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Biographies of Executive committee ansd roles in ECA
Alex Klein, ECA Director has been passionate about Jewish music, especially chazzanut, all his life. As a youth he took services in Finchley Synagogue and studied at Jews College also attending Rev Bryll’s cantorial classes.
Alex has brought significant Jewish artists and cantors for concerts to the UK. He was head of the Synagogue Music Section of the Jewish Music Institute and a founder member of ‘Tephilharmonic’.
Alex is an executive member of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education. He serves as a patient rep for Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust and the North West Ambulance Service.
He gives regular talks on cantorial music internationally and had his own Sunset Radio programme. He is also a member of the International Council of Holisitic Therapists and the International Council of Health and Fitness Therapists.
Alex Klein co-founded the European Cantors Association with Geraldine Auerbach MBE in 2012. For ECA, Alex arranges the European Cantors Conventions and leads conversations on Facebook.
Geraldine Auerbach MBE, ECA Communications Director, is the founder Director (1983 – 2012) of the Jewish Music Institute now based at SOAS University of London. She was also the Founder, with Alex Klein of the European Cantors Association in 2012.
Geraldine is the Director of the ECA Academic Wing (ECA-AW) which has run two international conferences: Magnified and Sanctified the music of Jewish prayer in partnership with Leeds University in 2015 and Hanover University in 2019.
For ECA-AW Geraldine has set up the International Forum for Jewish Music Studies (IFJMS) with partners, Professors Mark Kligman of UCLA and Sarah Ross of EZJM Hanover. IFJMS brings practitioners scholars and archivists in Jewish music together in a variety of programmes – the first being COZ each Tuesday afternoon. For ECA, Geraldine handles all documentation and marketing including editing and circulating Newsletters.
Hirsh Cashdan, ECA Convention Programme Director trained at London's Jews College and is also passionate about synagogue music, though he spent his career in business.
He creates and runs the ECA's very successful convention programmes. On his retirement he offered his time to the Jewish Music Institute taking several responsible roles.
Hirsh created and ran ‘Tephilharmonic’ – a precursor to ECA. His special interest is Leyening (chanting the Torah) with a focus on communicating the contents to the congregation.
He now has a very busy programme active on both international and UK charities.
For ECA, Hirsh advises on all aspects of ECA work and creates and delivers ECA convention programmes.
Russell Grossman, ECA Webmaster, is a graduate of London’s Jews College. In business life he is a Senior Civil Servant who has worked with Secretaries of State from the three UK major political parties and numerous Ministers.
He’s an experienced Ba'al Tefillah and has been Chazan at High Holydays for nearly 40 years, the last thirteen at Giffnock Synagogue, largest shul in Scotland. He is also an accomplished regular Shabbat Ba'al Koreh of some 45 years' standing.
Russell presented the programme for the European Cantors Convention in Hannover in January 2020. For ECA, Russell is the webmaster and oversees ECA's social media channels. He is also moderator of COZ sessions and assists in delivering European Cantors Convention programmes.
Daniel Tunkel, ECA Consultant is the son of ECA consultant, the late Victor Tunkel. He is a prominent lawyer and an expert in nusach and synagogue music as well as a singer in choirs and prayer leader in synagogue music.
He has composed and arranged a considerable amount of music (principally for choir or solo voice) and has performance credits in the UK, the USA, Israel and several European locations.
Daniel initiated ECA's Liturgy in Lockdown project (designed to stimulate compositional interest from around the Jewish world in response to the Covid-19 Crisis) and is currently preparing a course on Nusach online for ECA, designed to appeal to non-professional Baalei T'fillah.
Barbara Rosenberg, ECA Hospitality Director has had a lifelong interest in synagogue music.
She has sung in synagogue choirs since she was a child in South Africa.
Her key ECA role has been hospitality at major events dealing with delegates' registration, liaising with the catering and other facilities and looking after delegates welfare and interests.
Page Last Updated 11 October 2021
