Volunteer of the Month: Cantor Richard Silverman
The American Conference of Cantors is proud to honor Cantor Richard Silverman, who has been selected Volunteer of the Month of August.
American Conference of Cantors: In what capacity have you volunteered for the ACC?
I started out volunteering by offering a class at HUC with JTS students that focused on substance abuse and youth suicide. Concurrently, the URJ had commission on substance abuse and suicide. I became part of that committee which eventually was absorbed by the Family Concerns Commission. Later, I became involved with Commission on Social Action as an at large member. At that time, members were selected by the CCAR. I became very involved in promoting community service within my own congregation. We helped our children do hands on community service. At about that time, our religious school secretary was shot by her husband in our temple building while nursery school was in session. He then took his own life. This prompted me to become very involved in the issue of gun control. I also served on the Domestic Policy Task Force of the commission. When my time was up I didn’t want to leave. So I asked if I could stay on as a representative of the ACC. After some negotiating, this was arranged. A few years ago, the ACC also asked Tanya Greenblatt to serve on the Commission. Now the ACC has two representatives to the CSA.
ACC note: Those two representatives are now Shannon McGrady Bane & Rosalie Toubes.
In the future, I’d love to take a role within the ACC in helping others to continue to understand adolescents. When I work with b’nei mitzvah students, I’m not teaching torah. I’m teaching human beings. In workshops, we often focus on teaching new techniques instead of focusing on the individual child. I think the most important thing is to create a relationship with the child.
What is the best part of being a cantor, in your experience?
It’s really the combination of things that a cantor does. I love the singing and I also love sitting on the floor with the nursery school kids. The life cycle ceremony when there’s joy & bringing comfort those who need comforting. I love interacting with my colleagues on the staff and with the congregants themselves. I established a personal policy of saying hello to anyone who enters the building so that they feel welcomed - offering a smile and a joke to make people comfortable.
What is it about building ACC relationships that has been most rewarding for you?
I graduated out of HUC in Los Angeles in 1968. I had to petition Rabbi Nelson Gleuck to grant my Bachelor of Sacred Music degree. In LA, I studied with Cantor William Sharlin. Coming from that background, I didn’t have a lot of cantorial colleagues. Later, having influence on colleagues, helping them to become cantors has been rewarding. Attending convention gave me the opportunity to make connections with colleagues that I didn’t have before. When I lived in Northern California, I took voice lessons from Cantor David Unterman and developed a strong friendship with him. Now I’m involved with the Retired Cantors Network and that has been another source of connection and I’ve found that to be supportive and powerful.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the cantorate, looking toward the future?
New cantors need to be ready to adjust to working within a congregation and really means versus the training that we receive.
What do you look forward to at ACC conventions?
I liked the theme of social justice in Memphis and Cantor Steve Richards’ presentation on the changing needs of the congregation. Learning about colleagues growing and changing and adapting their cantorate to modern times was really fascinating.
Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with youth as a cantor?
When I stated off, when I was still a student, I was working in Redondo Beach, CA as the youth director for middle school and high school youth groups. I taught 9th grade in Religious School and was a day camp director as well. So that was a 7 days a week, 12 months a year job! When I went to Stephen Wise in LA, I was the cantor, and I supervised the youth director. For me, there’s always been that connection to the kids. Kids looked up to me as a big brother. That’s one of the reasons why I pursued my MA in Psychology, majoring in adolescence. I was the youngest of five siblings. I was the baby in the family, so I always had a connection with kids from the time that I was very little. I was the head song-leader at Camp Swig from 1960-63. That’s where I started writing Tree of Life & Mi Chamocha.
Did someone in particular influence you to become a cantor?
My father was a cantor at Temple Israel in Hollywood. I grew up in a home where the cantorate was present. My parents were older parents. My mother was 41 when I was born. My father was 40. My father did everything to make a living. In addition to working fulltime at the temple, he worked at a funeral home arranging services. He was rarely home, but I saw all the adulation that he got from the people at the temple. It inspired me so that by the time I was twelve, I knew I wanted to become a cantor.
So, other than fleeting thoughts in my teens that I wanted to be like John Denver, traveling the country, playing folk songs, it was only the cantorate.
Through my dad, I started studying with Cantor Sharlin. Cantor David Unterman was my voice teacher for 1twelve years and was also a strong influence.
Tell us one thing about yourself that we might not know that you would want us to learn about you.
A lot of people think only wrote 2 songs. I have a songbook with more songs & I’m in the process of finishing up a new CD entitled: And Life Goes on: from Beginning to Beginning. There are 20 songs and they are all my songs. My songbook is available at OySongs.com and Soundswrite.com. And now that I’m retired, I’d love for people to contact me for concerts and as a scholar in residence. And I’d love to hear from colleagues!