Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot (, ) is an Israeli-born

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

Orthodox

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

, known for his vocal dexterity and range. Like some operatic tenors he is capable of sustaining long passages in the difficult uppermost

tessitura In music, tessitura ( , , ; ; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer (or, less frequently, musical instrument). It is the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characteristic) tim ...

, while also possessing overt technical facility in executing ornate

melisma Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...

Career

In addition to having held several prestigious cantorial posts in Europe and the United States, Helfgot has performed in concerts all over the world. In December 2006, under the auspices of Cantors World, he performed a solo concert at the Metropolitan Opera House with the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

directed by Mordechai Sobol. In January 2007, he sang in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

to an audience of 30,000 at a Siyum HaShas. In December 2007, he performed at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designed by Max Abramovitz, was o ...

, again accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, in a tribute to Cantor

Moshe Koussevitzky Moshe Koussevitzky (, ; June 9, 1899 in Smarhoń, Russian Empire – August 23, 1966 in New York City) was a Hazzan, cantor and vocalist. A relative of noted conductor Sergei Koussevitzky, he made many recordings in Poland and the United States. ...

. He shared a stage with Cantor Shimon Farkas of Central Synagogue in Sydney, Australia, Cantor Yehuda Niassof, and rock star

Jimmy Barnes James Dixon Barnes ( Swan; born 28 April 1956) is an Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music a ...

in August 2009. In December 2010, he performed at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

during a

Chanukah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Han ...

menorah lighting ceremony. He has also performed in distinguished venues, synagogues and concert halls in almost every European city and the world over, including the Warsaw Opera House in Poland, Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in New York City. His solo albums, recorded with a renowned authority on cantorial music, Dr. Mordechai Sobol, led to popular success. Despite the bombast of the musical arrangements, the vocal quality harks back to the golden age of chazzanut, where legendary Jewish cantors like Yossele Rosenblatt and Moshe Koussevitsky produced albums that featured both devotional prayers and traditional Jewish folk songs. In 2012, Helfgot broke new ground with the unprecedented collaboration between a cantor and a world-class classical musician. Renowned violinist

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

spearheaded a project with Sony to record sophisticated new arrangements of famous cantorial pieces, reworked to include a dual focus on the voice and violin. The music director for this project was Hankus Netsky, and the conductor was Australian-born Russell Ger. A promotional tour with this assembled team saw sold-out performances at the

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in Brooklyn, Boston's Symphony Hall, Long Island's Tilles Performing Arts Center, Toronto's

Roy Thomson Hall Roy Thomson Hall is a concert hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located downtown in the city's entertainment district, it is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the esports team Toronto Defiant. Opened ...

, and a crowd of 15,000 at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

. A

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...

special titled "Rejoice" was also filmed in New York City in late 2013, and further performances took place at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton and the

Ravinia Festival Ravinia Festival is a primarily outdoor music venue in Highland Park, Illinois. It hosts a series of outdoor concerts and performances every summer from June to September in a wide variety of musical genres from classical to pop. The first orche ...

. Helfgot is chief cantor of the Park East Synagogue in New York City.

Discography

Solo albums

*''Borchi Nafshi'' (2002) *''Habet'' (2004) *''Avot'' (2005) *''Mevaser Tov'' (2007) *''Helfgot 5'' (2015)

Collaborations

*''Shirat Yisrael'' (2006) with Chaim Eliezer Hershtik & Israel Rand *''Eternal Echoes'' (2012) with Itzhak Perlman

References

External links