Performance
The Story
A voice raised in service
Joseph Malovany is regarded as one of the greatest cantors of our generation.
Joseph Malovany was born in Tel Aviv in 1941, into a family that treasured education above all else. In a home of one and a half rooms, his mother sold her wedding ring to buy a piano — a quiet act of faith in a child's gift.
His father had fled Poland on a one-way ticket, surviving while his entire football team perished. From that inheritance of loss and devotion, a voice was raised. By eight he was conducting Friday-night services; by twelve he led the choir.
He served as both cantor and paratrooper in the Israeli army, where Army Radio first carried his voice to the nation. Four years at the Yeoville Synagogue in Johannesburg, South Africa, and five in London at the Edgware Synagogue followed. At the age of thirty-two, he became Chief Cantor at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York, where he served for fifty years until his retirement in 2023.
Most powerful, beautiful and expressive spinto technique — sturdy and heroic.— The Guardian
