SJM Faculty

School of Jewish Music Faculty

Our faculty team of eminent scholars, cantors and educators includes Cantor Brian Mayer, DSM, Acting Dean and eminent scholar of Ashkenazic nusach; Dr. Joshua Jacobson, whose book, Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation (JPS, 2002), is considered the definitive work in the field; Cantor Jeff Klepper, a leading composer of contemporary synagogue music; and Cantor Charles Osborne, distinguished vocal artist and composer of Jewish works. Also on our faculty are Cantor Scott Sokol, Cantor Louise Treitman, and vocalist Lynn Torgove.

Cantor Brian J. Mayer, DSM, is Acting Dean of the School of Jewish Music 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. Cantor Mayer was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he earned a Doctor of Sacred Music Degree.

Cantor Louise Treitman is Associate Dean of the School of Jewish Music; 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.

Dr. Joshua R. Jacobson, DMA, is 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 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.

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, a MUSM from Boston University School of Fine Arts and an MJEd from Hebrew College.

Cantor Scott Sokol, PhD, is Professor of Jewish Music, Jewish Education and Psychology, and Associate Dean for Academic Support. Previously, 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.

Cantor Michael McCloskey, Cantorial Coach, serves as the Cantor-Educator at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill, MA. In addition to the more traditional duties of b’nei mitsvah tutoring and Shabbat and Festival davening, he conducts and rehearses a youth chorus and two klezmer bands, one for 4th and 5th graders and one for teens. There he has developed innovative programming including a Jewish film festival and award-winning outreach to Jews living with disabilities. Supervising informal youth education, he is also the liason between Makor/Prozdor and Emeth. An alumnus of the Aspen Musical Festival Vocal Concert Studies program, Michael also sings with the Bostonians, a Boston opera company run by baritone and empresario Richard Conrad, and Kol Arev, a select ensemble of faculty and students at Hebrew College. A passionate student of Nusach Hatefillah, liturgy, and midrash, Cantor McCloskey enjoys biking and hearing live music in his spare time.

Cantor Ken Richmond, Cantorial coach, began his Jewish studies locally as a student at Solomon Schechter and Prozdor and as an apprentice to Hazzan Charles Osborne. He served as cantorial soloist for five years in Swampscott, and then graduated from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological in 2004 as a Wexner Graduate Fellow. After two years at Midway Jewish Center of Syosset, NY, he has served as Cantor and Family Educator of Temple Israel of Natick, MA 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. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Mahzor Committee.