RESUME

 

HAZZAN IRA S. BIGELEISEN                                                                                                    Cell: (818) 620-2534

3299 Cambridge Ave.  Apt. 8C                                                                                 email: bigeleisenira@gmail.com

Riverdale, Bronx, NY 10463                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                                                   EXPERIENCE:                                                                                                                                                             

       ·    Hazzan, Adat Ari El (Conservative), Valley Village (Los Angeles), CA 1993 - 2015

        ·     Other congregations served: Park Avenue Synagogue, NY (Conservative),

Clifton Jewish Center, NJ (Traditional),

Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush, NY (Reform)        

 

DUTIES:                      

·     Senior Cantor

·     Prepare and conduct worship services

·     Supervise and prepare B’nai Mitzvah

·     Train Lay Torah Readers

·     Conduct choirs of all ages

·     Compose and arrange music

·     Teach classes for all ages and backgrounds       

·     Organize and produce community-wide events

·     Pastoral counseling

·     Identify constituencies and create appropriate programming

·     Cultivate donors for immediate fundraising needs and long-term endowments

·     Formulate and supervise budgets

 

ENDOWMENTS/GIFTS:           

·     Nita and Jack Corinblit Endowment for the Arts

·     Boris and Gita Adler Endowment for Ritual Objects

·     Rose and Edward Engel Music Endowments

·     Shapero Family Annual Gift in Memory of Rae Shapero

·     Cantorial Scholarships to the H.L. Miller Cantorial School (J.T.S.)

·     The Alan Michelson Baal Tefillah Institute (A.J.U. Dept. of Continuing Education)

 

GRANTS:                    

Wrote and received grants from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, the Jewish Federation, the Milken Foundation, and private sources to:

·       Organize community-wide Jewish cultural events

·       Create experimental worship services

·       Produce recordings of Jewish music

·       Establish a Jewish community chorus

 

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS (EXAMPLES):

·     Created and taught a curriculum for Rabbinical students to learn the entire traditional            liturgy (Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies)           

·     Developed 13 Mitzvot, a family education curriculum based on the three pillars of                    Judaism: Torah, Avodah, v’G’milut Chasadim

·     Established One Shabbat Morning, a pilot program for innovative Jewish worship with            Craig Taubman and Rabbi Moshe J. Rothblum

·     Founded Sheer Fun! – a Jewish Choir for children aged 4-6

·     Organized Sounds of Healing, an international program of reconciliation between the           Jewish communities of Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Toronto and the city of Nuremberg,               Germany

PRIZES:                      

                                    First Place Awards, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism:

        ·     National:

                                       - Worship and Ritual Category, for Innovative Worship Services:

                                          Gold Solomon Schechter Award

        ·     Pacific Southwest Region:                                                            

                                        - Worship and Ritual Category, for Innovative Worship Services:

                                           for creation of One Shabbat Morning

                       - Family Education Category, for Creation of 13 Mitzvot

 

SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS:  

·       Kantor, Re-dedication of the Rykestrasse Synagogue, Berlin, Germany

·       Soloist, Milken Archive of American Jewish Music

·       First Hazzan-in-Residence, USCJ Convention

·       Founder, Executive Director, Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale

·       Contributing Editor, Journal of Synagogue Music

·       Presenter, Cantors Assembly National and Regional Conventions   

·       Appearances on national TV and radio programs, cinema

 

RECORDINGS:

·       Producer/soloist, seven CD recordings:

                                                            Adat Ari El (4), One Shabbat Morning, Milken Archive of Jewish Music (2)

CONCERTS:                 

        ·       Soloist, concerts of Hazzanut and Jewish music at international festivals of Jewish                           music in America, Israel, England,  the Czech Republic, Germany,                                                 and the Netherlands

EDUCATION:                           

·       Cantorial Ordination/Diploma, Yeshiva University

·       The Juilliard School, American Opera Center

·       B.A., Emerson College, major in Communications Disorders, minor in Music

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:       

 ·       Cantors Assembly

 ·       Cantorial Council of America