Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

Cantor
Temple Israel
Natick, Massachusetts
Age: 42
Nominated by: Himself
Song: “Ana B’choach,” Ken Richmond

As a cantor, I’ve been surprised at what a small percentage of my time is taken up with Jewish music. But my experiences and teachers of Jewish music are what drew me to be a cantor — moments like my synagogue choir joining with a gospel choir for a benefit concert, or playing klezmer music on the street while passersby danced.

It is a privilege to undertake all parts of being a cantor: to be able to daven — to lead a community in prayer — to teach and to learn, to be with people in good times and difficult ones. I see myself as a guardian of the great traditions of Jewish people, whether I’m passing on a Hasidic niggun, speaking Yiddish with my children or studying Torah. It is an honor, not only to be among those preserving the great music of our people, but also to be among those experimenting with new music to accompany old texts. — Ken Richmond

INFLUENCES: Hankus Netsky, the Klezmatics, Pete Seeger, Adrienne Cooper, Shlomo Carlebach, Cantors Charles Osborne, Lawrence Avery and Jackie Mendelson. Most of my music I create and perform with my lovely and talented wife, Rabbi Shira Shazeer, my partner and co-composer.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.