Cantor Josef Winogradoff [Weinshtein] - Der Chusid Der Misnagid In Der Aristocrat Yiddish

Josef Weinshtein (Winogradoff) was born in 1866 in Vilna, Russian Empire. At the age of 8, he sang with a cantor in a professional chorus. He graduated from the Vilna conservatory in 1884, and went to Odessa to look for his lucky break. Not doing too well there, he went to Moscow, where he continued to study, but being Jewish, was not allowed to live there, and many the night he walked the streets after singing at the few concerts he managed to contract. One of his teachers in Moscow was the famous French baritone, Jean Lasalle. His real break came in 1887, when a singer at the opera became ill and he was engaged to sing Ferrando in Il Trovatore. This enabled him to get permission to live in Moscow for 6 months. He then traveled with small opera companies, but finally was engaged by the Imperial Opera as second baritone. The company went on tour to Berlin, Copenhagen, Manchester, and London, and in London, the leading baritone, Joachim Tartakov, became ill and Winogradoff took over the leading roles. In spite of such fleeting success, there is litle doubt that being Jewish hindered his vocal career. He later went back to Vilna, appeared in Kharkov and went to Milan to study. After 6 months, he was invited to Odessa to appear in The Demon under the leadership of the composer, Anton Rubinstein. He then sang in Kharkov for 8 years, and made many concert tours throughout Russia. He came to the United States for concert tour in 1920 and became a cantor. He also appeared in the Jewish theater and sang concerts. Returned to Europe in 1922. In 1924 and 1928, he toured Poland again. Emigrated to Palestine 1934 where he died in 1936.