Cantorial Art and the Female Voice: An Interview with Faith Steinsnyder

An internationally acclaimed recording and concert artist, Faith Steinsnyder has served as a cantor for synagogues across the country, and has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Academy for Jewish Religion. Presently, she serves on the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Cantor Steinsnyder has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, and was featured in the documentary film, 100 Voices: A Journey Home. She currently serves the United Hebrew Congregation of Singapore.

*This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Where were you born, and what was your upbringing like?

I was born in Philadelphia and grew up in North Miami Beach, Florida. My father played the violin and my family loved cantors. They were always close to their cantors wherever we lived. We also loved opera. On Saturday, the Metropolitan Opera was part of our home ritual.

My cousin on my maternal grandfather’s side was “Sheindele the Chazante,” Jean Gornish. She lived right by my grandparents just outside of Philadelphia. She had a Philadelphia radio show and recorded, but she didn’t serve a congregation. Women didn’t have that opportunity except in rare places.

Where did you get your early music education?

I wasn’t a singer at first. I played the piano, and I was very fortunate that my parents sent me to the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan for four summers. It was amazing. There was all kinds of music, talent, exploration. I developed a deep love for Gilbert and Sullivan, operetta, and the history of American musical theater. In United Synagogue Youth, I got to portray Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, probably my first role in musical theater. Then I got connected with a really great voice teacher, Brayden Harris. And I’ve been with him since 1981. He empowered me to try my voice at some opera as well.

What led you to become a cantor? 

It was really a “who” that brought me to the cantorate. By the time I was in my senior year of high school, I was sitting next to my mother in the fifth row at services with the very charismatic Cantor Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson. He was dynamic in ways that fused the world of opera together with Jewish passion and commitment. He understood the power of choral music to elevate a moment, how to use call and response with the congregation in a very dynamic, musical way. Jack Mendelson at age 28, was—as he still is—a force of nature, a master with every phrase, and a rabid fan of hazzanut. I had never heard a congregation respond like they did with him. So, that ignited feelings of passion and renewal. And this was also a year after the Yom Kippur War. So, many people were—as we are today—in a heightened state of awareness and commitment.

I had that experience and then I went to Indiana University to study directing for opera. Because, I thought, “What else am I going to do with my life?” I wasn’t going to be a cantor. Girls didn’t become cantors. But after a couple of years there, guess what? Girls became cantors. Cantor Barbara Ostfeld was ordained in 1975. So, I spent a couple years at Indiana University studying music history, theory, and opera. And then I went to Hebrew Union College’s School of Sacred Music. I entered in 1977 and graduated in 1982.

Faith Steinsnyder with Moshe Ganchoff, New York, 1980.

Who were some of your most influential teachers at HUC? Was Jack Mendelson there at the time? 

No, but I was very close to him and his teacher, Hazzan Moshe Ganchoff, who was like a grandfather to me—I studied with him privately on the side. So, Moshe Ganchoff and Jack Mendelson were important, along with people like Alberto Mizrahi, Benjamin Meisner, and Robert Kieval. I remember when the Rappaport cantorial manuscripts became available. Those men were gleeful in a way I didn’t know adults could be gleeful. 

What have been some of the more rewarding or memorable aspects of being a cantor? 

I’ve served congregations from the largest to the smallest, Reform and Conservative. My very first congregation was in Jackson Heights, Queens, right by LaGuardia Airport. Every two minutes, the whole building would shake. One of my favorite Conservative congregations was Congregation Beth El, in New London, Connecticut. There was no choir, but they had beautiful singers.

The largest Reform synagogues were Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and Knesset Israel in Philadelphia. The smallest was Beth Shalom in Taylorsville, Maryland—one of the smallest shuls you’ll ever find.

At Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, I had nine opera singers in the choir at all times, and one of the loudest organs, played by one of the best organists on the planet, Mark Husey. The seats would rumble.

The bar and bat mitzvah training has been very rewarding, along with the Hebrew school and adult volunteer choirs that have turned my world upside down. These experiences have offered me new paths to explore creativity, education and the power of music. I really loved producing a regional choral festival, as I did when I served at Temple Beth El in Spring Valley, New York.

How did you become involved with teaching? 

It started because I had figured out how to filter a lot of the masculine hazzanut through the female instrument, and figured out how to eliminate some of the repetition and find an expressive place in the voice. That sort of work appealed to the cantorial schools. We have this great treble color of expressivity that has barely been explored, even though women are serving in all the liberal movements of Judaism. I think it’s important to recognize that the entire curriculum, up and through the turn of the century, was written by men for men’s voices.

Cantor Steinsnyder sings Pierre Pinchik’s Rozo d’Shabbos with pianist Mark Husey at Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY.

How did you become involved with the recording projects you’ve done? 

Michael Isaacson has been a champion of women’s voices in Jewish music. I’ve been honored to work with him. Matti Lazar was always close to members of the Western Wind, especially William Zukof, and Elliot Levine. Just as I was moving out of New York to go serve a congregation in Baltimore, the opportunity to join their recording of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy came about. I was invited to be one of four cantors and the recording was featured on the radio as a High Holy Day musical offering. I also got to be the front woman for a klezmer band in California called Mostly Kosher.

A Taste of Eternity recording featuring Cantor Steinsnyder

Tell me a little about the documentary you appeared in, 100 Voices: A Journey Home, in 2010. 

It was a special Cantors Assembly tour. The hundred voices represented all of the cantors, accompanied by the Polish Opera Orchestra at the Warsaw Opera House. I had the honor of singing a major solo cantorial piece. The male cantors were included in the Krakow Jewish Music Festival with 25,000 Poles there, appreciating Yiddishkeit. The women were not allowed to participate in that event. But there were fabulous, wonderful moments of chevruta with ourselves and with the Polish people. I got to perform in the Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre there in a production that celebrated the history of the Yiddish theater.

Is there anything you’d like to say to a young person who is considering becoming a cantor today? 

I guess what I would tell a young person is that there are so many different styles of worship. As long as you enjoy being in synagogue, you’re on the right track. I’d also say to make sure you enjoy attending services, because you’ll be on the bimah for the rest of your life. Nowadays, there’s such an interest in Jewish music, and such an accessibility that didn’t exist in the same way 50 years ago. That is cause for incredible celebration.

This interview is part of our Voices of Change: 50 Years of Women in the American Cantorate series.

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