Musicלייב גלנץ

Leib Glantz

Leib Glantz was a cantor, composer and scholar of Jewish music who founded the Tel Aviv Institute for Jewish Liturgical Music.

1898 to 1964Cantorial compositionsTheories on Jewish prayer modesFounding a Tel Aviv cantors academyZionist activism

Born: 1 June 1898, Kyiv
Died: 27 January 1964, Tel Aviv
Occupation: musicologist, opera singer, composer, singer
Education: Ukrainian National Academy of Music

Leib Glantz was born in 1898 in Kyiv

Leib Glantz was born in Kyiv in 1898 to a family of cantors with Hasidic roots. He first appeared as a cantor at age 8 and soon gave concerts across Europe. As a teenager he led a choir in his father's Talner Hasidic synagogue.

He studied piano and composition and graduated from the Kyiv Music Conservatory under Reinhold Glière. He was also active in the Zionist movement and edited the Labor Zionist newspaper Ard Un Arbeit.

In 1926 he left Eastern Europe and went to the United States, where he became chief cantor of the Ohev Shalom synagogue in New York. In 1941 he moved to Los Angeles and served as chief cantor of Sinai Temple, then at Sha'arei Tefilah from 1949 to 1954. He also taught Jewish music at the University of Judaism and presented theories on the origins of Jewish prayer modes.

In 1954 he settled in Tel Aviv and served as cantor of the Tiferet Zvi synagogue. In 1959 he founded the Tel Aviv Institute for Jewish Liturgical Music and a cantors academy. He died in 1964 after falling ill during a concert and was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery.