ACC News

ACC and GTM Release Details for June 2016 Convention

June 15, 2016

SCHAUMBURG, IL: The American Conference of Cantors (ACC) <www.accantors.org>, a non-profit organization dedicated to the professional growth and development of cantors in the Reform Movement, and its affiliate, The Guild of Temple Musicians (GTM) <www.thegtm.org>, are excited to announce details of the 2016 National Convention and Concert in Philadelphia. The theme of the convention is D’ror Yikrah: Let Freedom Sing, and will kick off on Sunday, June 26, 2016.

A highlight of the convention will be a concert entitled: Stars of David: Story to Song, on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. at Congregation Rodef Shalom, 615 North Broad Street, Philadelphia. Stars of David is a musical revue, based on the best-selling book by Abigail Pogrebin, which celebrates the identity of some of the most well-known Jewish personalities, including Leonard Nimoy, Andy Cohen, Kenneth Cole, Fran Drescher, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tony Kushner, Aaron Sorkin, and Gloria Steinem with songs by some of Broadway’s best composers including, Marvin Hamlisch, Sheldon Harnick, Tom Kitt, Duncan Sheik, and many more! Tickets are $20 at the door, or $18 in advance and may be purchased from Brown Paper Tickets.

Cantor Steven Weiss, Cantor and Director of Education at Congregation Sha’aray Shalom in Hingham, Massachusetts, will be installed as the new President of the American Conference of Cantors. Dr. Alan Mason, Director of Music at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, is the current President of the Guild of Temple Musicians.

Convention Co-chairs, Michelle Cohen, Cantor Erin Frankel, Cantor David Frommer and Beth Pennamacoor, have striven to create a convention that will address Reform Jewish practice in the twenty-first century. Specifically how individuals seek to create their own practice and find a more personal spirituality. The Jewish community in general, and Philadelphia's in particular, have responded to this time of challenge with a surge of innovation, embracing a freedom of its own to create new institutions of worship, study and memory. Convention programming will focus on this innovative, non-traditional space in both the Jewish and non-Jewish world. It will seek to deepen our understanding of what the marketplace for our services looks like, those who are succeeding in it, and how we can learn from them to refine a product of our own that is both authentic and compelling.

Scholars-in-Residence will include Joey Weisenberg, the Creative Director of Mechon Hadar’s Center for Jewish Communal Music, Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mechon Hadar, and Rabbi Myriam Klotz, the Director of the Spirituality Initiative at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Additional presenters include the General Director of Opera Philadelphia, David Devan, CEO of the National Museum of American Jewish History, Ivy Barsky, and Gallup-certified Strength Performance Coach, Chaplain Captain Dave Keller from the American Bible Society.

A copy of the full schedule can be downloaded here

About the American Conference of Cantors and Guild of Temple Musicians

Founded in 1953, the American Conference of Cantors is the pre-eminent professional organization of Ordained and Certified Cantors in North America, currently representing over 500 cantors in North America and around the world. As clergy committed to Judaism and Jewish Music, the membership of the ACC serves the diverse needs of the Jewish people. As an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism, the ACC supports its members in their sacred calling as emissaries for Judaism and for Jewish music, providing a unique and dynamic vision of programs and initiatives that respond to the needs of the greater Reform community. For more information, please visit the ACC’s website at www.accantors.org.

The Guild of Temple Musicians is an affiliate of the American Conference of Cantors. They are a diverse community devoted to education and quality in the field of Jewish music. The Guild of Temple Musicians are singers, instrumentalists, composers, conductors, students, teachers, soloists, cantors, rabbis, publishers, writers, performers, recording artists, administrators, amateurs, professionals, and more. They are all related through a common conversation of Jewish music, be it sacred, secular, classical, popular, or anything else in between. The GTM wholeheartedly welcomes involvement and participation in a caring group focused on sharing, learning, growing, praying, and supporting one another in our commitment to the excellence of Jewish music in all its genres and styles. For more information, please visit the GTM’s website at www.thegtm.org.