About this Event
During the early modern period, Bohemia & Moravia were the site of a dramatic transformation of Ashkenazic cantors into music professionals. Expanding beyond traditional synagogue functions, cantors developed new choristers [meshorerim], sang with instrumental accompaniment, organized in groups for study and musical exchange, and experimented with Western style and musical notation. These changes contributed to the awakening of cantors as musical artists and as a distinct professional class. Furthermore, many cantors from Czech lands traveled West in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spreading these new Czech-incubated cantorial norms across the Ashkenazic world. This talk will analyze the unique sociological and cultural factors which contributed to this rise of cantorial professionalism in Bohemia & Moravia, which helped to form the norms of the cantorate with which we are still familiar today.
Cantor Matt Austerklein received his cantorial ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2011, and currently serves as Cantor-in-Residence of Temple Beth Sholom in Sarasota, FL. He is concurrently a PhD Candidate in Jewish Studies at Halle-Wittenberg University, where he is writing his dissertation on Ashkenazic cantors in the early modern period. Cantor Austerklein is the editor of three books and numerous articles on Jewish music, and serves on the faculty of the European Academy of Jewish Liturgy & L'École Rabbinique de Paris. He is active in the Cantors Assembly, and in 2022 was given its highest honor, the Samuel Rosenbaum Award for Scholarship and Creativity. www.mattausterklein.com.
Suggested donation $15.
The event will be filmed and accessibe later on the SHCSJ YouTube channel.
The event is organized by the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews with support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York, and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, New York, United States
USD 0.00