Presented by Cantor Matthew Austerklein
Prayer Leader, Scholar, Musician
Inspired by the spirit of Russian nationalism and folklore, Jewish musicians, composers, and intellectuals in Eastern Europe banded together in the nineteenth century to create a nationalistic aesthetic program for their own musical traditions.
This lecture will explore this movement toward a Jewish national art music through the lens of Jewish piano works by famous composers of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, which operated in St. Petersburg, Russia from 1908 until the revolution.
Registration is no longer open for this program.
Explore our Program Recording Archive to enjoy this program at your leisure.
The Hack Family is delighted to sponsor this lecture as a tribute to Dr. Anita Solomon, whose passion for music, lifelong learning, and Judaism, as well as her devotion to family and friends, are an inspiration.
Matt Austerklein is a musician, scholar, and innovator in the American cantorate. He fell in love with the cantorial arts while studying abroad in Vienna, Austria, where he also studied voice with mezzo-soprano, Paulette Vineyard Herbich. Matt graduated summa cum laude from the College of William & Mary with a BA in Music in 2006. He went on to receive a Master of Sacred Music and cantorial ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2011.
Matt has served with distinction as a pulpit cantor in Bethesda, MD, Akron, OH, and Sarasota, FL. He has cultivated diverse skills to support Jewish communities, including pastoral care, teaching Jewish text and traditions, communal song leading, music education with guitar, event programming, playwriting, fundraising, choral directing, and strategic planning. He serves as an ongoing mentor to new and student cantors, and currently serves on the Cantorial Coaching Faculty of Hebrew College & the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy.
Matt is a regular volunteer and project leader for the Cantors Assembly. He has served on its Executive Council, Publications Committee, and Innovation Committees; acted as its representative to the CJLS; and co-edited its Mission Statement and By-laws. He is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Synagogue Music, and is the leading editor of its recent 75th Anniversary Journal.
Passionate about writing and scholarship, his essays on Jewish music and the cantorate are featured in the Journal of Synagogue Music, Times of Israel, and Hebrew College Community’s blog. He is the editor of two books: Tefillat Shmuel: The Writings of Cantor Samuel Rosenbaum (2017) and Ilu Finu: A Cappella for Jewish Prayer (2019), both published by the Cantors Assembly.
Just before the pandemic, Matt completed a prestigious Polonsky Research Fellowship at the Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies at Oxford University. In 2020, he went on to become a doctoral candidate in Jewish Studies at Halle-Wittenberg University (Halle, Germany), where he is writing his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Diana Matut and Dr. Edwin Seroussi. His dissertation examines the musical specialization of Ashkenazi cantors from 1500 to 1800, analyzing the genesis of cantorial thought and musical professionalism. He is currently an ELES Research Fellow.
Matt is blessed to be married to his holy partner, Rabbi Elyssa Joy Austerklein. They have two musical and creative children.
Thank you to Andrew R. Ammerman for sponsoring our Spring 2024 program lineup. He dedicates the semester’s learning in loving memory of Josephine and H. Max Ammerman, Stephen C. Ammerman, and Avi West.