Yehuda Leib Glantz

Yehuda Leib Glantz (1898-1964) was born in Kiev into a family of cantors. He made his cantorial debut in Kiev at the age of eight. At age 14 he became the choir director at his father’s synagogue, where he helped to introduce the 19th-century polyphonic repertory. He studied piano and theory at the Totovsky Conservatory and later counterpoint and composition with Glier. In 1920 he moved to Cişinău where he served as cantor and continued his studies with Abraham Berkowitsch, an authority on cantorial recitatives. After emigrating to the USA in 1926 he served as cantor for congregations in New York and Los Angeles. His extensive recordings made him famous in Ashkenazi Jewish communities. In 1954 he emigrated to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv, where he continued to work as a cantor. He founded a cantorial school, the Tel Aviv Institute for Religious Jewish Music, in 1961.