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Sharon Farber
Jewish/Israeli Composer. Pianist. Born in Israel. Served in IDF. Worked as theater composer and musical director. Moved to Boston in 1994, studying at the Berklee School of Music, graduating 1997 in both classical composition and film scoring. She composed scores for numerous TV and film projects. Sharon is currently based in Los Angeles and continues works as a Film, TV and Concert Composer in additional to a parallel career in classical composition and choir music. She serves as the Music Director for Temple of the Arts under Rabbi David Baron. Sharon is on the Board of Directors for the Society of Composers and Lyricists and is currently composing for the Emmy Award winning TV Series "Starting Over". In 2002, her concert composition "The Third Mother/Mothers Lament" (in dedication to Daniel Pearl) premiered with the Los Angeles Master
Chorale. Her recent commission "To Always Remember" for Soprano and Piano,
premiered in Berlin, May, 2005. She has been commissioned by the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, and by the Jewish Symphony Orchestra, among other organizations. She has recently created a compilation of original Jewish music for the High Holidays and Shabbat (lead sheets and a CD). Her music with some audio clips, news and contact information are listed on her website.
http://www.sharonfarber.com/
Ilona Feher
Born, December 3, 1901, Budapest, Hungary. Died, Holon, Israel, January, 1988. Violinist, Master Violin teacher. She conertized all over Europe until WWII. Escaped interment and joined the partisans. In 1949, emigrated to Israel. Taught at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, many of Israel's new generation of great violinists, including Pinkas Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz, and over 250 other students. Awarded the Golden Medal and Diploma of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Israel prize for the Arts. (Website by Hagai Shaham, scroll down to view brief biography of Ilona Feher.)
http://members.aol.com/micke5000/music1/hagai_shaham.htm
Sarah Feigin
Born in Latvia in 1928. Lives in Israel. Pianist, composer and teacher; founding a Conservatory in 1973. Much of her work is for piano or small ensemble. She has published many works for children. Israel Music Center has published many of her works and has a brief bio with a photo.
Sarah Feigin page
Marsha Fensin
Vocalist. American cantorial singer. Born the child of Holocaust survivors in Haifa, Israel in 1945. Involved in interreligious community work. Performs Jewish music in concerts, lectures at colleges, churches, the media, schools and other
interreligious venues. Currently lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and serves as cantorial singer at Temple Judah. Musical training through the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
Mary Feinsinger
Born in New York City. A graduate of Barnard College, with B.A.,(Psychology), she also has a Masterıs Degree in Voice from The Juilliard School. She studied Voice: opera ( Martin Lies, Rose Bampton, Daniel Ferro) and Jazz Improvisation (voice-Janet Lawson, piano-Haim Cotton). She also studied Classical Piano (Jeaneane Dowis, Aspen Festival)
and Composition (McNeil Robinson). As composer/arranger and editor at Transcontinental Music company in New York, she has written and arranged numerous pieces of solo and choral Jewish
liturgical music. She produced, arranged, and music directed the 2-CD set Kol Dodi: Jewish Music for Weddings (2002). Also for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, she arranged and produced the recording Songs from a Passover Haggadah (1997). She is co-founder, vocalist, and keyboard artist of the West End Klezmorim, and wrote music and lyrics for the off-Broadway revue Hot Klezmer; she has been assistant music director and vocal coach for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre. Feinsinger is on the board of directors of the American Society for Jewish Music, and is cantor of the Rossmoor Jewish Congregation near Princeton. She was for many years on the piano accompanying staff at Juilliard, and is on the voice faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York. She is currently active as a composer/lyricist in the BMI/Lehman Engel Music Theatre Workshop. Pianist for Nederlanderıs production of Eight By Ten Work presented at BMIıs Next Stage Cabaret. Music Director and Pianist, Songs of Repentance CD set (Transcontinental, 2000). Composer/Lyricist, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Composition Award, New Jewish Music Commission, LA. Composition Award, Christian Fellowship of Art Song Composers, Santa Barbara, CA.
http://www.maryfeinsinger.com/
Sarah Feldman
American. Born 1907. Died 1981. First woman performer with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. More information held at the Maryland Historical Society in the Baltimore Symphony Series of Oral Histories.
Vivian Fine
Born in Chicago, IL, September 28, 1913. She showed musical promise by age five, and received a scholarship to study at Chicago Musical College 1919-1922. In 1924 began studying piano with Djane Lavoie-Herz. In 1925, she attended the American Conservatory in Chicago. She studied composition with Ruth Crawford and counterpoint with Adolf Weidig. In 1931 she studied with Roger Sessions in New York. She composed dissonant "ultra-modern" music. She taught at Julliard School of Music, and NYU. From 1964 until her retirement in 1987, Fine taught at Bennington College in Vermont. She founded the American Composers Alliance. She received numerous grants and awards including National Endowment for the Arts in 1974. Judith Cody completed a bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press) of her works which included 140 compositions. She died at age 86 in March, 20, 2000. Her publisher, G. Schirmer has a brief biography online:
http://www.schirmer.com/composers/fine/
Greta Fischer
Noted concert critic of German original, who emigrated to Great Britain during WWII. Born, Germany 1893. Died Britain, 1977. Co-founder of "Club 1943" with Monty Jacobs and Adele Schreiber, a cultural forum for emigres in London during the war. Also worked on various newspapers. The Cultural Association had patterned itself after the Kulturbund founded in Germany when Jews lost their right to participate in mainstream cultural organizations under the Nazis.
Sarah Fischer
Born: Paris, 1896. Died: December 31, 1975. Opera singer active in Canada and Europe. Founded the "Sarah Fischer Concerts Series" for Canadian youth in 1940. Papers held in the National Archives of Canada.
Gila Flam
Israeli. Musicologist and Head of the National Sound Archive of Israel, located at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Her significant scholarly book, Singing for Survival: Songs of the Lodz Ghetto, 1940-45 has gained worldwide attention. "Basing her work upon interviews with survivors and the extant archival records of the Lodz Jewish community, Flam, herself the daughter of survivors from Lodz, describes the ghetto's struggles through the songs composed and sung by its occupants " (USHMM, book review). Several of these songs have now been recorded with popular groups, such as Brave Old World.
Tsippi Fleischer(Dolgopolsky)
Israeli composer born 1946 in Haifa. Website includes a brief biography, a discography of CDs, a list of compositions with information about publicaton, manuscript, or performance, or recording and some links to articles by the composer.
http://members.nbci.com/tsfleischer/
Andrea Foster
American. Cantorial singer, educator and children's camp specialist. Currently Judaic Program Coordinator and songleader, Capital Camps, Camp Benjamin, 3rd-6th grades, Waynesboro, PA. Dr. Foster holds a PhD in American Studies, George Washington University(1993); MA Philosophy, George Washington University; MA Anthropology/Archaeology, SUNY Buffalo; and BA English, SUNYC Oswego. Dr. Foster is a performer, Jewish Folk Arts Festival, Rockville, MD; Music Specialist, pre-schools, 4th-7th grades, retreats, 6th-10th grades; Student Cantor, adult, Children's and Tot, services HHD; Student Cantor Bar Mitzvah and Memorial Services, Bat Mitzvah training, Shabbat services; Sunday School Coordinator and teacher; Music Specialist summer camps in area; Jewish meditation group coordinator, facilitator. She is a member of the Women Cantors' Network. She has also been a part-time Professor Montgomery College, Germantown, Maryland, in History. She resides in Germantown, MD. Contact: avglrchl@aol.com
Erica Fox
British. Born Vienna, October 3, 1936. Composer and teacher. Grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home. Studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Studied composition with Bernard Stevens, Jeremy Dale Roberts and Harrison Birtwistle. Her musical style incorporated many aspects of Jewish music, such as chassidic melodies. She wrote stage and vocal music including "Nine lessons from Isaiah" (1970), and "The Dancer, Hotoke" (1991); chamber music such as "Shir" (1983) and "The Moon of Moses" (1992); and orchestral work such as "Osen Shoomaat" (1985).
Judy Frankel
Judy Frankel's page includes a brief biography, discography, reviews and a catalog of her recordings. Real Audio samples are available.
http://www.rahul.net/hrmusic/artists/jfart.html
Miriam Fried
Israeli violinist. born September 9, 1946 in Romania. won the Paganini International Competition in 1968. Married Paul Biss.
Debbie Friedman
American. Singer-songwriter, canorial soloist, music educator and music director, who writes contemporary liturgical and spiritual music, primarily associated with the Reform movement. Ms. Friedman has a discography of 20 recordings in a career spanning nearly 30 years. She has appeared throughout the United States in Jewish organizational venues and has performed at Carnegie Hall.
Judith Kate Friedman
American vocalist, teacher, songwriter. Runs workshops for elders and youth in California.Member of jazz a cappella group Vocolot with Linda Hirshhorn and others. Has recorded several CDs of her original music.
Riki Friedman
Instrumentalist with Freylach Time! Klezmer Dance Band. Durham, North Carolina. A review of Riki's album Freylach Time
Susie M. Friedman
American. Pianist. Active during the 1940s and 50s touring in the "Cavalcade of Jewish Music" with her husband Maurice. Often obtained arrangements from various well known Jewish composers. During World War II played for troops. Retired to Seattle. Papers in the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
Lillian Fuchs
American. Born, November 18, 1901. Died, October 5, 1995. (Her birth and death dates are incorrectly listed in New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians/ Online, Baker's Biographical, Jewish Women in America and other reference sources. Possibly one reason was incorrect information was listed in her obituary in The New York Times printed Oct. 7, 1995. The NYTimes did print a correction --the correction appeared Oct. 10, 1995. However, many researchers did not find that. The dates I give above are verified by two government sources, the US Census and the Social Security Death Index.) Violist. "First Lady of the Viola" was the title of her biography. Member of Perole String Quartet, 1920s-1940s. One of the first women to perform in string quartet in America. Wrote several collections, including three etude volumes which are progressive studies designed for the lower viola range. Other viola studies include: Twelve Caprices for Viola; Fifteen Characteristic Studies for Viola; and Sixteen Fantasy Etudes for Viola Solo. A biography: Lillian Fuchs, First Lady of the Viola (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music, Vol 45) written by Amedee Daryl Williams contains wonderful anecdotes and stories as well as other biographical details.