Message from the H. L. Miller Cantorial School Director

Message from the Director

As director of H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music of The Jewish Theological Seminary, I look forward to being a part of your JTS education, and to helping you launch a fulfilling career as a cantor.

To prepare students to serve 21st-century congregations, H. L. Miller Cantorial School has designed a program blending classical and contemporary skills, as layered and rich as the task is great. Our students:

• Learn contemporary and traditional nusah (prayer modes) with some of the most talented practicing cantors in the New York City area.
• Acquire and regularly perform a repertoire of classical and contemporary Jewish music.
• Study Judaica with the finest faculty in North America.
• Practice their craft through supported internships.

Professionally, our students:

• Serve as shelihei tzibbur, members of the clergy who are trained to lead in prayer.
• Teach Judaism to all ages of Jewish learners.
• Bring comfort to those in need of healing.
• Act as role models of traditional egalitarian Judaism.

JTS’s unique resources include: 

• A world-class faculty consisting primarily of working cantors.
• Opportunities to learn from and interact with rabbinical and graduate students as peers.
• A lively beit shira, dedicated music classrooms, and a Center for Spiritual Arts.
• Intensive training in Jewish education to enhance our graduates’ skill set and effectiveness.
• Clinical Pastoral Education training.
• Programming with the Juilliard School.
• An international network of congregations, schools, and camps for field education and job placement. 

All of this takes place within the stimulating environment of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. 

I feel privileged to be able to sustain and enhance JTS’s tradition of excellence in both the academic and professional training of clergy. We provide generous financial aid, as well as artistic, Judaic, Hebraic, and professional support for each student, and we encourage our students to work together. 

At JTS, we are a community that passionately lives our Judaism. This is the environment in which we train so that we may bring our special love for Jewish sacred music to the congregations we serve.

Nancy Abramson

Director

H. L. Miller Cantorial School