Volunteer of the Year 2012: Cantor Seth Warner

In what capacity have you volunteered for the ACC? 

I have volunteered as the listserv moderator, the co-chair of the New Orleans 2005 convention, and as a board member, then as Secretary of the board.

Did someone approach you?  How did you get started?

I was approached by a colleague who happened to be a close friend, Joel Coleman, in New Orleans. It was a pleasure to have him so close to me, both in proximity and personally. We worked together through the transition of the Listserv. If I had a question he was just a phone call away. Joel’s support and confidence in me helped me not just to become a meaningful volunteer, but it really helped me professionally too.

What is the best part of being a cantor, in your experience?

I like watching and helping people discover more about themselves. It’s wonderful working with a bar or bat mitvah student who doesn’t think they can do it, and when they see they can do it and they convince themselves that they can, the wonderment and the success that they feel is thrilling. When I work with an adult for conversion, or adult bar or bat mitzvah, or even just in a pastoral setting and watch them become more aware of themselves through Judaism and through personal interaction, it is really rewarding.

What is it about volunteering for the ACC that is most rewarding for you?

Over the yearsa the ACC has become like a family to me. When we see each other at conventions or hear each other on conference calls it really feels like coming home. It can be somewhat isolating being spread across the country and the world, but I think the ACC is the glue that both gives us the reward of the work we’re doing and also challenges us to be better. Therefore, the reward for me of volunteering for the ACC and working with the ACC is the opportunity to be a part of that family.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the cantorate, looking toward the future?

I see two challenges, an internal one and an external one. The internal one is that we have to remain on our toes. We have to be ready to change our musical tastes. We have to be willing to adapt, and, at the same time, to challenge.  Sometimes it can be hard to do both at the same time. Externally we have to be mindful that we work within a team most of the time. Our inter-personal relationships, and the inter-personal relationships of those with whom we work are of paramount importance to the success of the American cantorate.

What do you look forward to at ACC conventions?

I look forward to being with my friends and my colleagues and feeling that close connection that fades throughout the year, between conventions. I look forward to being able to share a story that someone else might get something from and hearing those stories that I might get something from.

Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with youth as a cantor?

Working with B’nai Mitzvah is the highlight of my cantorate.  I teach every student in the congregation, and together with a couple of helpers, I personally work with each of them to discover the best that is within them.  Not the best that is within their torah portion, not the best that is within our expectations of them, but the best that they can do at that moment. I find it particularly rewarding. We’re also working right now on a program with the eighth graders to continue to become Madrichim in the religious school.  Some people identify with high school students, some people identify with elementary school students. I particularly identify with middle school students.

Did someone in particular influence you to become a cantor?

They did. My cantor from when I was growing up in Los Angeles, Hazan David Silverstein. David was the kind of guy who made it okay, no matter how awkward of an adolescent or pre-teen you were.  Everything was okay. I was a particularly awkward preteen and really reveled in the fact that somebody could make a space in the Bar Mitzvah process for me so welcoming and make it so okay for me to be there.

Tell us one thing about yourself that we might not know that you would want us to learn about you.

I collect pens and medical company giveaways. I have two unusual things: one is a giant squeezable replica of a Viagra pill, and I have a pen that, from all directions, looks like a pregnancy test.  Medical companies are now prohibited from giving those things away; they can no longer do it.  So when they stopped I made sure I talked to all the people I knew who had all that stuff so they got me that. 

Maybe Oysongs can do something like that – giveaways and swag?

That’s not a bad idea.