Cantor Moshe Stern - Vchol Maminim (Concert 1987)

Moshe Stern, one of the giants of the Cantorate, showed his promise when he was a young chazzan in Israel. He comes from a family steeped in chazzanut. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1935, he was the youngest son of the eleven children of Chazzan Yisroel Stern. Seven of these eleven children became chazzanim. Young Moshe performed in public for the first time when he was only seven years old. He was destined to fulfill the hopes that his family had had for his gifted elder brother, Pinchas, who had been a child prodigy, but who died suddenly at twenty-one. Sadly, many of Moshe Stern’s brothers perished, one in World War II, another in the War of Israeli Independence. After surviving the Nazis in Hungary, the rest of the family immigrated to Israel in 1948. When the family arrived in Israel, they were put into barracks in Talpiot. From time to time, Yisroel would sing with Moshe in the synagogue there. Moshe studied in famous Yeshivoth in Jerusalem while pursuing his musical studies at the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music. At the age of 20 he was appointed Chief Cantor at the Great Synagogue in Rechovot. At the age of 23 he was chosen to inaugurate the Synagogue Hechal Shlomo in Jerusalem in 1958, and stayed there for five years. From there he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to serve as Chief Cantor of the Central Orthodox Synagogue. In 1968, at the age of thirty-three, he was given a most challenging position for a chazzan, at the Beth El Congregation in Borough Park, New York, where he followed the great Moshe Koussevitzky. He left Beth El in 1977. Cantor Stern served the Jewish community in Sao Paulo, Brazil for High Holiday services for over 24 years. This year marks the 13th year that Moshe leads services during the High Holy days at The Loop Synagogue in Chicago. Each year he is joined by a 9 man choir brought in from Israel. Moshe Stern has made numerous recordings — 9 LPs, 13 CDs and several cassettes of liturgical – cantorial music and Hassidic songs. He has composed nearly 200 cantorial prayers and Hassidic songs, and his wonderful singing continues to thrill us all.