SJM Faculty

Dr. Joshua R. Jacobson, DMA, Acting Dean of the School of Jewish Music and one of the foremost authorities on Jewish choral music, is Visiting Professor of Jewish Music at Hebrew College and Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University. He is also founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston. His many musical arrangements, editions and compositions are frequently performed by choirs around the world. He is the conductor and host of the PBS film, Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland. His book Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2002.

Cantor Jeff Klepper, Visiting Instructor in Jewish Music, is a leading composer of contemporary synagogue music. In the early 1970s, while at Clark University, he sang with future rabbi Dan Freelander, and they later formed the popular Jewish singing group Kol B'seder. Cantor Klepper's compositions, many written with Rabbi Freelander, such as Modeh Ani and Lo Alecha, have become synagogue standards. Their setting of Shalom Rav, composed in 1974, is the defining Jewish melody of a new style of worship, bridging varied traditions and connecting multiple generations. A graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1980, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music from HUC in 2005 and also holds a Master of Arts in Music from Northeastern Illinois University. He has served as Cantor of Temple Sinai in Sharon, Mass., since 2003,

Cantor Brian J. Mayer, DSM, is Associate Dean of the Cantor-Educator Program and Associate Professor of Jewish Music. Prior to his appointment at Hebrew College, he taught for 14 years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York as Assistant Professor of Hazzanut. A recognized scholar of Hazzanut (cantorial music), he was featured in the nationally televised ABC-TV documentary, To God's Ear, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002. Cantor Mayer was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he earned a Doctor of Sacred Music Degree.

Carol Marton is Artistic Director of Koleinu, Boston's Jewish community chorus, founded in 2002, and former Assistant Conductor for the Zamir Chorale of Boston. She has directed the Temple Sinai of Sharon’s Adult Choir since 1995. During that time she has been a frequent guest faculty of the New England Jewish Choral Music Festival and has performed there regularly with the Temple Sinai Adult Choir. In 2001, Ms. Marton founded and continues to direct and perform with Pandora's Vox, a contemporary music ensemble for women’s voices. She earned her master’s in choral conducting at Indiana University School of Music in 1992.

Cantor Joseph Ness, Adjunct Instructor of Jewish Music, is the cantor of Beth El Temple in West Hartford, Conn., and is a composer, arranger and conductor, whose music is performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Israel. He has composed, orchestrated and arranged over 450 pieces of music spanning both the liturgical and concert genres and created many orchestral programs with cantorial solos and choral pieces with narration, such as The Voice of Jewish Russia, Vanished Voices and The Wisdom of Chelm. Cantor Ness has been commissioned by major musical figures such as Lukas Foss and Fred Sherry and has composed and arranged for leading hazzanim. He has been commissioned by many orchestras and ensembles, including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Fort Lauderdale Symphony, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Manchester Orchestra (England), American Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir and The Group for Contemporary Music.

Cantor Charles David Osborne, Cantorial Coach, is internationally renowned as a cantor, composer and conductor, and has made numerous recital, concert and operatic appearances throughout the United States, Europe and Israel. A graduate of the Hartt School of Music and The Cantors Institute (now H.L. Miller Cantorial School) of the Jewish Theological Seminary, he is founder and former director of Prozdor's Kol Rinah chorus, has been guest soloist with Koleinu, and enjoys a close, longstanding relationship with the Zamir Chorale of Boston, with whom he has performed and recorded extensively, and for whom he has written numerous commission pieces. Cantor Osborne has composed four full-length oratorios, concertos for flute, guitar, viola and harp, and numerous other symphonic and choral pieces.  His Samachti has become one of the most popular pieces of synagogue music in the world. Cantor Osborne serves as spiritual leader of The Jewish Fellowship of Hemlock Farms, Lords Valley, Penn.

Cantor Ken Richmond, Adjunct Instructor of Jewish Music, served as cantorial soloist for five years in Swampscott and then graduated from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2004 as a Wexner Graduate Fellow. After two years at Midway Jewish Center of Syosset, N.Y., he has served as Cantor and Family Educator of Temple Israel of Natick, Mass., since 2006. He is married to Hebrew College Rabbinical Student Shira Shazeer, and has recorded several CD’s with her in their duet, Fish Street Klezmer, and their larger band, the Klezmaniacs. Cantor Richmond plays several instruments, including violin, and his compositions include a Friday night Klezmer service. 

Cantor Elias Rosemberg, Cantorial Coach, is the fourth cantor to lead Temple Emanuel in Newton, Mass. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he began serving as a hazzan when he was 18, at Chaim Weitzman community in San Martin, Buenos Aires. A graduate of Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano, he also studied music theory and harmony at Manuel de Falla School of Music. Prior to joining Temple Emanuel, he served as cantor of Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill. Currently chairman of the New England Region of the Cantors Assembly of America, he performs with The Bostonian Opera and Concert Ensemble and the Zamir Chorale of Boston.

Cantor Lori Salzman, Cantorial Coach, is a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. She has served full-time and High Holy Day congregations in Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, California and Ontario. In addition to cantorial work, Cantor Salzman has been a featured artist in performances throughout New York, New England, Italy and Israel. She released her first recording, Sounds of Shabbat, and can be heard on several other recordings including Yamim Noraim—Days of Awe (TMP) and Shiron L’Yeladim (TMP). Cantor Salzman received her Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University and a Master of Sacred Music as well as cantorial investiture from Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

Cantor Neil Schwartz, Adjunct Instructor of Jewish Music, has taught cantillation and Nusach HaTefillah for many years at CAJE Jewish Educators' Conferences, and more recently at the IMUN Program of the United Synagogue for lay religious leaders. He is a 1980 graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he has five units of CPE hospital chaplaincy training. He is a member of the Cantors Assembly and the American Conference of Cantors, and the founder of the Music Network for CAJE. He has notated the nusach settings of over a thousand prayers for Tefillah Trainer teaching software, and the Cantors Assembly has published his professional Trope Flashcards. He serves as the Kol Bo religious leader of a small synagogue in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Cantor Scott Sokol, PhD, is the Bernard J. Korman Professor of Jewish Special Education at Hebrew College. Prior to this appointment, he served as Dean of the Jewish Music Institute and was the founding Director of both the Cantor-Educator Program and Special Education Program at the College. He works part-time as a cantor and pediatric neuropsychologist. He has a BA from Brandeis University, MA and PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a MSM and Cantorial Investiture from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Cantor Sokol is past recipient of a Young Psychologist Award from the American Psychological Association, a Fulbright Scholar and Wexner Fellow. He has served on the executive council of the Cantors Assembly of America, and is the past editor of the Journal of Synagogue Music. He is the cofounder of Koleinu and Sheminiyah and concertizes widely.

Lynn Torgove, Adjunct Instructor in Jewish Music, mezzo-soprano and stage director, has had an international career as a soloist in many genres of classical music. In addition to being a frequent soloist with the Cantata Singers, Ms. Torgove has performed with the Boston Camerata, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Opera Boston, the American Repertory Theater, the Saint Louis Symphony, Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Choral Festival and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung in a number of Jewish Music singing venues as well, including concerts with Temple Emanu-El in Providence, the Zamir Chorale of Boston, the Nigun Ensemble and Hebrew College's Shir Tsion Chorale. She has served on the opera faculty at New England Conservatory, Boston University Opera Institute, and currently teaches at the Boston Conservatory Vocal and Choral Institute. She is currently on the faculty of the Longy School of Music as well as Hebrew College. She received a BA and BS from Tufts University and MUSM from Boston University School of Fine Arts.

Cantor Louise Treitman is Director of Community Outreach and Admissions; she also serves as adjunct faculty and as a Cantorial Coach. Serving Temple Beth David in Westwood for 20 years, she was recently named Cantor Emerita. With degrees from Wellesley College and the New England Conservatory, she received Certification as an Invested Cantor through Hebrew Union College in New York in 1998. Cantor Treitman was president of the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of New England, founding president of the New England Board of Cantors and a national board member of the American Conference of Cantors. She was assistant conductor/vocal coach for the Zamir Chorale of Boston and continues as a guest soloist.