The music on the album is a selection of my choral music of the last 15 years, with one of the pieces having its origins in a joyous occasion of 30 years ago. All are based in some way on the Jewish tradition, with texts in both Hebrew and English. For me these texts and this tradition are my “native spiritual language,” one in which I feel a deep grounding and inspiration to write music that I hope can communicate a message meaningful to all.  -Gerald Cohen

Performed by Kantorei
Recorded February 23-24, 2024 at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, MN
Audio Engineering, Mixing, and Mastering by David Trembley at Soundmaster Productions, Minneapolis, MN
Production by Jeremy Wong and Gerald Cohen
Music Direction by Adam Reinwald, assisted by Anthony Rangel

Composer Gerald Cohen has been praised for his “linguistic fluidity and melodic gift,” creating music that “reveals a very personal modernism that…offers great emotional rewards” (Gramophone Magazine). His deeply affecting compositions have been recognized with numerous awards and critical accolades. The music on his 2014 album, Sea of Reeds (Navona), “is filled with vibrant melody, rhythmic clarity, drive and compositional construction…a sheer delight to hear” (Gapplegate Music Review).

His opera, Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true concentration camp love story, had its world premiere production by Opera Colorado in January 2018; excerpts were featured at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Festival in 2016. Cohen’s best-known work, his “shimmering setting” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) of Psalm 23, has received thousands of performances from synagogues and churches to Carnegie Hall and the Vatican. Recent instrumental compositions include Voyagers, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Voyager spacecraft, which had its premiere at New York’s Hayden Planetarium; and Playing for our lives, a tribute to the music and musicians of the WWII Terezin concentration camp near Prague. These two compositions, composed for the Cassatt String Quartet, are the centerpieces of the album Voyagers, (innova Recordings, 2023). Steal a Pencil for Me has been recorded by Opera Colorado, with much of the cast from the 2018 production; this recording was released in 2024 on the Sono Luminus label.

Recognition of Cohen’s body of work includes the Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award and Hoff-Barthelson/Copland House commission, Westchester Prize for New Work, American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency, Zamir Choral Foundation’s Hallel V’Zimrah award, and Cantors Assembly’s Max Wohlberg Award for distinguished achievement in the field of Jewish composition. Cohen received the Yale University’s Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts, and has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Westchester Arts Council.

Gerald Cohen received a BA in music from Yale University and a DMA in composition from Columbia University. He is cantor at Shaarei Tikvah, Scarsdale, NY, and is on the faculties of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. Cohen’s compositions are available at this website, geraldcohenmusic.com; he also has works published by Graphite Publishing, Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP, and Transcontinental Music Publications.

Adam Reinwald, Artistic Director of Kantorei

Adam Reinwald is a nationally recognized vocal chamber artist and conductor, and is in demand as a coach and strategist for small- to mid-size arts organizations, focusing on new media and virtual/digital branding. Adam combines artistic and administrative leadership from over two decades of experience in the nonprofit arts sector.

With the 2021 appointment as Artistic and Managing Director of Kantorei, a chamber choir in the Twin Cities, Adam builds on an extensive choral arts background that includes work with the National Lutheran Choir, and nearly two decades with the acclaimed vocal ensemble Cantus.  Recent groundswell presentations at Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network have included “Making Video Accessible for your Community Chorus”, and “Building an Interfaith Programming Model.”

Guest Artists

Hazzan (Cantor) Joanna Dulkin is committed to innovative musical and spiritual leadership that inspires joy, connection and meaning at all ages and stages. She has taught and performed internationally as a cantor, musician and scholar-in-residence and is also a published writer and an award-winning composer. Her background as a theatre performer, songleader, musician and educator led her to the cantorate, where she has served congregations on the east coast and midwest for over 20 years. Hazzan Dulkin currently serves as the Cantor of Adath Jeshurun (a-DOTH ye-SHU-run) Congregation in Minnetonka, MN.

Hazzan Dulkin is an honors graduate of Stanford University, where she studied English, sang a cappella, and led community High Holiday Services. She is the current President of the Cantors Assembly, the largest professional organization of Cantors in the world, and has been on the editorial committee for two prayerbooks. Hazzan Dulkin and her husband, Rabbi Dr. Ryan Dulkin, a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, are the proud parents of Zac and Jesse.

Mindy Eschedor is a versatile collaborative pianist based in the Twin Cities. Now in her eleventh year accompanying the Chamber Singers and Concert Choir at the University of St. Thomas, Mindy is also the Graduate Music Coordinator and teaches Accompanying Ensembles to undergraduate piano majors. She was Staff Accompanist at Macalester College for five years, and Principal Staff Accompanist at MacPhail Center for Music for eleven years. A musical theater aficionado, Mindy has played piano/keyboard for many metro-area theater companies, including the Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, and Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, as well as the Minneapolis leg of several Broadway touring productions. She also enjoys collaborating with musicians ranging from students to professionals in recitals, competitions, and cabarets. In addition to a long history of accompanying choirs at the high school, community, and professional level, Mindy sang in the Northern Lights Chorale for five seasons, See Change Treble Choir for six seasons, and is delighted to finish her first season with Kantorei! Mindy is a proud alumna of the University of Minnesota (M.M. Collaborative Piano) and Central Michigan University (B.A. Music).

Chris Milani sang with Kantorei for 10 years, including time as tenor section leader, and is excited to be back—this time at the piano. Having first sung with founder Axel Theimer in high school All-State choir, he’s happy to support the choir from a new angle and reconnect with a group that means a lot to him. Outside of music, he’s a structural engineer who runs his own business and lives in Roseville, where he keeps busy on endless house projects.