Project Contributors
Composer, Arranger
Robert G. Nath
Composer & Lyricist (English)
has long had a passion for Jewish music. HaNefesh shel Shabbat (The Soul of Shabbat – 5 selections in this website) is his evening Shabbat service performed at Washington Hebrew Congregation (2013, 2016). Two prayers from that service are included in Shabbat Anthology VII (Transcontinental Music). He is currently finishing two full-length musicals based on books of the Bible. Mr. Nath is a tax attorney by profession.
Cantor Jonathan Comisar
arranger, pianist, music director
is an award-winning composer, pianist, arranger, and music director. He has written orchestral classical music for the concert hall, musical theater for Off- Broadway, and is a sought-after composer of Jewish sacred music throughout North America.Cantor Comisar is the choral and instrumental arranger, pianist, conductor, and music director of this project.
Cantor Susan R.A. Bortnick
soprano soloist
is the Senior Cantor of Washington Hebrew Congregation. Since 2001, her crystalline soprano has endowed the Congregation’s services and life cycle events with soaring majesty. Over the years, she has infused into the worship experience new enhancements and greater participation and spirituality. Her cantorate extends to all aspects of congregational life, helping WHC members to embrace Judaism in personally meaningful ways.
Cantor Mikhail Manevich
tenor Soloist
is Cantor Emeritus, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, DC. He served WHC as Cantor for 31 years, coming to DC after his role as Cantor in Livingston, NJ. Cantor Manevich received his choral conducting degree from the prestigious Leningrad Conservatory in Russia and his cantorial degree from Hebrew Union College in NYC. He has produced 6 professional CDs (solo, with Cantor Bortnick and with his choir, Kol Rinah.
Vocal Artists
Katrina Colletti
soprano
is a NYC based actress and singer. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a Bachelors’ in Musical Theatre. Katrina has travelled internationally, performing on the Viking Sea Cruise ship as a lead singer as well as performing Off-Broadway in Endangered! The Musical, and regionally all over the United States. Other credits include: Oklahoma (Ado Annie), Rent (Maureen), Footloose (Rusty), One Man Two Govnors (Pauline.)
Jennifer Benrey
soprano
is serving as student Cantor of Temple Har Shalom in Warren, NJ and is completing her fifth year of Cantorial school at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, where she will be ordained in May of 2022. She uses music as a vehicle for spirituality and is passionate about choral music and uplifting the congregational voice through song.
Ross Brown
Tenor
is a former actor, singer, and voice teacher based in New York City. While his days are currently filled with technology, spreadsheets, and support tickets, he spent two years teaching voice as an Adjunct Professor at NYU, several months traveling the country in a van as a rock and roll founding father, and many years performing across Boston and New York City.
Doug Jabra (AEA)
baritone
recently debuted as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Doug has performed Javert in Les Misérables (BroadwayWorld.com Boston nomination for Best Actor in a Musical) Jud in Oklahoma! (IRNE nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical) and the Baker in Into the Woods at Reagle Music Theatre. Doug has sung as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and The Town Hall in New York City. Also an avid voice teacher for nearly two decades, Mr. Jabara’s clients have appeared on Broadway in Cats, Aladdin, and numerous other musicals.
Jorge Avila
violin
Honduran-born Jorge Ávila has won attention as an outstanding violinist through numerous appearances as a soloist, recitalist, concertmaster, and chamber musician. He has numerous awards and honors, including first prize at the 2001 Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Competition and the “Omar del Carlo” Fellowship at Tanglewood. Jorge is concertmaster of the Ridgefield Symphony, DCINY and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series, among others. His debut CD of Spanish violin and piano sonatas is on the Centaur label.
Camille Dietrich
Cellist
is an active freelance cellist in NYC and the tri-state area and teaches at the DZ Strad Violin Shop, Forbes Music Company, and Music to Your Home. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees at Manhattan School of Music studying with Marion Feldman, David Geber, and Julia Lichten.
Instrumentalists
Ken Maltz
Clarinet
is a founding member of Kapelye, the pioneering Klezmer band, and has performed in hundreds of appearances on stage, television, radio and film throughout North America, Central America and Europe. Ken has received critical acclaim in domestic and international press. He has appeared in the feature films Over The Brooklyn Bridge and The Chosen (also arranger). Ken has appeared in concert with such greats as Itzhak Perlman, and with many celebrated cantors.
Tom Teasley
percussion
is a solo percussionist, composer and collaborator. The Drummie Award winner for “World Percussionist of the Year” (Drum! Magazine), he is also a 3-time winner of the Helen Hayes Theatre Award for outstanding sound design. The Washington Post has called him a “multi-instrumental genius.” Tom is a 5-time winner of the WAMA (Washington Area Music Award) World Music Instrumentalist of the year and a 6-time recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes grant for performances worldwide. He has been artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center and has collaborated with the National Symphony as soloist and composer.
Advisors
Rabbi Miller
Advisor
A member of the Washington Hebrew clergy team since 2011, Rabbi Miller leads “2239,” WHC’s nationally acclaimed young professionals community. Rabbi Miller also directs 12 Jewish Questions, one of the largest adult education courses in the country. Rabbi Miller was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and earned a master’s degree in educational administration at Xavier University.
Recording/Website
Recording Professionals
Blue House Productions
Silver Spring MD
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Dubway Studios
New York, New York