburg. His bio is on the second half of the Cantor page.
Kol tuv to my brother!
That’s great! Mazal Tov!
Heh, cool. I presume part of chazzan training is about how not to get a sore throat?
Huzzah! Hazzan!
Oh. Cool! I feel silly that I didn’t realize such a position existed. I’m honestly impressed that there’s a school for this sort of thing, rather than just picking up music majors, like usually happens in my faith. And I listened to a couple videos: he’s not bad!
I’m very happy for him.
I sure hope so. It wouldn’t be very good to train someone to sing without teaching them how to sing “correctly.” If your throat hurts and you sing, you can actually damage your voice.
He sounds like he knows the technique. Maybe I’ll elaborate later.
I sure hope so. It’s an occupational hazard.
It’s a very small school within Jewish Theological Seminary of America – his class was 8 people, and they were fighting for the same small list of open positions.
Is he also a moyel? Hazzan chop!
That’s a Bugs Bunny reference, BTW…
Congratulations to him from a Gentile that watches too many old cartoons.
Danged edit window.
I have had very little exposure to Judaism throughout my life. I don’t live in an area with a large Jewish population of any description, much less orthodox Jews. Hell, the only guy from Israel I know and work with is a thoroughly Americanized atheist.
As such, I had no idea what a hazzan is. So, I looked for Youtube videos and found this:
Wow. Just, wow.
According to the link and the other thread, he’s in Conservative Judaism, not Orthodox. They aren’t as strict as Orthodox, but have more devotional practices than “observant on Hanukkah” Reform.
Congrats to him. Thanks for teaching me a new term. Best of luck to him.