Female Cantorial Concert Draws Standing-Room-Only Crowd To Hampton Synagogue

History was made on the bimah at the Hampton Synagogue on Saturday night when, for the first time, the congregation was treated to an all-female cantorial concert.

Laurie Akers, Magda Fishman, Rachel Goldman and Rachel Brook were the headliners for the synagogue’s 26th annual Thanksgiving Weekend Cantorial Concert, hosted by Cantor Netanel Hershtik.

Despite the cold, there was a long line out the door in the moments before 8 p.m. at the synagogue in Westhampton Beach, and in his opening remarks Rabbi Marc Schneier noted how impressive it was to see a standing-room-only crowd during what is considered the “offseason” for the congregation.

Akers, Fishman, Goldman and Brook certainly lived up to their billing as the country’s leading female cantors.

After Cantor Hershtik and the Hampton Synagogue Choir opened the concert with a performance of “Havdalah,” Hershtik was then joined on the bimah by the female quartet, and together they sang a rendition of “Elokai N’tzor.” Sixteen more songs followed after that, a mix of solos and group performances from the four singers.

Hershtik and the choir joined in a few more times, and throughout the evening Maestro Izchak Haimov served as conductor, with Alan Mason providing accompaniment on the piano.

Before the concert got underway, Rabbi Schneier recognized special guest Barry Tucker. The son of world-renowned cantor and operatic singer Richard Tucker, Barry Tucker now serves as the president of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. He’s a noted philanthropist whose support has been invaluable in the musical realm, Rabbi Schneier said.

“Not only was his father a legend in the cantorial and operatic worlds, but Barry himself has become a legend in terms of his philanthropy and support of American singers in the opera,” he said. “It was an added bonus having Barry Tucker with us and being able to publicly acknowledge his contributions.”

Tucker addressed the congregation and spoke briefly about his father’s legacy, pointing out that even as he rose to high levels of prominence during the 1950s and 1960s, performing at the Metropolitan Opera, he always turned down the opportunity to perform on opening nights during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in favor of serving as cantor during the High Holy Days, a testament to his strong Jewish faith.

Rabbi Schneier said the performance that followed Tucker’s remarks was “groundbreaking.”

“It was a magical evening,” he said. “It very much mirrors who and what the Hampton Synagogue is. Our tagline is ‘Making the ordinary extraordinary.’ Everything we do must be of the highest quality — that’s the standard.”

Having Goldman, Fishman, Brook and Akers — who hail from various corners of the country, including California and Florida — come together in Westhampton Beach was, Rabbi Schneier said, an example of the synagogue’s commitment to music and the arts.

It is uncommon to see an all-female cantorial performance in an orthodox synagogue, in large part because of the concept of Kol Isha, Hebrew for “a woman’s voice,” and different attitudes, in Jewish tradition, regarding the appropriateness of listening to women sing publicly.

“Like anything else in Judaism, it’s a subject that’s open to interpretation,” Rabbi Schneier said. “It’s not an absolute definition. Some of the great choral synagogues in Germany before the Holocaust employed mixed choirs.”

Inviting the female cantors to perform was not about “making a statement,” Rabbi Schneier said, but more about creating the right balance between the synagogue’s commitment to Jewish tradition while also finding a way to fuse that tradition with modernity.

“We wanted to expose the greater Hamptons Jewish community to what has become an important dimension of Judaism and American Jewish music, in terms of the female contribution to cantorial and liturgical music.”

That philosophical element did not seem to be on anyone’s minds as Akers, Fishman, Goldman and Brook sang over the course of two hours on Saturday night. They repeatedly met with resounding applause from the congregation. Fishman’s rousing rendition of Louis Armstrong’s classic “What A Wonderful World,” which included a moving French horn solo, got a standing ovation.

The singers were impassioned and expressive throughout the evening, showing off not only their powerful vocal skills but an impressive range of emotions in their choices of songs as well, some imbued with deep feeling, others more upbeat, with the congregation encouraged to clap along.

They smiled as they shared nicknames for themselves: “Divas on the Bimah,” and “Shul Sisters.” Rabbi Schneier remarked that while they shared dinner together the night before the performance, he reminded them, “There’s no business like shul business.”

Rabbi Schneier said he will face — and welcome — the challenge he has every year after hosting the Thanksgiving weekend concert: how to make it even better the following year. After the show that Fishman, Goldman, Akers and Brook put on Saturday night, that challenge will be as great as ever.

“We hosted this concert on Hanukkah Eve,” Rabbi Schneier noted. “It was all about shining light and radiating the light of modern day liturgical music. That light was shining brightly at the Hampton Synagogue on Hanukkah Eve.”