East West Street: A Song of Good & Evil — Philippe Sands’s account of the two lawyers who gave the world the words “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”, performed with Natalie Dessay, the baritone Laurent Naouri and Guillaume de Chassy at the piano, in music by Bach, Rachmaninoff and Leonard Cohen. Winter Garden Theatre, Toronto, for the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Details
Gideon Zelermyer — Cantor, Tenor and Teacher, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim · Montreal
My mother is
an opera lover.
My father is
a rabbi.
Cross them, and you get a cantor.
Gideon Zelermyer, Montreal Gazette, 2023
Gideon Zelermyer has been the cantor of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal since 2004 — a congregation founded in 1846, which has kept a professional choir since 1887 and remains one of only a few in the world whose services are led each week by a cantor and male choir.
He is a tenor who has never treated the synagogue and the opera house as separate places. He is the featured soloist on the title track of Leonard Cohen’s Grammy- and Juno-award-winning You Want It Darker. Eleven large-scale concert productions conceived and presented, a twelfth with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal to come, and three world premieres sung. In 2016 the United Nations changed the format of its Holocaust Memorial Ceremony so that he could bring the Shaar Hashomayim choir to the General Assembly — the first synagogue choir to sing there. Recordings ranging from an ethnomusicological publication for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to two contemporary classical albums. Sixty-seven nights spent teaching opera. And, when the Canadiens are at home, the anthems.
Photograph — Ryan Blau
Hear him sing.
Upcoming
East West Street: A Song of Good & Evil — the same evening, the night after Toronto. Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount. Tickets
Canadiens anthem against the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell Centre.The box score
Hallelujah — Ensemble Caprice with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and David Shemer, harpsichord. Le 9e Grande Salle, Montreal. Tickets
The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra with the soprano Hélène Brunet. Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount. Tickets
Canadiens anthem against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre.The box score
First national anthem for the New England Patriots — against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough.The box score
Shabbat Shirah — the Shabbat of Song, and the sixteenth of the cantor’s annual sermons. Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount.The sermons
The annual Shabbat at Palm Beach Synagogue — Friday evening and Shabbat morning services, with the kiddush luncheon that follows. Palm Beach, Florida. Details
180 Years of Light — the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the OSM Chorus under Rafael Payare, in the congregation’s 180th anniversary year: Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with the cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and Haydn’s The Creation, with the soprano Anna-Sophie Neher and the bass Alex Halliday. Main Sanctuary, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount. Stay tuned for ticket information.
Cantor — Ensemble ArtChoral under Matthias Maute, with the soprano Janelle Lucyk. Le 9e Grande Salle, Montreal. Tickets
Recently
10 Years On: A Celebration of Leonard Cohen — the Toronto International Festival of Authors marking ten years since Cohen’s death. Speaking and singing to close the evening. Isabel Bader Theatre, Toronto. Listen
Dan Laxer in The Suburban on the hand over the heart — why he makes the gesture for The Star-Spangled Banner when the other non-Americans at the Bell Centre do not. Read
Rupture / Justice — Philippe Sands’s programme on five moments when societies have tried to right historic wrongs, for the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Singing alongside him, with Stephen Glass and Cantor Daniel Singer. Isabel Bader Theatre, Toronto.
O Canada in the Montreal Expos’ old locker room at Olympic Stadium, for the Birthright Israel Foundation of Canada’s evening in honour of Charles Bronfman on his ninety-fifth birthday.Watch
Introduction to Jewish Music — a lecture in Professor Josh Dolgin’s course at McGill University.
Interviewed on Melnick in the Afternoon, TSN 690, hours before the Canadiens’ first home playoff game — the anthems, the fandom, and The Shaar at 180.Listen
Credited on Death of Love, the lead single from James Blake's Trying Times, which samples the opening of You Want It Darker.Watch
Written about in
Coverage since 1997, each piece linked to its source — the full record.
Available for concert programmes, guest cantorial engagements, weddings, lectures and masterclasses.
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